Hello! As an old/recent member of CPAC, and a teenager, I thought I should give my opinion for anyone like me who wants to sign up! Personally i believed the same songs were performed a lot. The director had her moments. And there was a lot of stress put on our backs being in the top group. Growing up with CPAC in its early stages was AMAZING! The dance teachers were professional and loved every kid that stepped in the building. But since people grow up, and interests change. Those role models left and CPAC was put in the hands of the oldest kids who attend CPAC. I think CPAC has shaped me into a great christian, Ive made some incredible friendships their! Overall I think CPAC is a fun, family friendly organization! But sometimes stress can take over.

I’ll give credit where credit is due. This organization is a HUGE part of my personal testimony; some good, but mostly bad. I started as a student of this organization at the age of 9. I loved Jesus and was young in my faith. I had a passion for performing arts and wanted to use my passions for Jesus. At first I LOVED IT. The teachers were fun and kind. All my closest friends were there. The director seemed a bit tough and critical at times, but she was a leader so she must have a good reason for making kids cry and feel bad about themselves. But by the time I was 13 I started realizing something was TERRIBLY wrong. I was asked to be a teacher (at THIRTEEN) and apart of their professional group UNITY. I was asked to go to online school so I could dedicate all my time there. Soon I was in meetings with the director Marcia Hall almost daily. She would spend that time criticizing every member of the group in front of one another. She would scream, name call, gaslight, and manipulate. This woman’s Motto was “my way or the highway”. If anyone disagreed they were thrown out and blamed for being terrible Christians. She controlled every aspect of my life (what to wear, say, think, believe, post). I remember being told I couldn’t talk to anyone who decided to leave or be friends with them anymore. She constantly was talking trash about the parents and telling us how they didn’t know how to raise their OWN KIDS, so she had to teach them what was right. She hid behind the Bible and used it to shame, scare, and control. I remember Bible study after Bible study with her where she used the Bible to show me why I was a sinner and needed to be better. I received no grace from her. I was promised I would be paid when I was 16. By that time I was working 40 hours a week and paid 100 a month IF she remembered. If anyone questioned why they hadn’t received a paycheck she would call them greedy. I felt like I couldn’t leave because she would guilt us into staying and say terrible things about kids that chose to go. I left at age 17 because God spoke clearly to me that this was not who He was. He wasn’t legalistic... he was full of grace and love. So I have Marcia to thank for showing me what poor leadership looks like. God used this experience to deepen my love for and understanding of Him. I’m currently getting my bachelors in worship leadership and am considering getting my masters. I suppose Marcia could call me lazy... but it’s just not the truth. I gave her 8 dedicated years of my life. Blood, sweat, tears, MONEY, and years of endured abuse. But I learned better, realized what spiritual and emotional abuse looks like (I guess that’s just “hard work” to her) and I left. I guess she’s mad about me deciding I needed healthy boundaries. Look up narcissist... that’s her. I write this review with the heart and intention to protect these little ones as God commands us to do. I pray God would show her how she’s hurt hundreds of kids and change her heart. But until that happens do not send your kids here. There are plenty of other Christian performing arts organizations that you can send your kids to.Abusive director/founderWas there from 2008-2016

CPAC (Christian Performing Arts Center is entering its 25th year. It has been amazing to see children grow up to be worship leaders, children pastors, Godly leaders and most of all love and serve God. That has been the goal.The kids, leaders and teachers worked very hard to set a standard of excellence in our shows and productions.Sometimes people equate high standards and work hard ethic as abusive and we are sorry for that. We will continue to work with children and use the performing arts as a way to build Godly leaders for the next generation. The last 5 years have been a great challenge. We are so sorry that we let people down. We will get up, dust our selves off and continue. The kids are worth it.

I was a part of this organization for 7 years... So lets weigh the pros and cons...PROS:1. You will learn the very basics of singing, acting and dancing. It will look good on a child’s acting resume.2. You will get the chance to perform in front of an audience on MANY occasions. Its always good to have stage experience. It helps you to grow as a performer.CONS:1. None of the teachers have an extensive amount of training in the arts. Many of them just grew up within the organization, starting out as students and then working their way up to leadership positions. So if you want to be taught by a professional performer with a degree, youre not going to find that here...2. The music material is overdone. They choose to perform to the same music every season. They might add two new songs, but the rest are embarrassingly outdated...3. They use to have a professional dance teacher that taught multiple forms of dance, but she has since left the company, so now the only form of dance they teach is show choir. And to be honest, it gets old very fast...4. You will have to spend a lot of money IN ADDITION to the membership fee... You will be required to pay for your own show clothes, travel fees, and even “production fees” whenever they produce a big project... Even as a paid worker I had to pay the production fee of $100. And I wasn’t even getting paid much to begin with. (I was getting paid $300 a month for over 40 hours of work each week)5. The founder of this company is KNOWN for her mean spirit... There was never a shortage of tears when she was around... That doesn’t sound like a Christ following leader to me...6. There have been multiple reports of emotional abuse, mental abuse, and spiritual abuse. All caused by the founder of this company.____________________________________Until this organization is under new management, I can not in good conscience recommend it to anyone... As things stand right now, this is not a godly company. It is a toxic environment. I ask that you please pray for them. Thank you.

The director is abusive. Shes fine to the parents face but when theyre gone she works us until we can hardly stand at times. Shes emotionally manipulate and tries to take control of ever aspect of your life if you let her.I was about of cpac from 2011-14

Never attended personally even when people suggested it to me because I had a bad feeling about it at the time. A check in my spirit. Years and years later I’ve witnessed many friends of mine come forward about the abuse they endured for YEARS at the hands of the founder of this company. She’s manipulative and verbally abusive and I could never in good conscience suggest this place to anyone. Please don’t send your children here.

Stay away from this organization. We made the mistake of prepaying for a season and found that the program is very poorly managed and decided to leave not expecting a refund. We were promised refunds for tickets for a show that was rescheduled and never received anything, before the owner quit responding to emails.

They practice in a small conference room- where the kids move a conference table to one wall. And move chairs to another wall. They’ve moved locations 3 times since we started 4 months ago. Very mismanaged. We really wanted to like it~ but I think they’ve run out of money. When we first started there was about 40 kids. Now down to about 15. It’s not a good setup. And we can’t get our money back. (I’m sure we could legally, but just decided to move on.)

Amazing work with the children! Original screenplay, great choreography, and the children are bold for Christ.

I have been silent about this for two years but after talking to people who went through the same thing I did, I believe it is time to step forward.When I started CPAC, there were 5 amazing leaders and they were all very talented and professional and they were good at what they did. After about a year of being there it shrunk to three, and eventually, they all left, and as they started leaving, they began having new leaders. Once they were all gone, they formed the Premiere group, the oldest of us being 13, the youngest being 10, and we were expected to be the new leaders of this group (expected, not asked, without pay might I add), and we would teach kids not that much younger then us all of the songs and choreography. Then that group began to fade because we realized that we were not getting anything out of this, and she started adding kids who were much younger and had absolutely no business being teachers. The last semester I was there, the oldest leader there was 14 and the youngest was nine. Nine-years-old. Again, we were expected to teach.Now for the money. CPAC has zero money to its name, and it was extremely obvious. CPAC would have summer camps every year where they would have ten weeks of camp, and the leaders would show up every day at 8:30, work all day, and leave at 4:30. Thats about as much as a full time job, and we would get the weekends between every week, but other then that we would have no time off. Most of us had to pay 100 dollars a week to attend these camps where we would work for her, and if you were EXTREMELY lucky, and by lucky I mean one of her favorite students who would appeal to her every needs, you may have gotten a hundred dollars the whole summer (but that rarely happened). One hundred dollars for working 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, 10 weeks a summer (our entire summer, so dont even bother having a social life). Thats about twenty two cents an hour, and that is if you were one of the luckiest leaders at this organization. Leaders would often ask for pay, but she would respond saying that that is being greedy and how if you were a good christian you would have done it for free. When I left mid-season, I had paid about 300 dollars to go to Houston with them. I left before that happened and we were never refunded that money, on a trip I never got to go to.And finally, the director, Marcia Hall. Marcia, at her very core, is a false prophet. I was emotionally and spiritually abused by this woman for about 2 years. She would give us bible studies and talk about how much she loved God and felt like she was blessed by him, but then would tear people down every other second of the day. She would scream relentlessly at us if we did absolutely anything wrong, whether it be performance-wise, leadership-wise, or even something in our own personal lives that she didnt like. The goal of an abuser is to have full control over people, and thats exactly what she does. She would threaten us by saying if we did anything un-godly, something so little as talking back to our parents, and she heard about it, we would be kicked out of CPAC. She would tell us what we could and could not do in our own personal lives when we were not with her. She even went as far to say if the members of the leadership group tried to communicate with each other outside of CPAC. In October of 2018, I was kicked out for recruiting people to leave (which never happened), so she will kick people out if you look at her the wrong way, no matter how much money youve invested, and no matter how long you have been there. She is a godless woman who claims to love God. She will justify her yelling and abuse by saying she is making us the best we can be and she loves, which is simply not true, because she will throw you away without caring. She is a wolf in sheeps clothing. Please stay away from this organization as someone who was the victim of this despicable, awful, lying woman.