So I attended an amazing conference this past week at Christian Faith Center which is under the direction of Pastor's Casey & Wendy Treat. I am going to take the next few days and unpack all that I learned from this conference. But for now I am going to share what I learned from a breakout session from Israel Houghton. But first I want to help everyone with the pronunciation of Israel's name... I am a visual learner so let me help you visually...
------Israel------ --------Hoe-------- -------- Ton----------
There, I hope this helps. Let's continue!
Israel talked about Revelation 2:4. I love the Amplified Version so I will share from that, and it says. "But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love]. This is something that we as leaders have to cling tight onto and let this burden us. It is easy to begin to be all about the Lord's work and forget to be about the Lord himself instead of his work. Israel shared a lot of his testimony which was encouraging to hear, but the main thing I remembered was that when he first begin to lead worship when he was 19 years old he would sit with his piano in his kitchen and sing to the Lord in worship on his own. No agenda. Completely spontaneous! Then as he got more and more skilled he relied more on his own talents and drew strength from his own ability than from the times of worship in the kitchen. We have to first be worshippers in the kitchen before we are worshippers on the stage!!! For many of us we feel like the kitchen is going backwards. But really the kitchen is what will catapult our gifting and worship forwards. GOD MAY WE NEVER FORGET THE KITCHEN OR OUR FIRST LOVE! WHEN IT WAS ABOUT YOU! WHEN IT WAS A GET TO AND NOT A HAVE TO! Then Israel reminded us of Romans 15:2 in The Message Translation where is says, "Strength is for service, not status." GOD GIVE US STRENGTH TO SERVE YOU NOT FOR STATUS! Israel said that Him and the New Breed have a mission statement that is based on their Three G's which is, Generosity, Graciousness, and Gratitude.
Those are just some good nuggets I learned from Israel at Vision 2010. Oh yeah... and the concert was amazing that night at as well!!!
Don't ever stop falling in love and pursuing your first love!!!
Israel Houghton @ Vision 2010 ~ Christian Faith Center from Jason Eaton on Vimeo.
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