2nd Chapter
of Acts
The 2nd Chapter of Acts consisted of three
siblings—my two sisters, Annie and Nellie, and myself. The group began in the
early ‘70’s after the death of my father in 1970. My mother had died in 1968.
There were still four children living at home at the time of my father’s death,
so two of my brothers went to live with our oldest brother and his wife. They
lived in the same hometown in the
Buck and Annie had been married for less
than a year and a half when we moved into their home. The trauma of losing both
of our parents and becoming part of a new and different family situation took
its toll on us. Nelly credits "the grace of God and the lubricating oil of
the Holy Spirit" as the secret to surviving the frequent family frictions.
The love of the Lord became more and more real in the midst of the new
relationships, eventually bringing us into our own commitment to Jesus.
I guess you could
say the group really had its beginning sitting around an old upright piano Buck
had bought for my sister (I believe he paid fifty dollars for it). Nellie and I
would come home from school and there would be Annie, sitting at the piano
(self-taught, no less) playing some new chorus or verse she had received from
the Lord. Nellie and I would pull up a chair and start singing whatever parts
came into our heads. I think those early days really blew Annie’s mind as far
as us kids coming up with such natural and yet beautifully put together parts.
Our voices blended
together in smooth harmonies, so tightly, and naturally. We were just singing
to the Lord and it was a way of releasing our pain. We had gone through
something tragic, but we knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I see those early days of singing together as
a real time
of healing after
the loss of our parents.
Not long after
that, other people started to hear us sing our simple songs. Most were drawn to
the beauty of heart and harmony. Friends
who heard us sing began to tell their friends and soon there were requests to
sing at churches, Christian coffeehouses, and such. But that was the limit.
"The last thing we wanted to do was to sing in front of people,"
" We were just so nervous" explains Annie. "The good part was
that it forced us to rely on the Lord."
Barry McGuire heard us around that very
piano and was dumbfounded. Buck ended up producing the very first Christian
record Barry did, and we sang the backgrounds on it. The first recording was
not intended to be a "group" record, but a song written by a friend
of Buck's who wanted to record it. I was selected to be the lead singer. I belted
out the vocal to a song called "Jesus Is" on my
13th birthday with my sisters and some friends singing the background parts.
The song caught the ear of Pat Boone who arranged a contract with MGM records,
and The 2nd Chapter of Acts was born.
We got to know Pat
Boone through some mutual friends, and he helped us get a recording deal with
MGM records. That move turned out to be a real mistake. I think the company at
the time didn’t know what to do with a bunch of “Jesus Fanatics.” After we had
been singing for awhile, we did a tour with Barry, and he really taught us the
ropes, so to speak.
Several concerts
into our first tour, someone approached Annie and said, "We're really
sorry we didn't applaud, but we've never heard music like that before!" As
Nelly reflects: "One of the reasons people didn't applaud was because we
weren't singing songs about Jesus, we were singing to Him. When people
recognized that, they sensed His Spirit. They could see Jesus, and they fell in
love with Him."
Besides the
spiritual power of our music, other factors catapulted "Acts" into
the public spotlight. First, touring with ‘New Christy Minstrel', Barry McGuire
exposed us to a built-in audience each concert. Second, "Easter Song"
was getting airplay on secular radio stations as well as the few contemporary
Christian programs that existed.
After hearing us
perform at
Some years later, we (2nd Chapter) and some
other artist friends started our own record label called Live Oak. The company
did rather well, and we were able to put out several titles which were quite
successful. After “Acts” concluded, Live Oak didn’t survive long. “Acts” really
brought in the bulk of what was needed financially to keep the company going,
and I think we were growing weary of wearing all the different hats it took to
run a record company; i.e., record executive, artist, songwriter, producer,
cover concepts, layouts, graphics, and so on.
By 1973, we had
entered the music ministry full-time. These early experiences established the
group's identity with the body of Christ who eagerly welcomed their fresh
‘Jesus music' expression of faith. This laid a solid foundation for what has
become a hallmark musical ministry and established The 2nd Chapter of Acts as
one of contemporary Christian music's pioneers.
Prayer was an
important key to the success of "Acts." Each morning, in one of our
hotel rooms, we would gather to read a brief passage from the Bible, to share
from our hearts, and to pray together. "One of the reasons we did this in
the morning," says Annie, "was because by the time we got to the
concert hall, there was so much to do and too many distractions. Then right
before the 
concert, we'd have one more short time of
prayer a 'flare prayer' we called it.” Because
of our emphasis upon worship and exalting the name of Jesus, we often found ourselves
thrust into spiritual warfare, even before the concert began. But God had been
powerfully evident through each concert, each crisis, and each confrontation
with the enemy. Each concert was marked by a real sense of joy and each of
these gatherings seemed to become a rallying point where young believers could
celebrate their newfound faith in Christ.
The press said,
“The Second Chapter of Acts songs were unique; their voices and harmonies
angelic, and their message distinct and clear. It was one of the very few
Jesus-music groups whose music was unique; it did not have a parallel in pop
music, but their message and ministry still speak loud and clear today.”
From the time I was about 15 or so, 2nd
Chapter of Acts toured a total of 17 years. I grew up on the road, which
presented its own set of problems that I won’t go into here, but you can read
about in my book, My Second Chapter. I did much of my schooling through
correspondence, which allowed me the freedom to travel. During those years, we
were fortunate enough to tour most of Europe,
As part of this
recording effort, we captured three ‘live concert' recordings, one notably with
guitar virtuoso Phil Keaggy called How The West
Was One, which was part of an 18-city concert tour, which introduced Phil's
considerable talents to a West Coast audience.
Another significant recorded effort by the
group was The
Roar Of Love, an album which captured the C.S. Lewis allegory The Lion, The
Witch, and The Wardrobe. This simple childlike story captured the imagination of
Annie who began an eight-year process of writing songs for the project. It
remains to this day one of our group's most loved efforts. Also, we recorded a
very popular series of Hymn albums capturing the power of tradition and
bringing it to a new generation.
I enjoyed the years
traveling with my 
family. As I got older, I began to recognize
a need to express myself musically outside the framework of 2nd Chapter.
Annie’s songs were good, but I wanted to rock a little harder than the rest of
my family. I was also beginning to write more and could see that my style
differed enough from 2nd Chapter’s to warrant doing my own music.
When I would record
a new solo album, I would open up the second half of our concerts with a few
songs off it. Those were interesting years because after a while people started
knowing me as an artist in my own right. Many people would come to see 2nd
Chapter of Acts and this new artist, Matthew Ward. It was funny because a lot
of folks didn’t know I was in 2nd Chapter. They became familiar with my music
through radio, and when I took the stage to perform my songs, you could see the
lights go on for many as they realized, “Hey, wait a minute—wasn’t he just out
here singing with those girls? I had no idea Matthew Ward was in 2nd Chapter!”
I got a big kick out of that.
After 16 years of
touring and over 1000 concerts later, The 2nd Chapter of Acts prayerfully
retired as a group in 1988, but not before doing a "farewell" tour.
In every city, we sang to packed auditoriums and the Spirit of God moved
mightily in each concert. We finished our final concert in
My wife Deanne and
I were married in 1983, and we continued to tour for five more years. By that
time we had two children, Megin and Morgan. After 2nd Chapter concluded, I took
a break from performing. I did record and release a few albums during those 
years, but I really wanted to stay home and
help raise my little ones for a while. I supplemented my income by doing things
locally, such as producing CD’s for other artists. I think I produced 8 or 9
projects one year. I also did some “jingle” work (commercials) as well.
Just after I began
getting back in the swing of doing concerts again, I was diagnosed with cancer.
That was absolutely no fun whatsoever, but I did learn a tremendous amount
about the character of God, how He sees me as a son, and how I should view Him
as Father.
The next CD I
recorded, “My Redeemer”, was directly related to my bout with cancer. Some of
the songs speak directly to what I was going through at that time. When I
originally proposed the style of CD I wanted to do, the record label I was with
was not thrilled with the idea. They felt I should stick to the style I had
established with my last five solo projects. What they wanted was another
rock-pop CD, but I knew in my guts that I wasn’t supposed to do one.
We ended up leaving
the company we were with, and my wife and I took out a note on the house and
paid for the CD ourselves. For the first year we literally shipped it out of
our house, made deals with Christian bookstores (a little harder to do these
days), did all the promoting, hired a radio tracker, and so on. We had very
good success with the CD, and considering we did it all outside the realm of
the normal “big machine of the industry,” the music was received well. We ended
up with a couple of number one songs on the charts, which at the time was
unheard of for an “independent” project.
It was an amazing thing to watch during live
concerts as the Lord touched thousands of lives deeply through the healing
message and music God had given me. It reminds me of a quote I heard once. The
man who said it originally I’m sorry I don’t remember his name) missionary at
the turn of the century. He said, “God’s will, done God’s way, never lacks
God’s provision.”
A few years later I
released a CD called “Even
Now,” which was a natural follow-up to “My Redeemer.” I could
clearly see the Lord was calling me to minister to the body in a more intimate
way. There are so many hurting, disillusioned Christians waiting for a word of
encouragement, for someone to say, “God sees where you are—trust in Him, not
man.” I hope to do another CD which could come out in 2004.
My prayer is that
the Lord will continue to use music’s mysterious ability to reach into hearts
like nothing else can.