Hillsong Church

Hillsong Church, with a congregation of over 15,000 on an average weekend, is likely the largest church in Australia. Its main site is located in the northwest of Sydney, in Norwest Business Park (near Castle Hill, NSW), 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 July 5-7 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.

The Hillsong Church has developed congregations in London, Kiev and in 27 locations in Africa.

Pastor Brian Houston has preached what he calls the Prosperity gospel as advanced in his book You Need More Money. This has proved to be attractive to many people in the outer suburbs of Australian cities and regional areas.

The move to teach Word-faith theology 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 headquarters and Treasurer Peter Costello spoke at its annual conference in July 2004.

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 runs the Hillsong Church's drug and alcohol outreach service was preselected as the Liberal Party candidate for Greenway in the Australian Federal election 2004

Music

Hillsong Church has released a number of CD's which have sold well. For All You've Done released in July 2004 actually debuted at #1 on the Australian album chart. It contains 15 songs recorded live at the Sydney Entertainment Centre by Darlene Zschech and the Hillsong Team. This is the first time an album of Christian Contemporary music has topped the album charts in Australia.

There was some controversy about this outcome as almost all of the albums were sold at Hillsong's annual conference held in early July. The Australian Record Industry Association ARIA has defended the outcome noting that the album sold more copies than any other record on sale in Australia that week. Pop singer and former Australian Idol contestant Paulini Curuenavuli was also at the conference promoting her #2 hit single "Angel Eyes" from her album One Determined Heart.

For All You've Done is the 13th live worship album released by Hillsong. The previous 12 have been certified gold in Australia and the albums have also sold well in Christian contemporary markets overseas. The previous two albums also debuted in the top five of the ARIA charts due to the capacity of the church to ensure good first week sales.

Hillsong Church's pre-eminence in Christian praise and worship music stems from the inauguration of the Hillsong Conference in the late 1980s and the first publication of choruses written by Hills CLC members, notably Geoff Bullock, whose writing dominated Hillsong music publishing until the mid 1990s. Their first live worship CD The Power Of Your Love was released in 1992. Since then, CDs have been produced in a number of series, or themes, as well as compilations and re-releases.

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. [1]

Prosperity Teaching, or Word-faith theology, is one of the hallmarks of the church's teaching. Houston's book You Need More Money 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. Many Christians, including those from the Assemblies of God in Australia, oppose this sort of teaching as being unbiblical and heterodox.

Moral Failures of some of the church's high-profile staff have led many to question the inner motives of those in charge. These include:

Pat Mesiti - the church's youth 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. [2]
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. [3] Some of Bullock's comments about his time at the church also seem to indicate that he may not have even been a Christian while he was ministering there. [4] Darlene Zschech's 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. [5]

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