Hillsong Church, with a congregation of over 15,000 on an average weekend, is likely the largest Christianity church in Australia. Off-shoots include Hillsong-London and Hillsong-Kiev. The Australian main site is located in the north-west of Sydney, in Norwest Business Park (near Castle Hill, New South Wales), with a smaller site in the CBD. Established by Pastors Brian Houston and Bobbie Houston, it is a member of the Assemblies of God congregation. A new 3500-seat convention centre at its main site was opened on October 19, 2002, by John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia.
History
Brian and Bobbie Houston moved from New Zealand in 1978 and joined the Sydney Christian Life Centre. In August 1983, they formed the Hills Christian Life Centre with an initial congregation of 45. As the music ministry of the church developed, an annual conference called The Hillsong Conference was created to teach and train Christian musicians. In the early 1990s, Praise and Worship CDs from Hills Christian Life Centre were released in Australia and internationally. This raised the profile of the church. Eventually the church realised that the name "Hillsong" was more well-known than Hills Christian Life Centre. The church was then renamed Hillsong Church in the late 1990s.
Current operations
The Hillsong Church has spearheaded the growth of the Pentecostal Church in Australia, which is the fastest growing Christian denomination in Australia. The Hillsong Church has a number of associated operations including:
the annual Hillsong Conference, which 16,500 people attended at the Sydney Superdome on 5 July-7 in 2004;
the Colour Your World Women's Conference;
the Hillsong Men's Conference;
the Hillsong International Leadership College which trains aspiring Assembly of God ministers and lay leaders from around the world. An A-Z listing of all the services Hillsong Church provides is available here http://www.hillsong.com/church/bin/view.pl?sitename=church&page=azdirectory . The Hillsong Church has developed congregations in London, Kiev and in 27 locations in Africa. Meeting in theatres, Starbucks, homes and other locations, the London branch utilises effects and technology to attract people from all ages. At the end of 2004, Hillsong London ended their seven services a weekend in the Mermaid theatre, which seats approximately 600. As of 9 January 2005, the church holds only three services on a Sunday, but in a larger venue, the Dominion Theatre, which can hold over 2000 people. The move to teach Word of faith has meant that the church is now more Charismatic than Pentecostal in its theology.
Political influence
Due to the large number of people in its congregations and other Pentecostal churches, the Hillsong Church has attracted support from high profile politicians especially in the Liberal Party of Australia. Prime Minister John Howard opened its Baulkman Hills campus and Treasurer Peter Costello spoke at its annual conference in July 2004. However Opposition Leader Mark Latham declined Hillsong's invitation to the annual 2004 conference. [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/18/1097951626689.html?from=storylhs&oneclick=true] Part of this access to high level Federal politicians can be sheeted home to the fact that the former New South Wales Liberal Party state director Scott Morrison (to November 2004) and now chief executive of Tourism Australia is a prominent member of Hillsong Church. The Church also attracts a large number of aspirational voters from marginal seats in the west of Sydney such as Lindsay, Macquarie and Greenway. Louise Markus who ran the Hillsong Church's drug and alcohol outreach service in Blacktown was preselected as the Liberal Party candidate for Greenway in the Australian legislative election, 2004 and was elected to the House of Representatives beating the Australian Labor Party and twelve other candidates with a two party preferred swing of 3.7%. Subsequent to the election accusations were made in the NSW State Parliament that Mrs Markus's campaign had inappropriately placed undue emphasis on the Muslim background of her chief opponent. The candidates for both the Christian Democratic Party (Australia) and Family First Party parties in Greenway recorded lower percentages of votes than their parties' candidates in comparable seats. Publically, however, the church has distanced itself from advocating certain political groups and parties, including the influential Family First party: :One thing we are not is a political movement... The Assemblies of God in Australia does not have a political vision and we don't have a political agenda. I think people need to understand the difference between the church being very involved in politics and individual Christians being involved in politics. There is a big difference. (Brian Houston) [http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/05/03/1115092503070.html]
Music
See main article: Hillsong Music Hillsong's music has become well-known internationally. Songs such as "Power of Your Love" by Geoff Bullock and "Shout to the Lord" by Darlene Zschech have become popular and are sung throughout churches world-wide. Hillsong have released over 40 albums since 1992, many of them achieving gold status in Australia. Their 2004 live praise and worship album For All You've Done reached #1 in the secular Australian album charts.
Controversies
Since Hillsong is one of Australia's largest and most successful churches, it naturally has come under scrutiny over the years and a number of controversies have arisen. Some specific concerns, namely the church's political stance and use of donated funds for its ministries, are addressed on their http://www.hillsong.com/church/bin/view.pl?sitename=church&page=aap&showmedia=true . Prosperity Teaching, or Word-faith theology, is one of the hallmarks of the church's teaching. Houston's book You Need More Money (Book) is a good example of this. Essentially the theology teaches that God wants his people wealthy and prosperous, and has given us the ability to "unleash" this power from within us. Hillsong believes God wants us to be prosperous so we can be a blessing and increase the kingdom of God on earth. Many Christians, including those from the Assemblies of God in Australia, oppose this sort of teaching as being unbiblical and heterodox. Hillsong have defended this book claiming is has been misrepresented. The following quote from Bobbie Houston in 2002 is an expression of this prosperity teaching: :Friends, God wants to bless you. He wants to open the windows of heaven over you and he wants cause everything you do to prosper. Don't deny Him that pleasure. Delight... and He will give you the desires of your heart. Seek... and you shall find. Honour... and blessing will follow.[http://www.christian-witness.org/aog/IMGhill.html#isee] Moral Failures of some of the church's high-profile staff have led many to question the inner motives of those in charge. Although this occurs in every denomination and cannot be defended. These include: :
Pat Mesiti - a pastor and Youth Alive creator. Admitted to adultery in 2002 and was stood down temporarily by Houston until he could be "restored". At the time he was also the National Director of Australian Christian Churches (a loose grouping of Australian Pentecostal and Charismatic churches) but was stood down. [http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/fridaynews/fridaynews020927.html] :
Geoff Bullock - The church's former "Worship Pastor" who was the "poster boy" of the church's influential worship music. After leaving the church his marriage fell apart and he married an "old friend" soon after. Allegations of adultery were made but Bullock has explicitly denied these. http://www.reality.org.nz/articles/27/27-benge.asp] Darlene Zschech success as the church's worship pastor can be directly linked to Bullock leaving. :
Frank Houston - Brian's father. Stood down from ministry after sexual misconduct was revealed dating back to the 1970s in New Zealand. This includes allegations of sexual abuse against a teenage boy. Frank Houston died on November 8, 2004, aged 82. [http://www.christian-witness.org/aog/pf_plp.html]
See also
Charismatics
Criticisms of Pentecostal and Charismatic belief
Transformationalism
External links
http://www.hillsong.com/ http://www.hillsong.co.uk/ http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1150747.htm http://www.christian-witness.org/aog/hillsong1.html http://www.hillsong.com/church/bin/view.pl?sitename=church&page=aap&showmedia=true
