Dear Friends,
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!”—1 John 3:1
My seven-year-old is currently sitting in her room, on her bed, singing this verse over and over at the top of her lungs. Not only is it an appropriate Christmas sentiment, it reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to write to you for some time.
We have three daughters. One is now an adult, the second is a high schooler, and the third is the aforementioned singer. Attempting to raise these kids in a Christian home, you might imagine that we have experimented with various musical ways of teaching them Scriptures and Bible stories. We have. There are a lot of ministries that produce audio content for kids. But in our experience none of them comes anywhere close to the quality of an obscure set of audio CDs called GT and the Halo Express.
I don’t know if I can sufficiently express to you how profound is my admiration for this thirty-year old collection that hardly anyone remembers, but I will try. In fact, my admiration is such that I’ve spent some time digging around for some answers: where did GT and the Halo Express come from? Who produced it? What is the story behind these amazing songs? Happily, I stumbled on this beautiful and sometimes sad and moving essay by Caitrin Keiper entitled, “The Salvation of Billy Baxter: Rediscovering GT and the Halo Express and the Story Behind It.” It is well worth your time.
Let me start with this: I am a 45-year-old theologian with graduate and postgraduate degrees. But I know a large number of scripture verses not because I learned to read them in Hebrew or Greek in seminary, nor because I’ve attended church every week for my entire life. I know these verses because GT (the fictional guardian angel) taught me to sing them in my youth. At a moment’s notice, I can conjure the melodies in my head and sing them word-for-word:
“This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” —1 John 4:10.
It surprises me sometimes. There has been at least one moment in my career—I am not kidding—when I was speaking publicly and a relevant verse occurred to me off-script. I quoted it to the audience while secretly singing it in my head to make sure I got it right. Instantly recalled something I learned at age ten. There are two things to glean from this: first, the melodies are catchy and memorable, even thirty some-odd-years later. Second, these songs teach the Scriptures word for word, which is actually an amazing thing. That is something stumbled over by many other attempts at setting scripture to music. Without paraphrase, it tends to be clunky and cumbersome and doesn’t fit the rhythm or flow of a song. But GT and the Halo Express turn the words into legitimately excellent songs: Verses, bridges, and choruses, without sacrificing the purpose of memorizing actual scripture. It’s near-miraculous. (Repeating certain phrases is their favorite trick up the sleeve; for example, in the verse immediately above “atoning sacrifice” is repeated three times to bring the tune to a proper landing. It’s an added benefit that it’s a perfect thematic emphasis, too.)
Moreover, for a music collection written and recorded in the 1980s and 90s, I am amazed at how fresh it sounds. These are not dated and cheesy songs. They just hold up musically. And the variety! All sorts of musical genres are used; far too many “scripture songs for children” fall quickly into a rut of all sounding the same, or they fall prey to the idea that music for kids shouldn’t be sophisticated. GT avoids both temptations. Add to this that the singers are all excellent, and they change up who sings the leads on various songs: man, woman, boy, and girl. The only thing that might annoy parents are the dramatized stories that frame the various CDs—each one has a certain theme: think Adventures in Odyssey—but kids seem to love Michael and Christy and Billy Baxter and their shenanigans.
GT and the Halo Express continues to be obscure. It’s never really had its day in the sun. James Dobson and Focus on the Family promoted it in its early years, and Billy Graham wrote a blurb for it (before it ever existed! See Ms. Keiper’s article, above), but I don’t think it ever caught on in the way it manifestly deserved. The good news is that someone somewhere is keeping the flame alive, still selling directly from their dated-looking website, as well as on Amazon as a third-party seller. In my mind’s eye I see a bedroom closet somewhere in some random suburban neighborhood stacked with boxes of old unsold CDs.
So why am I telling you all this? Because you probably have children in your life, or grandchildren, or nephews and nieces. And you need to spend the $70 it takes to buy the full collection of seven CDs for them. I think you should all overwhelm the lonely soul keeping the flame alive with a sudden and surprising deluge of orders. Clear out that closet. Do you want your kids to remember the promises of God in the midst of life’s certain turmoil? You can do far worse than planting a crop of catchy songs deep in their hearts. It might flower thirty or forty years later. I’m living proof.
That’s, in fact, what the GT and the Halo Express theme song promises:
“I’m hiding God’s Word way down in my heart / making it mine right from the start / God says that nothing can keep us apart / when I have his Word hidden deep in my heart”
They delivered.
Merry Christmas to each and every one of you! I will leave you with my annual advent poem. Joy to the World! The Lord is come.
Just outstanding, Brian.