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December 2001 Table of Contents
Youth Choir
A Lifetime of Music and Memories
By Linda Arnold
Choir Director and Substitute Worship Leader,
First Baptist Church,
Gallatin, MS
Little did I know in the fall of 1971 what God had in store for a shy, backward high school senior who loved to sing (but was scared to death to do it in front of anyone) and who had just gotten saved that year in June. At 16, I had no idea of how God worked in people's lives, but I was soon to find out.
It started when Elsie, a lovely lady in her 60's who was the organist in our church, decided that the youth needed to start singing some of this new "Jesus" music that was becoming popular. She formed a group called the "Christianaires" (every group that sang in churches back then had "aires" in their name) and not only invited the 7 or 8 teens in our church, but opened membership up to anyone of that age in the area! In a town of 1800, we started out with about 15 kids. First we did a John Peterson work called The Night the Angels Sang at 11:00 Christmas Eve and invited the community. That was the beginning of a Christmas Eve tradition that went on until 1994.
After Christmas, Elsie got the music to Jesus Christ, Superstar, assigned solos, and we got to work. We presented it in concert style twice, writing an ending that included the resurrection. The next year, Godspell was our goal. In 1974, we did Tell It Like It Is by Ralph Carmichael, all the time inviting more and more teenagers to come sing and fellowship with us.
Then the unthinkable happened. Elsie decided it was time for her to retire after the 1974 summer concerts. I thought that part of my life was over and concentrated on trying to grow up at the age of 19. The next summer, a group of junior high and high school teens from our church came to me and begged me to start the group up again and to do something for Christmas. At that point in my life, I wasn't into praying for guidance, but I know now God had His hand right on top of me. I said yes and we got to work, reinstating the traditional Christmas Eve community service that ended at midnight. We practiced all fall for Christmas then practiced in late spring for a few summer concerts, keeping this schedule for several years, taking love offerings to pay for our music and borrowing sound equipment.
We used piano accompaniment then, bass guitarists when they were available, and my cousin played the drums for us for a few years until he grew up and moved. By 1981, we were meeting and singing year round. Pianists with spare time were scarce and I could only play with one hand at a time. Music selection was much better by then, and I discovered accompaniment tracks for the first time. What an unbelievable difference in our sound!
By this stage in my life, at 26, I was very committed to the Lord and knew this was a ministry straight from Him, with an opportunity to change young peoples' lives forever. He led us to choose the musical Believer, a collection of Dallas Holm songs tied together with narration and directions for choreography! We all fell in love with that project and for the first time chose matching outfits to wear at concerts. I ran the sound from the stage with a portable stereo boom box and microphones from wherever we were singing. We practiced at First Christian Church every week, but the church did not "support" us with funding, so it took all our love offerings just to keep us in music for a long time.
Fast forward to 1988, when the Christianaires turned a huge corner spiritually and God changed several lives dramatically. By now, this was a group of kids who truly wanted to live for the Lord, and we lost a few members who just didn't feel comfortable with the rest of us who were too "religious." During concerts, I sang as a member of the group, and could extemporaneously call on any one of them to introduce the next song or give a testimony.
In 1987, I had attended the Christian Artists Music Seminar in Estes Park, Colorado for the second time. I felt God was really pressing me to bring the group back for the next summer, so after much prayer, we decided to go for it. Fifteen group members (including me) and a bus driver would cost approximately $7,000-that's a lot of love offerings! The Lord gave us the idea of compiling and selling a "Christianaires Cookbook" of recipes from people in churches in northwest Missouri where we had sung for the past several years. We HAD to sell at least 750 at $5.50 to make the biggest chunk of our money. Of course, the Lord came through and we did, but it certainly wasn't easy. The rest of the money came from our concert love offerings and unsolicited donations from people in the community (but we know Who prompted them to give.)
The music seminar took place the last week of July 1988. The group had entered the annual competition and had worked so hard on on songs and choreography. Our borrowed school bus with seats removed barely made it up the mountain into Estes Park, unable to shift out of first gear; but God showed His mighty self again as we prayed, then sang one of our competition songs, "Pour on the Power" and listened as the bus was suddenly able to be shifted all the way to third gear as we made it to our destination. The Lord also amazingly reduced us all to tears of gratitude as, after rehearsal one day, we went around the room telling what God had done in our lives and how He had used the Christianaires to change us. These kids, aged 8th grade through early college, had been fighting an hour before. We all experienced His presence that day and none of us will ever forget it. Later in the week, we were thunderstruck at winning first place in the competition.
In the late 80's, we had extra fundraisers so we could buy our own professional sound system. Once again, God came through and provided a young man in my church who wanted to be in the group but not sing. At that time, we also began doing volunteer chapel services at the nearby state prison.
The group remained busy until 1993, when several of the kids had to grow up and leave town, either for college or employment. The numbers and vocal quality were not nearly as great, and in 1995, I sensed God telling me it was time to move on and do something different musically. I resisted Him for several weeks, but when I had peace about retiring the group, things started falling into place, both for the Christianaires and the new group I was moving into. We contacted as many former members of the Christianaires as we could find, back to 1971 when the group was first formed, and invited them to come home to Gallatin for the reunion and farewell concert December 23, 1995. Those who accepted the invitation received practice tapes and music that was chosen from several different past concerts. Out of nearly 100 contacted, 35 of us gathered where it all started, at the First Christian Church, where we honored Elsie, who had passed away a few years before, and thanked God for the seeds she planted and the harvest He brought forth. Having averaged 12 to 15 singers most years, it was such a thrill to have 35 enthusiastic former and current members singing their hearts out to the Lord that night.
I still miss those late night services on Christmas Eve, a tradition that spanned 24 out of 25 Christmases in my life. My cousin, who joined as a 16-year- old tenor in 1981 and stayed in the group until 1992, still drives 75 miles from his home in Kansas City to sing "with me" for Christmas and Easter musicals at First Baptist, where I have been choir director since-not so coincidentally-1996. I still keep in touch with many of "my kids" by email and Christmas cards and am so grateful to God for the lasting friendships He has given me from so many young people who came and went during 24 years of directing this group. Somehow I feel God gave me some training for my own sons as they now approach the teen years at the ages of 12 and 10. I am thankful that discipline was never a real problem during all those years, and, except for a few isolated incidents, I was able to completely trust the teens when we traveled to present concerts, whether in north Missouri or Texas. I am so grateful for the musical training that God gave me during that time that helps me direct our choir at church, where, incidentally, two Christianaires alumni are in the choir.
It's been a long time since I have seen youth groups do the kind of ministry we did. I know there's great music and talent out there. I'd love to see my sons in a group like that. Are groups like the Christianaires things of the past? I really hope not. I've seen what God can do with a bunch of very musically average, untrained young people (including the director). He did what He's done since the beginning of time-He changed our lives.
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