(quote) Evangelist Barbara Ward Farmer
Evangelist Farmer began singing at the age of 4, and began singing publicly at the age of 4 1/2. Jimmy Washington discovered her and Bernard Channler was her first organist. At the age of 11, she was known as Little Barbara Ann Ward. She recorded two songs written by Evangelist Rosie Wallace Brown entitled, "What Do You Think About Jesus?", and "I Am By the Grace of God," Jimmy Smith played the organ. (snip) She is the Pastor of the Faith Tabernacle Church of the Living God. Her mother, Lillian Ward was the former pastor and founder of Faith Tabernacle. (end quote)
From one of the distributed papers for publicity, "1996 PACAF WIDE GOSPEL MUSIC WORKSHOP 3 - 8 JUNE 1996 Yokota Air Force Base, Japan, Theme: 'One Voice United In Praise!' Facilitators: Evangelist Barbara Ward-Farmer and Byron Ward"

It has been almost nine years since the paper for publicity quoted above was distributed. And for fear of being an outdated information, I sought and received confirmation from Church of the Living God on the 11th of April, 2005. I am most grateful to the kindness of House of God, Church of the Living God, Pillar and Ground of the Truth. (April 11, 2005)

For this page, I refer to: The Holy Bible (The Bible Societies, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, Old Testament Section, 1952, New Testament Section, 1946).

The direct transcripts of cassette tape recording given below were done by me for my master's thesis in 1996. Please note that my native language is Japanese, and there may be the English words of which I have failed to make out, though I did my best. (Hitomi)

"... if we believe this to be the absolute truth, the handbook of life, authored by God. Then we understand what, obviously, the gospel is all about. So, we see that gospel teachings grew from a biblical stance, we see the definition defined and the significance of the Bible. We can go back and find that the early origins of music can be traced in the word of God, we find in Genesis, the thirty-first chapter and the twenty-sixth to the twenty-seventh verses, so if we just say Genesis 31:26-27, the first time that music was mentioned in the Bible was not the New Testament but the Old Testament in Genesis 31:26-27 where the Bible says that Jacob had served his father-in-law for many years and during that time the scriptures say that Laban had cheated and deceived Jacob, but God had provided and Jacob continued to prosper. It says that his father-in-law became jealous of Jacob and God commands Jacob to flee with Rachel and Leah, which were his two wives. And it tells us that he returns to his homeland without telling anyone. (...) So even before Laban mentioned this, there must have been music going on even in Genesis. O.K.? But this is the first time it is mentioned in the Bible here, where Laban tells Jacob that I could have sent you away with songs and with instruments."

And Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have cheated me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and cheat me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre?
(Genesis Chapter 31, Verses 26 and 27)

"The first time that music was mentioned in the Bible" G4-1 Audio AIFF G4-1 AIFF The Pastor Barbara Ward Farmer's Seminar at West Chapel on the 6th of June, 1996. Kind: AIFF Audio Format: QDesign Music 2, Stereo, 44100 Hz Data Size: 542.1 KB Data Rate: 2.9 K bytes/sec Duration: 00:03:05.17

"How about the first time this is mentioned, of singing in a religious context, the first instance that we find that singing is placed in a religious context in the Bible, we can find this in Exodus the fifteenth chapter verses one and two. Where it tells us that God had ordained Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. And of course we find this in Exodus' fourteenth chapter, and it tells us that Moses was subjected to constant criticism from his people even though God had worked with Moses. God had brought the children out of Egypt, but the children of Israel began to criticize Moses, uh, even though God had interceded for Moses on their behalf, they were constantly in doubt. (...) The Bible tells us that in Deuteronomy thirty-one, nine to twenty-two, God commanded Moses to write a song. A song admonishing the Israelites that there would be consequences for their disobedience. God ordered Moses to teach them the song, and ordered them to teach the song to each generation. So here, we find that here God gave Moses, this is back in Exodus, instructions to write a song and teach it to the congregation. So in a sense, singing was... the first time singing was mentioned was actually to the whole congregation, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people here, in a religious context."

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord,
saying,
"I will sing to the Lord, for he has
triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has
thrown into the sea.
(Exodus Chapter 15, Verses 1 and 2)

"In a religious context" G4-2 Audio AIFF G4-2 AIFF The Pastor Barbara Ward Farmer's Seminar at West Chapel on the 6th of June, 1996. Kind: AIFF Audio Format: QDesign Music 2, Stereo, 44100 Hz Data Size: 502.7 KB, Data Rate: 2.9 K bytes/sec, Duration: 00:02:52.03

"A lot of people don't know this, but in the book of Psalms, we think that all the Psalms were written by David but they weren't. Moses was the one who wrote Psalms ninety and ninety-one. So we see even back then, here singing was approved by God and it was ordained, this is the first time that it was ordained. Now, point five on your paper, when we talk about Psalms, we see here that Psalms is exactly what it says, it is a collection of songs. And, however, even though Moses wrote some of the Psalms, but David is attributed to have written most of the Psalms. O.K.? And really the Psalms was compiled from the time of David... as you might have known or if you don't know, David was one of the greatest musicians. Not only was he a skillful musician what else was he? A praiser? Yes, he was a praiser, but it's an "A" word that I'm looking for. Anointed. He was anointed. So he was an anointed musician, he was skillful and he was a powerful praiser. O.K.? (...) So, gospel music can be traced all the way back to Psalms where music, known as gospel per se, in the book of Psalms we see that songs were written and mentioned as singing, the Psalmist admonished the people to sing, to joyfully sing even when going through problems, even when going through situations, he admonished the people through Psalms, we see, to sing. And of course, this singing was an act of communicating with God. See, even back in David's time it was not a thing of entertainment, but singing was simply an act of communicating the person with God. Also we find here that Psalms one-hundred, and two, and sixty-nine and thirty tells us where David admonished the people to sing to God to show their faith. In other words, in these Psalms you find that David tried to encouraged the people that, if you have faith in God, if you know who He is, if He is your redeemer, He is your savior, He is your covenant, then sing about it."

Psalms of David

"Singing was the act of communicating with God." G4-3 Audio AIFF G4-3 AIFF The Pastor Barbara Ward Farmer's Seminar at West Chapel on the 6th of June, 1996. Kind: AIFF Audio Format: QDesign Music 2, Stereo, 44100 Hz Data Size: 461.7 KB, Data Rate: 2.9 K bytes/sec, Duration: 00:02:38.02

Audio Material G4-1, G4-2, G4-3, G1-1, G1-2, G1-3, M2 and M3 :
The Pastor Barbara Ward Farmer
I have selected several scenes as to the pastor of the Baptist Church in Philadelphia, USA, the Pastor Barbara Ward Farmer, from original cassette tapes on which I recorded her seminar "The History of Gospel Music" and Mission Work taken place in the Gospel Music Workshop "1996 PACAF WIDE GOSPEL MUSIC WORKSHOP 3 - 8 JUNE 1996 Yokota Air Force Base, Japan, Theme: 'One Voice United In Praise!' Facilitators: Evangelist Barbara Ward-Farmer and Byron Ward," and I have made AIFF (.aif) and MP3 (.mp3) audio files.

• G4-1: The first time that music was mentioned in the Bible: Genesis Chapter 31, Verses 26 and 27 (.aif, .mp3)
• G4-2: In a religious context: Exodus Chapter 15, Verses 1 and 2 (.aif, .mp3)
• G4-3: Singing was the act of communicating with God - Psalms (.aif, .mp3)
• G1-1: The Black experience (.aif, .mp3)
• G1-2: This [Music] belongs to the Lord (.aif, .mp3)
• G1-3: The Father of Gospel Music (.aif, .mp3)
• M2: Gospel Mission Work - with a Japanese Baptist pastor (.aif, .mp3)
• M3: Gospel Mission Work "If God Be For Us!" (.aif, .mp3)