Warren Barfield thought he had it all when his self-titled debut released in 2003—good sales, two top ten songs, and a designation as Christian radio's top new artist from Radio & Records magazine. Then he lost it all. Overnight, the record contract was gone (when the label, CTW, folded), a family friend was dead and his sister lay in a hospital bed. He wondered how he could ever sing again. After much soul searching and securing a new record deal, Barfield is back with Reach. Barfield spoke with us about the changes in his life, about his new album and about how God reached out to him.

When your record label closed down, did you think your career was over?

Warren Barfield: I did. I didn't know what was going to happen. It's common for labels to change hands or for labels to disappear. Artists get lost in that all the time. There are tons of artists whose labels fold when their records are ready to come out, so everything is shelved. When I got the phone call saying my label was gone, I figured it was over. My label still held my contract, so they shopped it around to other labels. I didn't have any say in it because once you sign a contract, they own it and have the rights to do whatever they want. I had to sit and wait for a year and a half. It was frustrating. I wanted to know either way so I could go on with my life.

Then along came a family tragedy. Can you tell me about that?

Barfield: My sister Rena's best friend since high school was Carla. They were college roommates. They lived next door to each other when they got married. They had a singing ministry together, made a record and were getting ready to tour. One night on the way back from the mall, my sister lost control of her car and Carla died instantly. My sister was injured and had to deal with guilt and the loneliness of losing her best friend.

When I went to my sister's hospital room, I wanted so badly to say something to make it all make sense. There was nothing. Even the best spiritual clichés didn't help. All I could do was cry with her. I was going through the thing with the record label at the same time. We were both asking how we could ever sing again.

How did these challenges affect your faith?

Barfield: Everything was stripped away to the point of my asking who I was and why I was here. I questioned everything about myself, not only if I was meant to be a Christian singer, but if I even was a Christian. I thought about quitting. I didn't want to make music anymore. Music is my heart, but I wondered if God meant for me to be in the music business. The grace of God made me not give up.

How did you realize that making music is what you are supposed to do?

Barfield: I can't do anything else. I've tried to quit so many times, but I can't. I've gotten back to a place of making music because I love to make music. There is a desire in my heart to do this even when it gets hard. I always end up sitting behind my guitar singing my story.

How did this affect you as a musician?

Barfield: For too long, I was doing it my way. I was trying to be successful. I was becoming a bitter person and not handling the industry well. I was becoming someone who always felt I deserved better. All this stuff happened and broke me. I now want to do things the way Christ would do things. I realize now that I don't deserve anything. Every good thing is a gift from God for which I am grateful. I now care less about people's definition of success. This has affected my message on stage in a huge way. I want people to understand that faith is the only thing that is real.

How has it affected you as a person?

Barfield: God has reprioritized my life and changed my heart. I try my best not to control things or be consumed by things. I realize that God is the only thing that is secure. I'm on a journey to know Christ and everything else is just icing on that.

As a pastor's kid, did all of this bring you to a place of finding your own faith?

Barfield: Yes. I was raised in a Christian home and everyone I knew believed. It's easy to get stuck in the Christian culture. Saying you're a Christian can be like saying you are a Democrat or a Republican. When things fell apart and I couldn't make sense of it all, I questioned whether I lived a Christian life because my parents expected it of me. I concluded that I really do believe. When everything else was gone, when nothing made sense, I knew I believed in Jesus because his grace came into my life and caused me to believe, not just because my father taught me to believe.

Your new album, Reach, is different from your first. Which better reflects who you are?

Barfield: There's four years between the time I wrote the first one and this one. The first one represented who I was four years ago, like pulling out a yearbook from when you were a freshman. You look different, but it was you at the time. This one reflects who I am now. I hope I will always be changing and my next record will be completely different from this one.

How did you choose the album title?

Barfield: I named it Reach because I had been reaching for many things while God was reaching for me, and because I hope it reaches other people. I felt like I was reaching for so many things these past few years, trying to find out who I am, trying to find out who God is and where we meet in this journey. I finally realized all of this was God reaching for me. All these things happened because God loved me enough to rebuke me and break me.

You worked with a mainstream producer. How did that move serve the album?

Barfield: In Nashville, Christian producers have had success, so they have a formula. It's very easy for things to fall into that formula. But I was in L.A. working with people who knew nothing about Christian radio, so nobody was saying that a certain thing would or wouldn't work in Christian radio. This guy didn't know the formula of the Christian world and couldn't fall back on that, so he was all about serving the song and serving me as an artist.

What else was different about making this album?

Barfield: With the first one, I was a little more conscious of radio. I tried to figure out what radio would like, even though I was a kid and had no idea what they would like. On this record, my mindset changed. Since I no longer think anything is guaranteed, I realized the record might not get to a shelf or be played on the radio. So, I cared more about being true to the songs than about radio.

Your sound is different on this album. What has most influenced your soulful sound?

Barfield: Probably the church that I grew up in. My dad's a Pentecostal preacher who would sing with everything he had. Most soul singers started as gospel singers. They sang with passion and belief because they sang about things they believed in. They sang about matters of the soul, so their music was tagged as soul music. On this record, I'm singing about something I believe in with all my heart. It's only natural for it to be soulful. To me, my form of soul is passion.

The lyrics sound as though a newly saved person wrote them, especially "Saved" and "Come Alive."

Barfield: It's as if my faith is brand new to me and I feel completely revived spiritually, mentally and musically. My faith had become dead to me and wasn't real anymore. In "Come Alive," the lyric says, "It's like I've been born again for the first time." Since the lyrics are the result of reevaluating everything, I wanted to say something that was said a million times, but say it with such excitement that it would revive the phrase.

What else have you learned from your experiences in the past couple years?

Barfield: I've learned not to be vain and not to live for the temporary. I don't want to build my kingdom because it can fall at any time. That resonates through everything I do right now. I'm not consumed by what people think of me. I'm not at a place where people's disapproval doesn't affect me, but I'm at a place where it's not going to change me. It might hurt, but I can keep moving, because what they think of me is not the end all.

How is your sister now?

Barfield: The doctors still want to amputate her leg. They can't do anything more for her. She can walk, but has a terrible limp. She's in a lot of pain. She uses a wheelchair for distances like the grocery store or the mall. She got back to singing and made an independent record. She travels, sings, and shares her story. God is using her to encourage people.

Do you still have questions?

Barfield: Yes. I think I always will because it's my nature. What makes me a songwriter is that I question things and go over it in my mind. I think that's good. That's how God can change us, by making us evaluate ourselves. I don't have the exact questions I had before, those questions about the basics. But, I'd be lying to say I don't have questions.

For more about Warren Barfield, visit our site's artist page. To read our review of Barfield's latest album Reach, click here. Visit Christianbook.com to listen to sound clips and purchase his music.

© Maryann Hunsberger, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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