INTERVIEWER: Could you tell me what a typical crusade would be like as far as...(I know you have a choir that comes in basically, and you've got a matter of hours to prepare them)...what kind of setup you have and...
BARROWS: Well . . .
INTERVIEWER: . . . what your techniques are for...?
BARROWS: . . . actually, we have quite a bit of preparatory work that...that helps develop
every stage of a crusade, so that we involve people at the grassroots, working through the
churches, from the earliest days that a crusade is planned. That is in the prayer aspect. That is in
the Christian Life and Witness classes. That's in the youth committee -- how we are going to . . .
what we are going to do in the reachout with the youth. That's in the music committee with the
choir, with the counseling group. The choir, at a...at a stage, is then encouraged to begin
register through the...through the [pauses] music committee, the choir members of the various
churches and others in the community that can sing. Maybe they don't go to the...they don't
belong to a choir.
I'll just give you the illustration of our last crusade, which is an example. That
was in Portland, Oregon. We had a goal of enrolling three thousand. We had a choir space of
two thousand that we were going to fill in that stadium. Well, the interest was so great and there
was so much excitement, they didn't cut it off at three thousand. They kept on enrolling them
and I said to them on the phone, "Look, if you are going to enroll them, we got to provide a place
for them to sit." Well, they ended up with enrolling seven thousand five hundred choir members.
So they had to take and put in a whole new area of bleachers all along a wall. And they were
spread out, I guess, two hundred feet...well, the length of a football field, from the end of the
alto section to the end of the soprano section. But...but Tedd [Smith] and I went then for a
week ahead of time and we met with...with groups in different parts of...of the city. We'd
have two thousand here, we'd have three thousand here, we'd have fifteen hundred here, we'd
have a thousand here. Then we would go over...we'd spend two hours of rehearsal. We'd
selected the music (some we had printed especially for Portland) and we had our music book.
We had marvelous times. Well, that gathered momentum and so when we gathered together then
for the first rehearsal at the dedication before the crusade began, here were seven thousand
(about) on that night, close to seventy-five hundred strung out as far you could...you know, you
wonder, "How in the world would they stay together?" But it was amazing how the Lord just
united their minds and their focus and their interest because of the rehearsals we'd had a week
ahead of time. And we had a great time together. Basically, if you are in a stadium, you have it
so there...they can be confined to an oval or to a horseshoe configuration. One of my great
joys through the years has been working with volunteers. Of course, I appreciate the...the . . .
in quotes "the professionals," the ones who are gifted artists and who really are able to perform in
excellent manner and...and use their gifts to the glory of God and there's some wonderful
musicians, wonderful choirs, wonderful ensembles. But the volunteer gives us an opportunity to
bring those in, as many as can. But the volunteer. Maybe they don't sing. Maybe...as . . .
obviously, as well. Some of them don't read music that well. But when you get them in a
section together, they can and they follow. And I've always felt that one of the great parts of any
meeting (and I think this is...there...there are good biblical foundations for this) is the
worship and praise in music, which prepares the heart and offers a dimension of worship and
praise to God which is beyond the spoken word. I think that it has been true historically in the
life of the church.
It's certainly true...the great hymn book of the Bible is the Psalms and they
were sung antiphonally and otherwise. The...the...the music that God has put within the
heart of man and the gift to bring it out and to express it is a gift from God to be used to bring
glory and praise to His name and is one of the most effective ways of communicating spiritual
and scriptural truth, as well as lifting the heart in worship and I think bring joy and gladness to
the Father's heart as he listens the...the offering presented by the children that He's created
through the melodies that...that He's given them and they are giving back to Him. And so one
of my great delights has been encouraging volunteers, because most of our...all of your church
choirs, with the exception of...very few exceptions are volunteers. And the measure of
devotion and dedication they bring to that responsibility is a reflection or determines the
effectiveness and the dimension of their own abilities and the opportunities they have to lead that
congregation in worship and praise. And I...I think that a crusade gives us a great opportunity
to extend that, to get them a little more excited, because there are so many and they'll take back
then to their own choir a new enthusiasm, a new commitment, a new determination, a new
understanding what music can mean and in some cases a new repertoire to...to . . . to use.
To find out more about Cliff Barrows or Collection 463 at the Archives
click here. To explore the extensive record of the ministry of Billy Graham at the Archives,
click here.