Barton Warren Stone (December 24, 1772 – November 9, 1844) was an important American
preacher during the early 19th-century
Second Great Awakening in the United States. First ordained a
Presbyterian minister, he and four other ministers of the Washington Presbytery resigned after arguments about doctrine and enforcement of policy by the Kentucky Synod. This was in 1803, after Stone had helped lead the mammoth
Cane Ridge Revival, a several-day
communion season attended by nearly 20,000 persons. Stone and the others briefly founded the
Springfield Presbytery, which they dissolved the following year, resigning from the Presbyterian Church altogether. They formed what they called the
Christian church, based on scripture rather than a creed representing the opinion of man. He later became allied with
Alexander Campbell, a former Presbyterian minister who was also creating an independent path, sometimes allied with Baptists, and formed the
Restoration Movement. Stone's followers were first called "New Lights" and "Stoneites". Later he and Campbell tried to bring groups together that relied solely on the Scriptures. The Stone
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ and Campbell
Disciples of Christ developed from this movement.