Israel Houghton

I feel like when I get on stage, I want to really open up a way to God for people as opposed to having them look at me.

The way people come to church every week, know the songs and be hurting on the inside. We miss the moment to really encounter God... bring healing.

It's torment to look in the mirror and not recognize the man in the reflection. How amazing would it be to love someone through their honest and ugly moments?! It takes a journey to work off the mask to become authentic and whole.

The risk of being honest can lead to people ostracizing you. It's easier to cling to the persona, the stage, the reputation that people want to see.

Regardless of your belief, regardless of your religious affiliation, I don't care if you're an atheist, an agnostic, I don't care. We could all use good news.

Gospel in its definition is good news.

I don't leave home to go help other people live if I'm not modeling that in our home setting.

I have a lot of things that I wish I had done differently given the opportunity to redo it but that would have changed everything, and I am very content with where I am today.

I love being a worship leader, but because I'm also a record company owner, a publishing company owner and a brand developer, I have an economic and a fiscal responsibility as well.

I'm a fan of music documentaries and I always love seeing what goes on behind the scenes. In kind of the new era of record companies and record releases and that sort of thing, there has to be way more content for the audience.

I was doing worship as a lifestyle before it was a section at the bookstore.

My first real experience with worship, I was 19. I was playing drums in the church band at a church in Phoenix, and they asked me to be the worship leader.

But in my weakness, my God is strong. When I was reckless, His reckless love chased me down and brought healing that I never experienced.

My mother is white. My biological father is black. When my mother was 17, she got pregnant. They lived in Waterloo, Iowa, which at the time in 1971 was a very segregated society.

As a worship leader, I feel this sort of responsibility to help add to the soundtrack of people's day.

We're always trying to elevate the platform of Christian and gospel music, church music, worship music and not just elevate it to our comfortable corner of the earth that we maintain an international and global mindset for what we're doing.

I believe that if I don't take care of my family as a great leader and husband and father, I could have all kinds of accolades and awards and a big mantle up there or something with a bunch of statuettes, but if my children don't respect me, if I haven't been a good husband, then that's all a joke to me.

Honesty is the door to finding a love that brings an identity found only in Christ.

I met Adrienne Bailon a bit over two years ago, we worked together and became friends. Our circles connected and we remained good friends. From a friendship, as two single adults we have very recently begun to explore a dating relationship.