The Circuit Riders

As America began to expand westward, a group of itinerant preachers rode across the plains and mountains to spread the Christian faith. They endured heat and cold, rain and drought, despair and loneliness to fulfill their calling 


They traveled from town to farm to stage-stop to anywhere people had settled, preaching the Gospel. These saddlebag-preachers spoke to anyone who would listen.


They were rugged individuals who allowed neither rough terrain nor menacing weather to sway them from their appointed areas of service. These unsung heroes of the West helped bring true civilization to the American frontier. There would be little or no reward beyond the spiritual.


This book is a fictionalized story of three such country preachers on the frontier of Texas and the problems they faced bringing the message of Christ to wilderness areas.


Bill Wood was born and raised in a small town in Texas. Since 1975, he has pastored ten country churches in either Texas, Louisiana, or California or taught in a small Christian school... or both at the same time. When not preaching or studying or writing, Bro. Bill enjoys visiting antique stores, festivals, and historical places. He’s been known to pick and grin some in church and is partial to anything having to do with the Old West (movies, artwork, decor, clothes, rodeos). Dr. Wood has been described by friends as “an old-fashioned, Southern gentleman with just a touch of John Wayne”. 


In May of 2012, he became the pastor at Central Baptist Church in Stamford, Texas. A graduate of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and Baptist Christian University in Shreveport, Louisiana, this is Bill’s second book to be published through Xulon Press… the first being a fictional account of the birth of Jesus entitled “And Nothing’s Been the Same Since”.