Excerpts: Article from Kernersville News, Thursday, August 23, 2001
A full-time ministry/
Barry McGee has turned what started as a part in the annual Easter Production at his home church into a full-time ministry
By Wendy Freeman Davis
Lifestyles Editor
Barry McGee could be called the 'Man of a Thousand Faces." Well, not quite a thousand, but area churches know McGee from the nine characters he portrays as part of a growing Christian outreach ministry.
There's David and Goliath, Saul, Noah, John on the Isle of Patmos and Jonah, all of whom are taken directly from the Scriptures. But there are also McGee's more contemporary faces, ones that many of us may recognize in friends, family, acquaintances and throughout life in general.
Harvey Garvey Tater, probably McGee's most popular character, is based on someone with which many of us can identify in this part of the country: a good old down home farmer. In actuality, McGee said the character is based on a mixture of people he knew while growing up in the small farming community of Stokesdale, NC, including his own family members.
'I grew up in Stokesdale, NC," McGee explained, 'and I brought a lot of people I grew up with into this character."
After introducing Harvey Garvey Tater to church audiences, McGee said the reaction was amazing.
'They could relate to this character and it just took off. People started telling me he reminded them of someone they knew."
McGee first developed a fancy for donning different characters after landing the lead role in First Assembly of God's annual Easter production. Even after the play was completed, he found that he didn't just want to portray one particular character once a year; McGee wanted to do it on a full-time basis.
'I realized this is what I want to do," McGee recalled. So, he began developing Biblical characters and staging performances.
'They were pretty serious characters," McGee said. The seriousness, however, was reflected in the reactions of audiences.
He began to notice that while people complimented his portrayals, there just wasn't much animation and excitement coming from audience members during the performances.
'I wanted to make people enjoy church," McGee continued, 'so I came up with the comedy part of it."
That's when he introduced his audiences to Harvey and the people loved it. From there, McGee's ministry began to take on a life of its own, growing each year.
'The Lord opened up a door," McGee said of what adding Harvey to his repertoire did for his ministry, and McGee wholeheartedly stepped through.
Since then he added the characters of Johnny Rock, an aging rock star who has been saved and who is most popular with the older members of McGee's audiences.
'The comedy opened up a whole different realm," McGee said. 'It dropped the barriers. Once the defenses were down, then I could come back with the Biblical characters."
McGee has even taken his characters onto the national stage. He has been an opening act for country singer Ricky Scaggs and portrayed John on the Isle of Patmos off the White House lawn during a Christian rally at the time former President Bill Clinton was undergoing impeachment proceedings. Another phase of his ministry has included serving as a chaplain for NHRA (National Hot Rod Association), NASCAR and for crew members of RCR (Richard Childress Racing). 'That's another, bigger world," McGee said of that part of his ministry.
As his ministry expanded, McGee found that he particularly enjoyed working with youth. Three or four years after beginning his full-time, character-based ministry in 1993, McGee formed McGee Related Productions, an endeavor that has helped countless numbers of the area's youngest of talents develop their skills as performers and give them a platform to showcase their gifts. What McGee does is help young artists, whether they're musicians or vocalists, get started. Using studios in Mt. Airy, Madison and Winston-Salem, NC, he helps them through the recording and video process. McGee, however, refrains from taking all the credit in whatever success' his young protigis may have. 'I find the materials and the Lord builds it," McGee said.
As has been the case with McGee's ministries, one ministry seemingly springing from another and so on, McGee was first introduced to Prison Fellowship through his racing associations. 'I met a guy" said McGee, which led him to meet Richard Payne, Director of Operation Starting Line, a combination of ministries that pool their energies. McGee was invited to become one of the organization's platform artists.
'We do shows for inmates," said McGee, 'typically comedy."
There are five members to a team, McGee continued, that travel across the United States, performing usually in prison yards. So far this year, McGee has performed in Phoenix, AZ and Richmond, VA and this month was scheduled to travel to Mississippi and Louisiana. A normal year performing with Prison Fellowship, said McGee, might include five to seven campaigns a year. 'There's a strong church within the prison system," McGee said.
'It's all a big puzzle," McGee said of wide variety of areas his ministry has been involved with over the years. From the looks of it, the puzzle is an ongoing piece of work, and although McGee isn't always sure at first why he is pulled in so many different directions, he isn't one to question the one leading him.
'When I see the Lord in something, even if I don't understand it, I just move toward it," McGee. Would that we were all as dedicated and devoted as Barry McGee.
