‘Church without walls’

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This article was published 14/11/2020 (2118 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Decades before Zoom church, YouTube sermons or livestreamed Sunday services, the late Rev. H.H. Barber had perfected connecting with worshippers watching from home.

The longtime host of the Christian show Faith To Live By, who died on Oct. 24 at age 98, understood pacing for television and how to make every second count, explains his son Rev. James Barber.

“Dad’s advice was to keep it moving and to fill every opportunity,” he says of how his father approached the half-hour show broadcast Sundays on CTV Winnipeg (formerly CKY-TV) since 1962.

“He knew that nothing is easier for someone with a remote (than) to change the channel because the energy is lagging.”

Born in Owen Sound, Ont., Herbert Hanbidge Barber was a Pentecostal minister who served churches in Elmira, Ont., and Regina before moving to Winnipeg in 1953 to lead Calvary Temple. He stayed there for 44 years, overseeing construction of its new church buildings, Calvary Temple Place Personal Care Home, and a summer camp in the Whiteshell.

Already experienced in radio preaching, Pastor Barber, as he was known in Winnipeg and to his viewers, decided to take on television ministry, making enquiries about how to proceed at the C-JAY TV studios (now CTV Winnipeg).

“That particular TV station was very new when he marched over to purchase some airtime,” recalls James Barber, 58.

The church board approved the senior Barber’s request to start a show, provided he raise the funds, and on Sunday, Jan. 7, 1962, he went on air for the first time with Faith to Live By. Those early shows were broadcast live, with Barber heading over to the television studios on Sunday afternoons along with the Calvary Temple choir.

Barber was already broadcasting Sunday services and was skilled at delivering his sermons so he would finish exactly on time, recalls his daughter Lynda Kvist, who worked as her dad’s secretary at Calvary Temple for a dozen years.

“Dad would go up to the pulpit on Sunday morning and press his little stopwatch and he would be able to wind up at the exact time the camera went off,” she says.

Over the years, the shows were recorded ahead of time and musicians would tape their voices in a sound studio and then lip sync on camera, recalls Rick Bowering, a singer on the show since 1969, who now also produces the music.

Now the dozen or so musicians record about 20 hymns four times a year and Barber would choose music from the library to fit his sermon topic. That practice left musicians watching themselves go forward or back a decade over the half-hour show, depending on the music Barber selected.

“We don’t get any complaints from the audience but I do hear from the singers,” says the retired civil engineer who sings tenor with the male quartet and duets with his son Matthew Bowering, 38.

Barber retired from the show in August 2019, after years of gradually passing more responsibility to his youngest son James, pastor at Faith Bible Church on Minto Street, where the show has its offices.

Although the host has changed, and the show broke formal ties with Calvary Temple when H.H. Barber retired from ministry in 1997, much has stayed constant, including Bible questions, the eight-minute sermons, and hymns performed by Winnipeg church musicians, says James Barber. And over nearly 2,500 shows, Pastor Barber was always there, wearing a tie, white shirt and dark suit, earnestly answering viewer questions or delivering short sermons.

Since the show runs daily on cable, the elder Barber will still appear on reruns, but the show plans to buy an extra minute of airtime to add an announcement of his death, says his son.

Over its six decades on the air, Faith To Live By is still self-sustaining, with an annual budget of about $600,000, and all participants volunteering their time, says Bowering, now a member of the show’s governing board

“His legacy is that he was a very good explainer of Scripture in fairly simple terms,” Bowering says of Barber’s ability to communicate with viewers.

“He made it clear and understandable.”

Pastor Barber made TV preaching look easy, but it takes skill and practice to move from addressing a full congregation on Sunday morning to speaking only to the camera, explains Rev. Bruce Martin of Calvary Temple.

“I’ve watched people that are now speaking to an empty church and they’re not doing their best work,” says Martin, whose sermons were broadcast on CTV Winnipeg for more than two decades.

The elder Barber always viewed his television ministry as a way to fill the gap for people who couldn’t attend their own congregation on Sunday mornings, and along the way became a local celebrity, a well-loved spiritual mentor and a television pioneer. He was aware of the COVID-19 pandemic and how churches were turning to virtual means to maintain contact with their parishioners when they couldn’t meet in person, says his son.

“On Faith To Live By, Dad would always say this is the church without walls for those who couldn’t get out to church,” says James Barber.

brenda@suderman.com

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