Other - Fairhavens Well

About “Oh I Want To See Him”

Posted on September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 by Bruce Sechrest

Now, I had to go way back in the library of music to find this medley…how about 1787? Then to 1916 and make a medley…Oh i want to see him… and On Jordan’s stormy Banks… what a combination of music ! …

When I first heard this song in 1975, I just thought it was the such a great song. Today I feel it’s still a great song and there is a whole generation of people who have never heard it still.

As with most songs on this work it has got to talking to me as I sang it. This arrangement was first designed for a choir, directly from the hymnal, but, as I was putting it together, then out of nowhere, I got this Cajun thing going on in my head.

There was an older Cajun cook on the tv a long time ago his name was Justin Wilson. He was a great story teller, look him up, he was really funny and made you love Cajun language or just a great story told in the most inspiring way.

So, the boys were in the studio, the song began to play, it just came to me, Justin Wilson style, flavor it with that. I wish he could see his influence even now, something that simple, most don’t know he did a Christmas album with a jazz band. He was unforgettable.

So, as I do this song about the savior, I will tell you that one day I will See Him!

As Justin would say “I gar-on-tee! “

Listen to Oh I Want To See Him

About “Goodbye World Goodbye”

Posted on September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 by Bruce Sechrest

It was in 1970; Hugo, Betty Lou, Norma Jean, Elaine, and I had been invited to a church for homecoming. We were a small church Gospel group that had never been out to sing much. The church had so many singers that they set up a tent in the yard for the overflow of groups and people…

We were not very good singers but we loved the Lord and so we didn’t expect to sing inside the church with all the big name groups that were there that day. So we sang in the yard under the tent to the people who couldn’t get in to the main church because there was just no room…

Someone heard us sing our three songs that day and somehow we were being ushered into the big church in front of all those people…we all knew we didn’t fit because we felt we belonged in the yard .. We were not that good… they were all so big and professional in what they did...we were nothing but just plain people who loved God and loved to tell the story…

I will never forget it…when we got to the chorus of this song, and Betty Lou started singing, now don’t you weep for me when I’m gone, cause I won’t have to leave here alone…there was one man who stood and started to wave at her, as to say goodbye..

One by one they all stood and waved, it was a God moment … I was forever changed that day.

That was a long time ago, Hugo and Betty Lou are in heaven…and they didn’t go alone…

The point here is that you don’t have to go alone either, sing it with us….come fly away with us…

Listen To Goodbye World Goodbye

About “You’re Still Lord”

Posted on September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 by Bruce Sechrest

That Sunday morning in 1955, I was five years old, sitting in church between my Mom and Dad.

My Dad was a preacher and an upholsterer. He covered and stretched fabric on furniture for a living.

That strong hand on my knee making me sit still or else, the big squeeze on the leg.

I remember taking my hand on my Dad’s thumb and peeling it back from my leg and pushing him to the side.

I remember crawling over Him and walking down to the front of the Church and getting on my knees to accept Christ.

All I knew was, I wanted to meet Jesus that morning.

I heard Old Preacher Bill say “Don’t you want to be saved today?”

I heard my door open that day… I felt His call; I knew it was for me.

That day, was, the day, that God saved me.

It’s been over sixty-five years later. I now realize that all of the sin I would do, happened after that day he saved me. I have let that stop me from doing what I was called to be but for today, I am going to not let that work against me anymore.

Grace walked up to Sin one day and asked Sin, Is that your best? Is that your worst? Is that your most awful, most powerful? Sin never got a chance to speak. Grace just blinked and Sin was vaporized to be no more. “Where sin abounds, grace doth that much more abound”

I have come to realize that Grace is the most powerful thing in the Universe… and it’s all about His imputed righteousness for me and you as well.

I am saved by God’s grace, nothing more, and nothing less. He is worthy. This song is for me but it’s for you as well…

What say ye?

Listen To You’re Still Lord

About “When We Step Inside The Gates”

Posted on September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 by Bruce Sechrest

In 2015 I was driving down the road one day in my car and this song came on the radio. I liked the song so well that I began to research where it came from. That’s when I met Patrick Case , the man who wrote Step Inside the Gates.

I called him up and asked him about it. He told me the story of how after a long day on the road he had went to be the song just came to him right before he was about to sleep. He got up wrote down the first verse then back to bed. Then right as he was about to sleep the second verse started. He said, “I got back up in the middle of the night and put on a pot of coffee and then the rest is history.”

In 1951 a gospel group called the Blackwood Quartet had a hit song, Inside the Gate written by J D Sumner.

In 1970 I was taught that song in church and saw what it was like to see the anointing fall on people who heard the message in that song.

I told Patrick I wanted to do his song but I wanted to rearrange it. He had never heard the earlier song. So, we made a demo of our ideas combining the two songs but Something else happened. When we got to the studio God showed up and had His say, thru the people who played this for the first time and made it what it is today. We did what was called a mash.. It’s where you put two songs together and it just fits perfectly.

I had no idea, Patrick had no idea, J D Sumner had no idea, neither did Jeff Collins, The Sisters, nor did old John, an outcast on the isle of Patmos, telling us what he saw; the song that only God could put together for us.

A song, a story about Heaven and the love of God for us.

Our home forevermore. Come go with us.

Listen To When We Step Inside The Gates

How Did We Get Our Name and Ministry Vision to do Music Online

Posted on September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 by Bruce Sechrest

The old church Fairhavens Baptist Church was started, in High Point North Carolina, in the late 60ies in an old seventh Day Adventist school building and it was there I learned about the spirit of God in the service.

We all thought it was in the water because God’s presence was so real for everyone who came to worship there. It was there that I learned to sing Gospel Music.

Rev. Clifford Sechrest was my father. He was called to preach in 1955. He and my mother were saved about the same time. The stories that are told are not so much anymore but there are plenty to tell.

I was saved along the same time my parents were when I was 5 years old at Friendly Baptist Church in High Point NC.

Living as a preacher’s kid was a tough life. My dad was a church planter. It was said that he was perfectly happy to lead the charge for God from the rear.

But one by one they all died or moved away. except for me….I was to be the remnant to continue what God had started. So as the saying goes “little is much when God is in it”

Lightning hit the church and it burned to the ground. All that was left was the well head that gave the water… sticking up out of the ground.

Time passed and in 1979 I was called into the evangelical music ministry. I was licensed as an evangelist by Oakview Baptist Church in High Point NC.

That day at 29 years old I was changed forever.

I became a pilgrim with no home. To follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the license said. The field was ripe unto harvest and the laborers are few. Today it seems like we a sowing seeds of faith in a double famine…Covid is now everywhere and things are more scattered than ever…

The journey seems short now, but then. it was a long time ago. It’s been almost 65 years, Filled with happiness, fear, doubt, despair, pain, suffering, hope, joy and sorrow. Now a great sickness that has invaded the land … Music is more important now than ever and we need those messages to keep us strong in the journey…when we cannot be together…for what ever reason…

I started Fairhaven’s Well thinking about the old well head at my dad’s old church Fairhavens Baptist. I realized I couldn’t take the people back to the old church, but I revive the church ministry and could take the church to the people thru music in person and social media online..

The question often comes up “ What would it take to get you to sing at our church or meeting?” The short answer is just ask. Years ago I was confronted by my mother when I was about 20. I was talking about how to handle the finances of a ministry. My mother fired a sentence to me that I remember to this day.. She said and I quote “The day you start charging people is the day I hope God jerks your talent”

So, Whether its a cd, usb, dvd, or personal appearance I will never charge for it. If you feel that God has moved on you to help support this ministry then that is different. Please consider I cannot do what I am doing alone. Without the help of people who identify with this type of evangelism I will not be able to last very long. For those of you that have helped me I will forever be grateful to you for making it possible to come this far and enable me to witness and share thru music. If you would also share this site with your friends, it would help the cause of evangelism and by doing that you will take a part, by joining in what we are doing.

Thank you for your interest and support, in all you do for the cause of Christian music evangelism.

A Little Bit About Fairhavens Well Publishing

Posted on September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 by Bruce Sechrest

CROSSROADS TEAM JOINS WITH FAIRHAVENS WELL PUBLISHING AND BRUCE SECHREST

Back Row: David Johnson, Tony Creasman, Jeff Collins, Tyler Sechrest, Patrick Case

Front Row: Bruce Sechrest Founder of Fairhavens Well Publishing. Scott Barnette

Fairhavens Well is a non-profit publishing company that was formed to be an evangelistic music outreach ministry to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ thru music ministry.

The music on this site is a compilation of several people…In the beginning it was just me.. then I met Patrick Case.. Patrick works for Eastwood Studios in Flat Rock, NC and has a non profit group called Soul Vision Ministries.

He agreed to help me get this project started. So for about six months we sat up at night planning how we would do this project one song at a time. Most of the time I would sing into my cell phone and then he would get the idea of how it would go and so my arrangements were born with Patrick in the middle of the night 400 miles apart on the phone..I will be forever grateful to Patrick for his patience with me trying to get across an idea that I had in my head. Patrick is a wonderful, anointed person, musician, writer, and performer. Without his help in the beginning, this project would have never got off the ground.

Then came the day that we booked studio time at Crossroads studio in Arden NC… There is where I met Scott Barnett, Van Atkins. Tony Creasman, David Johnson, and Jeff Collins… Jeff took our arrangements and quite frankly breathed new life into them.. We recorded for two days while God visited with us and made music that could be used on any stage in America. I felt like I had been handed a fist full of diamonds.

Tyler Sechrest publisher and music composer

I tried to keep up that day but was so overwhelmed with what they did that I just could hardly speak, must less sing…So I brought home the most beautiful tracks to sing with that I have ever had.,..With the help of my son Tyler Sechrest we went to his studio and hammered away to learn how I wanted to sing the songs… Then I took the work to Blake Osborn at Osborn Sound to work on how to sing in a digital studio…

Later we sent the tracks to Milford Smith to add orchestration to the project… I remember the day it came back and i just sat and listened. I felt like it was Christmas for me. Just to hear the sounds that reached to me, the message in the songs.. the presentation of the gift of music to a person who is really a nobody…. My point is that I did not feel like i deserved this music, even though I started it , the project had all of a sudden just grown to something I never dreamed it would be.

So, I began to sing these song as they had been played… each one to burn into my heart and try to learn to communicate the message with all that was in me…

Almost two years later, I finally was ready to sing the songs and that is when I met with Heather and Blake Bennett… of Millcreek Productions and I told them that I needed help with finishing this project and they agreed to help me realize this project to its finish so it could be shared.. Heather and her sisters,Kim Ruppe Sheffield, Heather Ruppe Bennett, Valerie Ruppe Medkiff have a group called the Sisters (www.sistersmusic.org ) So on this project they joined with me to make the finest gospel albums I have ever done… So to finish off all of the parts in the album, Blake Bennett with Millcreek Productions doing the final mixing and mastering. He also sent the project to Jeremy Metkiff for the final electric guitar parts. Then to pull all the music together Blake worked his magic and made the sound that you hear today.

Now came the hard parts, we had to have branding logos and art work made for each song and so we sent it all off to Mikel Saint. In his studio Masterzgd , he designed artwork for each song and so its included for you to see when you view each song… Since we are promoting this work on Social Media we are using each artboard to promote the music.. Mikel tried to portray the music thru his custom art designs as best he could so that it would draw interest when people would see it on the internet…Each art board was commissioned and designed exclusively for us, by him, for each song.

Then came the formation of the non profit of Fairhavens Well, a spin off of a church my father started in 1970, Fairhavens Baptist Church. Fairhavens Well was developed to become a BMI Publisher so that we could share christian music on a social media platform around the world.

(.It is important to note that we have a non profit status that allows us to broadcast music written by others on our site. Our Worship Cast License allows us to perform music written by others and recorded by us to be broadcast live in church services with the royalties being paid as it is performed live. Coverage is also made to stream live on the internet in a church service.)

As time went by we also added, Simple Give, a non profit contribution processing service, partnered with us to receive and document donations…the music equipment company, establishing the Corporate office headquarters in North Carolina, now Wilson Printing USA, Julie Hale, Kelsi Hale and Mason Hale to design the website and handle the cd design and then all the other printing and social media needs.

Max Sechrest, my son as well, has been there for me all along with his camera and knowledge of video production and website design… His company the The Work of Max has helped me communicate on this website all the pictures and some of the videos you will see..

Now as the end of the project is nearing its finish, the video part is forming almost out of nowhere another son, Benjamin Sechrest is heading up that department. He has developed a way to make the music make its own designs and record them to make a video of music and color that is very different from anything that has been made on any gospel project that I know about. These images will be available on dvd to use on a computer or in a venue on big screens as the music is performed.. Andrae Crouch said he saw music in colors, it’s called synesthesia, you can go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia to find out all about it. Most people do not have the ability to see music this way, so Ben has found a way to create that by taking a creative way of taking this recording and making a computer show you and example of it… So each song makes its own Synesthesia image from its music and its video is combined with the Artwork of Micheal Saint and Benjamin to form its unique movie…I suppose I should say that while i have never seen music in color before i do have a condition called Auditory-tactile synesthesia which make me feel music .. so It’s my hope we have put everything into this project that will be what God wants us to tell you, every how He wants you to experience Him. The old preacher called it the “distilled essence of God’s word” (Impressed? I thought so!)

As you can see, it started with one and now there are many working for the same goal to tell the story… so, If you are reading this, you have joined the story…I want to tell it all on here but there are just too many things to say. I am grateful you will read all of this and just understand how God is growing this project still for His glory, when all it was to start was as Patrick Case once said, “one old man making a cd to share with his friends”

We Ask You Join with Fairhavens Well and Share this Work With Your Friends

Who Is Bruce Sechrest?

Posted on September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 by Bruce Sechrest

Bruce Sechrest developed his musical interest over 65 years ago in High Point, North Carolina where he had been born and raised. He grew up in a Christian household where his father had been a Baptist minister pastor for over 50 years which led to his influence into music evangelism. Early on, Bruce joined both the high school chorus and the band to help advance his training in basic music composition and choral direction which eventually led to the production of his first vinyl music project in 1976.

From 1980-2000, Sechrest devoted his passion to the gospel music ministry by teaching and directing for church choirs and evangelical concerts, which would serve as the foundation to his modern day evangelical music thrust almost 20 years later.

In 2015, years after a multi-year hiatus, he returns to North Carolina to the studio, to take on modern Christian music evangelism with new engineering and a contemporary sound produced by Crossroads Music in Arden, North Carolina. In addition, he founded the nonprofit music publishing company, Fairhavens Well to house his publishing efforts and allow others to come alongside and participate in his evangelical effort. This non-profit publishing company was established and named after his father’s church that was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only the wellhead, showing where it used to stand. Using the concept of water, he plans to publish music to promote his music and evangelical message. This return to music has sparked a newfound passion under his legacy to music. He simply wants to create Christian music with four goals: movement, memories, message, and evangelism. Sechrest’s legacy in the Christian community has not gone unnoticed.

New plans are underway to accommodate new releases of music as this article is being written.