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A native of Crittenden County’s Piney area, Stone and his family moved to Henderson when he was about 10 years old. The ties to Marion remain strong and this week The Stone Family is spreading the gospel at Hurricane Camp Meeting’s 134th annual revival.
“We go to places where you will find a tent set up for an outdoor revival, but nothing like this in a wooden tabernacle that’s over 100 years old,” Stone said Monday night after delivering a message to good-sized crowd that braved near record-setting June temperatures.
The Stone Family is a tight-knit group that includes his sister, brother-in-law and others with close ties. Their music and ministry has filled pews in churches across the tri-state for decades and this is their fourth year to lead worship at Hurricane Camp.
“We love coming down here. This is home and it will always be home,” Stone said.
His message on Monday challenged Christians to embrace their differences in a world moving further secular by the day. Longing for the days when God’s houses of worship were full of faithful followers,
Stone said he remembered when people would have to be in church early on Sunday mornings or they’d not get a seat.“They would stand in the back just to be in God’s house,” he said.
“In the past 50 years something has changed,” he added during the sermon. “God hasn’t. He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. Mankind has changed.”
Hurricane Camp Meeting’s weeklong revival also includes a Youth Camp. Stone will be preaching nightly and there will be special music every evening this week, through Sunday's two services.
He told those in attendance at the camp’s first service that being steadfastly separate and different from the temporal world should be every Christian’s mission, because God’s chosen people are indeed unique and they’ve proven it for more than 2,000 years.
Stone’s family ties to the area include his late uncle Cortis Hill, who was a longtime local minister, and others in the Stone and Riley clans of Crittenden County.
“My family’s original roots are right here in Tolu,” he said. “That’s why I love it.”
Local favorite Classy and Grassy also performed during Monday's opening-night service at Hurricane.
Meals will be served starting at 5:30 each evening at Hurricane Camp Meeting with services to beginning at 7 p.m. On Sunday, the last day of Camp Meeting, there will be services at 11 a.m., and 7 p.m. Parent Night is Thursday.
