On June 28, 1804, at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky, Barton W. Stone and five other Presbyterian ministers signed one of the strangest documents in church history. They called it the Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery. Their own organization was the one dying. They wrote, “We will, that this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large.” They gave up the title “Reverend” and willed that people take the Bible as the only sure guide to heaven. The witnesses said it “died a voluntary and happy death.” Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is let your own name fade so Christ’s body can be one.
