In this interview, Israel shares more about his family, his vision for New Breed and where his ministry is heading.
The "Hello Love Tour' is scheduled for 35 cities, which is very busy. How do you maintain your intimacy with God while on tour and how does that also balance with your wife and family?
Well, I’ve been very fortunate to have my family out on the road with me and that’s made a sizable difference. As a group, every day we’re having a time of devotion, a time of Bible study, a time of conversation around the word of God, a time of prayer, a time of worship off the stage ...
And I don’t boast about much of anything, but I will boast of the heart of this team and that is they all have that in common that they would rather be in the presence of God whether it’s on the stage or off the stage. What you see on stage is about 10 per cent of what New Breed is all about [and] the other 90 per cent is about walking out what we sing about. It’s about working acts of justice all over the world and social justice, that sort of thing, and that to us is why we get to get on stage to basically raise awareness, again, of the church’s role and the Christians’ role in making a change in the world that we live in.
How much involvement do your wife and family have in your music?
Well, you know Meleasa, my wife of nearly 15 years now is very active within the team, very active, certainly with the females in the group. And we have three kids and we have three specific legs on this tour - so we’ve brought a different child on each leg. On the one we’re on right now our 12 year old daughter is out with us. So she gets up at the end of the set and dances with the team a little bit and she has fun being a part. And to me, my wife ministers to me, just by being with me. She takes that role very seriously and I don’t like being away from my family at all.
You've ministered in South Africa, how was your worship experience different from that in America?
I would break that down to a very simple answer. I think in America, we as a church, we have a lot of options, you know. "I can do this, I can do that. Our church has a great programme but that church over there has even greater programmes and this and that."
So we sort of have options and yet when I go to South Africa and Africa it’s like: "I don’t care who has the mic and I don’t care who’s preaching and I don’t care what the lights look like and I don’t care if the sound is great or not. I want to be with God."
