Today I had the privilege of attending the first day of the IBSA Worship Leader’s Retreat in Decatur, Illinois. I wasn’t able to attend the conference last year due to scheduling conflicts but made the commitment to attend this year. I am extremely happy that I chose to attend. God has really used fellow Worship Pastors, Senior Pastors and other Worship Leaders to inspire me and affirm the direction I have been sensing God leading me for over a year.
I have always felt God’s guidance into relational environments within my ministry. Even in my current position as Worship Pastor at Heartland Baptist Church I have stressed building intentional relationships. Mentoring is key in the life of every believer and God used many leaders today to affirm His working in my life. I am so grateful for the way God assures us of our calling and our vision of ministry. There were many other topics and ideas that God has affirmed for me this weekend too. I will be blogging about them more in the coming days/week. Some of those ideas surround the idea that as believers we are a royal priesthood. This means we are all priests and it is our job to help others get to the throne room, the foot of the cross, heaven. Not only are we priests but kings too. Jennie Lee Riddle helped me give me the words to explain what I’ve been trying to share with the worship team/choir at Heartland for the last three years. Our priestly responsibilities are how we relate vertically (man to God) and our kingly duties are how we relate horizontally (man to man).
Jennie also shared the thought process behind writing worship songs for today’s church. For too long we have been writing songs that are void of Biblical truths. Actually, many of the songs we sing in corporate worship today are songs that do have elements of truth in them but fail to the deeper level that the Bride of Christ (the church) needs to have on their lips and in the hearts. This will be another blog topic for me.
Lynette and I have felt and watched God make an amazing connection with Jennie and look forward to the many things that we will learn from her in the future. I have been so inspired and encouraged this weekend and we still have a few more conference sessions to attend on Saturday morning. I look forward to sharing more about this with you in future posts. God bless you all as you continue to follow His lead.
Reaching the world for Jesus, one person at a time…
Pastor Isaac
Hallock Family Ministries 
I am SO glad you had the opportunity to go. I hoped you would find both inspiration and verification and it looks like that happened. I like that you have been stressing leading people to worship over just learning the music and singing well. Of course we have to practice and put forth our best – our Savior deserves nothing less – but as you have said many times, you can’t lead someone else to a place you haven’t been.
When I was in high school, we went on a couple summer singing mission trips. Things were going very well and we got sort of caught up in just how good we were. We were in a small church and the first several rows were full of teenagers. It was the largest group of youth we had sung for. Unfortunately, when we started singing, we realized something was seriously wrong – something was missing. As the first half drew to a close, we were all truly broken. We realized we had not invited God to what was truly only a perfornance. When the intermission was called, no one said a word, we just walked outside to stand on the sidewalk. No one said, hey, let’s fix this, we just all went out together. We fell into what must have looked like a big football huddled in tears and prayers. The second half had no resemblance to the first. Lives were changed that day – several of those teens accepted Christ and most of us never looked at singing in quite the same way again.
I told Lynette at the end of the last Bible Study that I felt on a precipice – take a step back and fall or step out and fly. I feel God is about to do something and it is time to get ready.
I look forward to the rest of the story. Hang in there! God is amazing and He has amazing plans for you.
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Thanks, Isaac! I’ve been missing your thoughts on this blog.
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Thank you RosaLee, I truly am flattered that you check to see if I’ve blogged anything new. I do aim to be better about making more frequent and regular blogs. God has definitely given me plenty of things to share so I should have plenty of material. It’s just making the time to get it accomplished. Thanks again and hope to see you in the morning for corporate worship.
Reaching the world for Jesus, one person at a time…
Isaac Hallock Worship Pastor Heartland Baptist Church worship@heartlandbc.net (618) 462-1276, office (618) 798-1088, cell
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