Oct. 17, 2010
Former Minister Turned Musician Nears Goal of Hunger CD Release
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – When Bryan McFarland, a former Presbyterian USA minister turned songwriter, appeared in 2004 at “The Crossing,” a ministry of First Presbyterian Church, he promoted a collection of modern worship songs from his “Way” CD.
The former campus minister has been collecting pledges, though, for what may have become a life’s mission --- a CD dedicated to those who are hungry. The online release of “Until All Are Fed” will be October 26.
As a Hunger Action Advocate for Presbyterian USA, he speaks at various North Carolina congregations about the five points of the church’s hunger program.
For instance, Spencer Burke of The Ooze.com stated: “With a rare combination of powerful music AND message, Bryan gives voice to those who cannot be heard. A great example of his words & actions coming together is this new project Singing For OUR Supper.” In addition, Rev. Ben Larson-Wolbrink, Pastor, First Presbyterian, Beacon, New York, praised McFarland’s “music that pulses with energy & urgency, lifting the spirit & pricking the conscience at the same time. The songs stick with you long after you’ve heard them… an echoing call to solidarity in faith.”
With the on-line release of “Until All Are Fed,” McFarland is now booking local congregations, campus ministry groups , conferences, and agencies for 2011. The Jacob’s Join Hunger Action Event will include worship/mission music from the project; a potluck or simple meal; information on the PHP; and an offering of Letters for Bread for the World.
“I intentionally involve area/regional musicians in each location, i.e. a congregation's praise band or a campus ministry group,” McFarland said. “ This means some practice ahead of time, but in the long-run it means a greater participation and larger turnout at the event.”
McFarland said, “ I'm convinced that people are wanting worship music that challenges us with the mission of Christ, music that TURNS us around from the altar and SENDS us out into the world to "do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God." THAT is what this project is ALL ABOUT!!
You can "pre-hear" five songs on the pledge site at: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/252
Click on Bryan’s promotion video of “Until All Are Fed,” here:
EDITOR’S NOTE: When Brian Field- McFarland performed at the Crossing in Huntington, HNN caught up with him. Here is that interview from 2004 at First Presbyterian Church
By Tony Rutherford
HNN Writer
Coming from a preacher who’s now a professional singer/songwriter, you would not anticipate a suggestion that we do more listening and less preaching. However, Brian Field McFarland, who’s a former Presbyterian U.S.A. pastor and campus minister, believes that changing the world comes through “a love that listens.”
While admitting that he writes many songs about love, Field (which he uses as his professional name now) finds his words “from character studying and listening to not only my life but to others lives. When I get up and sing, the words come from my life, but they also come from what the shared experience of life.”
For instance, the folksy story-telling performer explained that one song is about “a boy who is in the midst of emotional abuse that is going on in the home.” Another memorializes his close friend, Sandra Bradshaw, who was a flight attendant on the plane that went down in Shanksville, Pa., on 9/11.
Recalling his friend, Field said, “Sandy had a deep love for her family. She had a deep love for humanity. Hers was one of the cell phone conversations that led authorities to believe that they somehow knew [on the flight] what was going on. Enough time had elapsed that she called her husband and said, ‘we’re in the back of the plane boiling water to throw on them. We don’t know what they’re trying to do, but we’re going to see to it that they don’t succeed.’”
The song that pays tribune to Ms. Bradshaw goes something like this: “Had it been me upon that sky, upon that day, would I have had the heart to give and the words to say. As life goes on and time goes by, I wonder at the love that lives even though we die.”
After performing the song at Birk Presbyterian Church near Washington, D.C., a church member who works at the White House approached Field with tears in his eyes. “I want to thank you for memorializing Sandy for what she did for us,” he said.
Filed compliments the bravery of Bradshaw and other on the Pennsylvania plane. “I think they are Christ figures who gave their lies in the love [for others] that they showed in that act. I only hope I could have that same kind of death.”
Since the tragic 911 events, the Presbyterian minister acknowledges that religious fervor has taken a drastic turn to the more fundamental conservative viewpoints. “When there is an era where people are uncertain, we want absolutes. We want our God to be absolute. Because of that we don’t have room for others who have believed differently since their birth. I saw a quote today that one of the key things we have to work on in our time is how to stand in our tradition while respecting others in theirs.”
The songwriter/minister regrets that the attack on our homeland has caused many Christians to react in ways “more driven by fear than faith.” He quickly added, “I think that faith driven by fear is really not faith. We are [now] driven way too much by fear [in this country]. There’s a line in the Bible that says ‘perfect love cast out all fear.’ We need more love. We need to focus on [the love] that’s already here.”
At the risk of sounding clichéd, the singer/songwriter admits that most of his tunes stress the value of love. But his definition of “love” stresses diversity and acceptance of others. In fact, he regrets that the term “evangelism” has “been hijacked by people in the religious right.” Instead, he explained that too often we think of “evangelism as being the mouth. If we could think of it as being the ear…the ear that is there at the middle of the word heart, we could learn way to listen into each other’s lives.”
Field also spoke about influences upon his music and our role as Christians in building a better world:
HNN: I’ve noticed you have been influenced by James Taylor and mention Simon and Garfunkle in your songs and lots of movies…
FIELD: I’m influenced by tons of singer/songwriters … Bruce Coburn, David Wilcox, Tim O’Brien, Darryl Scott, Cheryl Wheeler, it goes on and on of the persons I listen to an am influenced by. What I try to do is mine contemporary culture and did deep in contemporary culture for the places where God lurks. God’s not just there in the sanctuary waitin’ for us to be there on Sunday morning. God is in our culture. We need to dig deep and find that and share that with other persons in our culture. Sometimes we have to dig through a lot of stuff…to find that nugget, that truth, that reality of where God lurks but I think that’s what one of our tasks is as human beings. One of my tasks as a writer is to help us do that digging. That’s what I try to do in a lot of my songs, but a lot of others too are just for fun.
HNN: There’s even less ‘love’ between the genders in that you lower yourself to feel a ‘need’ or an interdependence on someone else
FIELD: That’s why I define love in the fullest sense as a deep respect… We should learn ways too listen into each others lives. That’s why it’s really encouraging to me as a songwriter that there are churches, individuals in their homes, and entities around the country who are developing listening rooms. It’s not about the songwriter being on stage; it’s about what we’re trying to get across while being on stage. Its not that there’s a unified movement of songwriters but I think there’s always been a movement that’s loosely organized that people want to share the reality that we are gifted with life at this moment , at this time, and we are the ones who are here during this crisis of 911 reality. We’re the ones alive. How are we going to make the world a better place because of that? How are we going to listen our way into each others lives and make the world a better place because of our having been here?
HNN: I’ve always thought instead of yelling hellfire and damnation from the pulpit you could reach people in the movies, such as “Oh God” or “A Man Called Peter” would have a way of reaching people who would never come to a church.
FIELD: There are tons of ways that are culture is rife with sermonic material , where directors, actors, musicians to some extinct take the role of pastor, prophet and poet to get across to a culture in way that are not preachy but nonetheless get across a message that needs to be heard. Of course, there’s anger to be dealt with in all types of ways in cultures through music. There are other realities of the human emotions that are dealt with. When I talk about love, I don’t talk about the emotion of love, I’m talking about deep respect for the fact that we share this planet with persons of other cultures and other traditions who are deeply to those. How can we learn from each other and live and find peace that’s already there? I’m not saying it’s easy, nobody ever has.
HNN: What did you think of “Bruce Almighty?” Some people thought it sacrilege
FIELD: It was one of those films that help us dig into the human divine connection that is there in Christianity. Its fun to play with as well as pray with and to have fun with that interplay. I thought there were many beautiful deeply theological moments in that movie.
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Former Minister Turned Musician Nears Goal of Hunger CD Release
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – When Bryan McFarland, a former Presbyterian USA minister turned songwriter, appeared in 2004 at “The Crossing,” a ministry of First Presbyterian Church, he promoted a collection of modern worship songs from his “Way” CD.
The former campus minister has been collecting pledges, though, for what may have become a life’s mission --- a CD dedicated to those who are hungry. The online release of “Until All Are Fed” will be October 26.
As a Hunger Action Advocate for Presbyterian USA, he speaks at various North Carolina congregations about the five points of the church’s hunger program.
For instance, Spencer Burke of The Ooze.com stated: “With a rare combination of powerful music AND message, Bryan gives voice to those who cannot be heard. A great example of his words & actions coming together is this new project Singing For OUR Supper.” In addition, Rev. Ben Larson-Wolbrink, Pastor, First Presbyterian, Beacon, New York, praised McFarland’s “music that pulses with energy & urgency, lifting the spirit & pricking the conscience at the same time. The songs stick with you long after you’ve heard them… an echoing call to solidarity in faith.”
With the on-line release of “Until All Are Fed,” McFarland is now booking local congregations, campus ministry groups , conferences, and agencies for 2011. The Jacob’s Join Hunger Action Event will include worship/mission music from the project; a potluck or simple meal; information on the PHP; and an offering of Letters for Bread for the World.
“I intentionally involve area/regional musicians in each location, i.e. a congregation's praise band or a campus ministry group,” McFarland said. “ This means some practice ahead of time, but in the long-run it means a greater participation and larger turnout at the event.”
McFarland said, “ I'm convinced that people are wanting worship music that challenges us with the mission of Christ, music that TURNS us around from the altar and SENDS us out into the world to "do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God." THAT is what this project is ALL ABOUT!!
You can "pre-hear" five songs on the pledge site at: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/252
Click on Bryan’s promotion video of “Until All Are Fed,” here:
EDITOR’S NOTE: When Brian Field- McFarland performed at the Crossing in Huntington, HNN caught up with him. Here is that interview from 2004 at First Presbyterian Church
By Tony Rutherford
HNN Writer
Coming from a preacher who’s now a professional singer/songwriter, you would not anticipate a suggestion that we do more listening and less preaching. However, Brian Field McFarland, who’s a former Presbyterian U.S.A. pastor and campus minister, believes that changing the world comes through “a love that listens.”
While admitting that he writes many songs about love, Field (which he uses as his professional name now) finds his words “from character studying and listening to not only my life but to others lives. When I get up and sing, the words come from my life, but they also come from what the shared experience of life.”
For instance, the folksy story-telling performer explained that one song is about “a boy who is in the midst of emotional abuse that is going on in the home.” Another memorializes his close friend, Sandra Bradshaw, who was a flight attendant on the plane that went down in Shanksville, Pa., on 9/11.
Recalling his friend, Field said, “Sandy had a deep love for her family. She had a deep love for humanity. Hers was one of the cell phone conversations that led authorities to believe that they somehow knew [on the flight] what was going on. Enough time had elapsed that she called her husband and said, ‘we’re in the back of the plane boiling water to throw on them. We don’t know what they’re trying to do, but we’re going to see to it that they don’t succeed.’”
The song that pays tribune to Ms. Bradshaw goes something like this: “Had it been me upon that sky, upon that day, would I have had the heart to give and the words to say. As life goes on and time goes by, I wonder at the love that lives even though we die.”
After performing the song at Birk Presbyterian Church near Washington, D.C., a church member who works at the White House approached Field with tears in his eyes. “I want to thank you for memorializing Sandy for what she did for us,” he said.
Filed compliments the bravery of Bradshaw and other on the Pennsylvania plane. “I think they are Christ figures who gave their lies in the love [for others] that they showed in that act. I only hope I could have that same kind of death.”
Since the tragic 911 events, the Presbyterian minister acknowledges that religious fervor has taken a drastic turn to the more fundamental conservative viewpoints. “When there is an era where people are uncertain, we want absolutes. We want our God to be absolute. Because of that we don’t have room for others who have believed differently since their birth. I saw a quote today that one of the key things we have to work on in our time is how to stand in our tradition while respecting others in theirs.”
The songwriter/minister regrets that the attack on our homeland has caused many Christians to react in ways “more driven by fear than faith.” He quickly added, “I think that faith driven by fear is really not faith. We are [now] driven way too much by fear [in this country]. There’s a line in the Bible that says ‘perfect love cast out all fear.’ We need more love. We need to focus on [the love] that’s already here.”
At the risk of sounding clichéd, the singer/songwriter admits that most of his tunes stress the value of love. But his definition of “love” stresses diversity and acceptance of others. In fact, he regrets that the term “evangelism” has “been hijacked by people in the religious right.” Instead, he explained that too often we think of “evangelism as being the mouth. If we could think of it as being the ear…the ear that is there at the middle of the word heart, we could learn way to listen into each other’s lives.”
Field also spoke about influences upon his music and our role as Christians in building a better world:
HNN: I’ve noticed you have been influenced by James Taylor and mention Simon and Garfunkle in your songs and lots of movies…
FIELD: I’m influenced by tons of singer/songwriters … Bruce Coburn, David Wilcox, Tim O’Brien, Darryl Scott, Cheryl Wheeler, it goes on and on of the persons I listen to an am influenced by. What I try to do is mine contemporary culture and did deep in contemporary culture for the places where God lurks. God’s not just there in the sanctuary waitin’ for us to be there on Sunday morning. God is in our culture. We need to dig deep and find that and share that with other persons in our culture. Sometimes we have to dig through a lot of stuff…to find that nugget, that truth, that reality of where God lurks but I think that’s what one of our tasks is as human beings. One of my tasks as a writer is to help us do that digging. That’s what I try to do in a lot of my songs, but a lot of others too are just for fun.
HNN: There’s even less ‘love’ between the genders in that you lower yourself to feel a ‘need’ or an interdependence on someone else
FIELD: That’s why I define love in the fullest sense as a deep respect… We should learn ways too listen into each others lives. That’s why it’s really encouraging to me as a songwriter that there are churches, individuals in their homes, and entities around the country who are developing listening rooms. It’s not about the songwriter being on stage; it’s about what we’re trying to get across while being on stage. Its not that there’s a unified movement of songwriters but I think there’s always been a movement that’s loosely organized that people want to share the reality that we are gifted with life at this moment , at this time, and we are the ones who are here during this crisis of 911 reality. We’re the ones alive. How are we going to make the world a better place because of that? How are we going to listen our way into each others lives and make the world a better place because of our having been here?
HNN: I’ve always thought instead of yelling hellfire and damnation from the pulpit you could reach people in the movies, such as “Oh God” or “A Man Called Peter” would have a way of reaching people who would never come to a church.
FIELD: There are tons of ways that are culture is rife with sermonic material , where directors, actors, musicians to some extinct take the role of pastor, prophet and poet to get across to a culture in way that are not preachy but nonetheless get across a message that needs to be heard. Of course, there’s anger to be dealt with in all types of ways in cultures through music. There are other realities of the human emotions that are dealt with. When I talk about love, I don’t talk about the emotion of love, I’m talking about deep respect for the fact that we share this planet with persons of other cultures and other traditions who are deeply to those. How can we learn from each other and live and find peace that’s already there? I’m not saying it’s easy, nobody ever has.
HNN: What did you think of “Bruce Almighty?” Some people thought it sacrilege
FIELD: It was one of those films that help us dig into the human divine connection that is there in Christianity. Its fun to play with as well as pray with and to have fun with that interplay. I thought there were many beautiful deeply theological moments in that movie.
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