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THE HILLSONG CHURCH: 'Cult' Status, Corruption, Homophobia & Exorcism

This article examines the methods and ethics of Hillsong

“Don't give someone else the power over your financial freedom” …

“Church involvement is still the best way to maximise your gifts & fulfill your dreams!” ~ Brian Houston

Hillsong – A Brief History

Brian [56] and Bobbie Houston emigrated from New Zealand to Australia in 1978. They joined the Sydney Christian Life Centre in Darlinghurst (Sydney), where Brian's father Frank Houston was a minister. Prior to his post in Australia, Frank Houston was a general superintendent for New Zealand Assemblies of God. Formerly known as Hills Christian Life Centre, Hillsong had just 45 parishioners in 1983 – by 1987, the congregation boasted 900 parish members. Music became a powerful marketing tool for Hills Christian Life Centre and the motivation behind The Hillsong Conference, an annual event that has since educated and trained hundreds of Christian musicians – 25,000 people attended The Hillsong Conference in Sydney this year. HCLC record company's release of their praise and worship CDs, in the early 1990s, brought the church recognition and fame, from all over the world. Hillsong became the catch phrase so to speak and the decision was made to change the name from Hills Christian Life Centre to Hillsong Church. The church has its own bible school [900 students], Hillsong International Leadership College, which is where several Christian conferences are held each year, including The Hillsong Conference. In the year 2000 or thereabouts, Sydney Christian Life Centre (the mother church) merged with Hillsong Church. Today, Hillsong church has over 20,000 parishioners attending their services every week.

Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing segment of Christianity in Australia and the world.

More than 200,000 Australians attend Pentecostal churches each week, making it Australia's second-biggest church, after the Catholic Church.

Early Pentecostalism emerged at the beginning of the 20th century. It had a revival in the 1970s during the so-called charismatic renewal.

Most Pentecostals believe in exorcism, speaking in tongues, faith healing and, in general, they seek supernatural experiences. Many of the pastors of Pentecostal churches make decisions based on visions from God.

Prosperity theology is practised by larger Pentecostal churches, including Hillsong, Christian City Church and Paradise. This promotes the idea that wealth and worldly success are signs of God's favour.

Most Pentecostal churches are cash rich and expect members to tithe 10% of their pre-tax income. They also take weekly donations. Most services pass the plate three times and accept credit cards. An armoured truck arrives at Hillsong each Monday morning for the weekend takings, usually more than $300,000.

There are few barriers to entry to set up a Pentecostal church because there is no overarching authority, in the way the Vatican is the headquarters of the Catholic Church. Every four days a new Pentecostal church is planted in Australia. Source: Adele Ferguson, "God's Millionaires"

God's Business

What is a cult?

"A cult is a group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control (e.g., isolation from former friends and family, debilitation, use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individuality or critical judgment, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of leaving it, etc.) designed to advance the goals of the group's leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community." ~ Louis J. West & Michael D. Langone, American psychologists

Is Hillsong Exploiting Tax Exemptions?

Hillsong is an Australian Pentecostal mega-church that uses a not-for-profit company, Leadership Ministries Inc (LMI), to fund its church services and charitable work. Leadership Ministries Inc and other tax-free entities in the Hillsong organisation have spent their earnings on housing, cars, accommodation and extensive overseas travel; these expenses do not incur income tax or fringe-benefits because of LMI's tax-exempt status. They do not have to lodge a tax return with the Australian Taxation office, and they do not have to disclose how they make their money – it would seem that Brian is not morally or legally answerable to anyone. Hillsong and its subsidiary companies are worth over $50 million. When the global financial crisis hit in 2008, Hillsong was as safe as houses (no pun intended) and collected over $17 million in 'tithes' – most of it cash. Over the past ten years, Hillsong is said to have received $2 million dollars in grants, yet their financial statements show no accounting for these payments. The New South Wales Government denied a $414,000 grant to an Aboriginal community, when it found that the money was being used to pay Hillsong employee salaries. LMI, the cash cow of Hillsong, can pay its employees $1 million a year of expenses tax-free. As per the legislation referring to remuneration under the Tax Act, there is no cap on the amount of expenses churches can pay ministers of religion, before fringe-benefits tax is ordinarily incurred. Any other not-for-profit institutions, e.g. hospitals, are able to pay employees expenses to a maximum of $9095 per person a year before fringe-benefits tax is incurred. If Hillsong wants to pay all Brian Houston's salary in fringe benefits they can legally do so – he would pay little if any tax. In 2008, Hillsong spent $4.6 million on “missions and overseas aid” and $20.7 million on “church services”. Hillsong makes approximately $9 million in tax-free royalties annually.

credits to : http://www.i-zeen.com/articles/THE-HILLSONG-CHURCH-Cult-Status-Corruption-Homophobia-Exorcism

Apologetics Hillsong

Note to those who might be offended by the negativity in this article: we post negative and positive articles on any conceivable topic, in the interests of mature thinking. We’re not singling out Hillsong/the Houstons for any special treatment. I share some of the reservations about Hillsong in this article, but I also believe they’re soing some fantastic things too. So please, no defensive emails OK?



Shalom!



Rowland Croucher



—-



The Lord’s profits



January 30 2003







The music is catchy, the mood euphoric and the message perfect for a material age: believe in God and you’ll be rewarded in this life as well as the next. Greg Bearup reports.



A sexy young Christian, a walkie-talkie clipped to her hipsters, greets us on our walk from the car park. “Hiya, howya doin’?” she says, with a flick of her mane and a smile. “Welcome to God’s house – what an awesome day!” She points us in the direction of God’s pad, a massive Olympic-style stadium up on the hill, and returns to conducting traffic with a fluoro stick.



All around, beaming young folk (and they are mainly young) are decked out in their coolest threads – no Amish-skirted Christians here. Hundreds walk with us, and beneath the awnings and in the foyer of the building – all tubular steel and glass – thousands are milling excitedly. By the end of the weekend, almost 12,000 people will have made this walk. Once inside, the first thing the faithful strike is not a crucifix or stained-glass window (the building is devoid of Christian symbolism), but a vast bookshop, of sleek frosted glass and wood, where dozens wait by the till for books and tapes and CDs – or, as they like to call them here at Hillsong Church, “Christian resources” – from around the world. Most prominent, and with almost half the shop to themselves, are the titles by Brian Houston and his wife Bobbie, Hillsong’s senior pastors.



As 6pm approaches, the crowd spills into the church, a massive 3500-seat auditorium in Sydney’s Baulkham Hills. Australia’s newest, wealthiest and largest single church, it holds almost twice as many people as that city’s St Mary’s Cathedral, its closest competitor (which has total weekend attendances of fewer than 2000). They are crowds no one can afford to ignore and, the day after he returned from visiting the scene of the Bali bombings in October, Prime Minister Howard put aside his war on terror to open this house of worship.



Today a 12-piece band with five back-up singers and a choir of 50-odd youngsters literally bounce into action. Behind them, three massive screens hang from the walls – the middle one morphs through different shades of red and blue, only the message, “Glory to God”, remaining constant. The momentum builds with the tempo of the band as the packed stadium sings along to the words flashed up on the screens, swaying in a one-armed, open-palm salute to the band, to the Lord.



After 20 minutes, the warm-up pastor takes to the stage, chiming in with the band – “Come on, church, you can groove” – and then segues into his spiel. Our God, he says, is a God who delivers miracles, a totally awesome God. He rattles off stories, true stories, from this very congregation, of cancers cured, of cripples healed, of sinners saved. Why, the Lord even saw his way to finding $4000 for one student to pay his fees at the Hillsong Bible college. The congregation hoot and clap; a young fellow beside me has his eyes closed and as each miracle is proclaimed he shouts, “Amen, man. Awesome.”



But you, too, should honour the Lord, the pastor tells his flock, and He will deliver these miracles, because the Bible says so, right here in Proverbs, chapter 3, which says that “if you honour the Lord with your possessions, and with the fruits of your increase, your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine”. He makes the point numerous times, lets it sink in, then informs the throng that credit card facilities are available, and cheques should be made out to Hillsong. “Amen,” shouts the pastor, thumping the air with his fists. “Amen, let’s pass those buckets along.”



And the faithful oblige – last year they filled the Hillsong buckets to the tune of $10 million. The church’s music arm also bought in a tidy tax-free $8 million, and one of its albums, Blessed, debuted at No4 in the pop charts, above Shakira, and stayed there for weeks. Hillsong has bought into medical centres. Its Bible college has close to 1700 full- and part-time students, some paying annual fees of more than $4000. It has a staff of almost 200, including 70 pastors. It has built a state-of-the-art conference centre-cum-church worth $25 million. No fewer than five television cameras are mounted in the auditorium; the services are recorded and then televised in more than 80 countries.



Let’s not be coy, Hillsong is not a church that is afraid of money – its spiritual leader, Brian Houston, is also the author of You Need More Money: Discovering God’s Amazing Financial Plan for Your Life. Is that what makes this the seemingly fastest-growing Christian church in Australia? The census reveals that while millions identify as Catholic, Anglican or other Protestant denominations, few of them actually go to church. There are, for example, 3.9 million Anglicans, but only 180,000 attend church. (The Anglicans are like South Sydney rugby league club supporters – plenty of guernseys, but hardly any go to the games.) The Catholics are way out in front with 875,000 attendees from their 4.7 million flock. But with almost 200,000 people attending Pentecostal services each weekend around the country, they have nudged ahead of the Anglicans. The Pentecostals have a truancy rate of almost nil. What brand of God are they selling that sees the Almighty walking off the shelves, when the traditional churches struggle to give Him away?



Brian Houston, 48, saunters over to greet me, a tall, tanned man with a deep, radio man’s drawl, and a silver and gold Breitling watch shimmering on his wrist. The pastor drives, among other vehicles, a Harley-Davidson Fatboy that a friend from overseas gave him. After emigrating from New Zealand, he and his wife, Bobbie, started this church in Baulkham Hills almost 20 years ago, preaching to a couple of dozen people in a hired school hall. Brian’s father, Frank, had already set up a similar fundamentalist Pentecostal church (which has since joined with Hillsong) in the inner-Sydney suburb of Waterloo. Brian grew up with the church, while Bobbie got saved and “met Jesus” at the Auckland Town Hall at the age of 15. The couple met at church camp when Bobbie bought Brian an ice-cream (“He was the first boy I ever kissed,” says Bobbie with a girlish giggle. “Can you believe I’m telling you this?”), were married when Bobbie was 19 and are now Hillsong’s senior pastors.



They work out regularly and look like an advertiser’s dream couple. Bobbie, 45, is blonde, busty and beautiful, and speaks in an airy, suburban earth-mother tone – part Phoebe from Friends, part Kath & Kim.



When asked to explain their roles in the church, Bobbie says pleasantly: “We are seen as one entity but obviously our roles will differ in that we kinda, we are united in this together so we are not afraid of that, yeah, so, so, we are not a kingdom divided against ourselves. So, we are yoked together in this, I mean, they are biblical words, we are yoked together, obviously his roles, I defer to him, I respect his role. Do you know what I mean?” Brian and I leave Bobbie and go for a drive.



So why does he think the church has been so successful? “I think the biggest issue is relevance, I really do,” he says, as we tour around the bland suburbs – row upon row of enormous, identical houses – of the Hills District, which surrounds his church. “We are scratching people where they are itching.” This is the nearest thing Australia has to a Bible belt. Houston says that when he and Bobbie set out to build a church, he wanted to build one that he and his family would want to attend, with good music, good sermons and a positive message.



So, at Hillsong services, the music is modern and uplifting and the presentation theatrical. The show stopper is the communal baptism, held every few weeks. The giant stage rolls back and beneath is a baptismal pool. The faithful line up at the side to be dunked, fully clothed, while the onlookers cheer and clap.



Then, there’s the message, which is simple and alluring. It says that if you embrace this brand of God you will be rewarded financially and spiritually in this life, as well as the next. It is religion for our material age. And there, as an example of what is possible, is the handsome, charismatic pastor, his bubbly wife and their three beautiful kids (Joel, 23, the oldest, is lead singer in the Hillsong rock band). All this comes with Brian’s guarantee – from More Money – that “anyone who puts the Kingdom of God first (rich or poor) can expect bible economics to work in their life NOW”.



Many of the young people I meet at the services volunteer their stories of financial success since joining Hillsong. “I was living in a housing commission house, working in a factory job and struggling to pay my bills,” says Brian Griffiths, aged in his early twenties and still sweating from dancing in the bleachers. “Since I started coming [in 1999], great things have happened.” He got a job selling insurance over the phone, with someone he met through the church. “God made me meet him.” He is more than happy to give 10 per cent of his wage back, as most are. “Granted, many people have a life that’s going great without God, yet I think that God probably had a whole lot more in mind for them.”



“If you believe in Jesus,” Houston tells me, “He will reward you here [on earth] as well [as in Heaven].” It is this prosperity gospel teaching that puts him at odds with people like the Reverend Tim Costello, the former head of the Baptist Union of Australia.



“The quickest way to degrade the gospel,” says Costello, “is to link it with money and the pursuit of money. It is the total opposite of what Jesus preached. These people have learnt nothing from the mistakes made by the American televangelists.”



Not so, says Houston. When Jesus said it was harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, he didn’t mean rich Christians, because all you need is “God as your foremost priority. Jesus talks constantly of people’s attitude to money but he never talks against money.”



Costello, says Houston, “likes what we do generally” but has a problem with Hillsong’s success. He, like those from some of the more traditional churches, is simply jealous of it, Houston tells me. “The irony is, Tim Costello is a pretty successful guy himself. The big difference between us is that I like to teach other people to be successful and not just enjoy the success myself.”



Hillsong, he says, has moved with the times, while the old churches are stuck in the 19th century. “What good is a vow of poverty?” he asks. “A person who has more is able to help more. That’s what we are all about, giving people a handout.” The multi-million-dollar church’s charitable arm, Hillsong Emerge, according to ASIC documents, has an annual budget of just a little over $400,000.



That’s not to say that Houston’s views on some other matters aren’t conservative. He believes in speaking in tongues. He would like to see creationism taught in schools and abortion banned. Homosexuals are, of course, unwelcome, but Houston says he’s not a Fred Nile-type fanatic on these matters. Picketing outside abortion clinics achieves little; a more pro-active approach is to help teenage girls through their pregnancies. The church partly funds a hostel, Mercy Ministries, for young pregnant women and other troubled girls (there’s another for troubled boys at Bankstown) who can live there free for a year, on the proviso that they attend church. Another of the Hillsong Emerge projects, Young and Gorgeous, sees young Emerge women going into schools to teach 12- and 13-year-old girls about skin care and make-up, to help them learn, an Emerge woman told me, “that each and every one of them is unique and precious”. Houston takes me for a drive past the youth hostel, in a bush setting near his church, and then on to a medical centre the church has bought in Baulkham Hills (they own another at Blacktown). It is all part of healing people “body, mind and spirit”, he says, explaining the Hillsong approach.



The medical centres are small, but with plans for expansion. And while they may be helping the converted, they’re also causing ripples among those outside Hillsong. Local doctors are angry that they will have to compete against a business that is exempt from all the normal business taxes – such as payroll tax – just because it is a religious organisation.



It is a matter the AMA intends to scrutinise.



Max Wallace, a sociologist at the Australian National University, is writing a book,



The Purple Economy, about the tax-free godsend enjoyed by the Australian churches. He says that while the traditional churches are “immensely wealthy”, Australians had better get used to the “astronomical wealth growth”



of young, corporate churches such as Hillsong, which haven’t the burden of maintaining ageing churches and small congregations (some don’t even have the burden of charity). New churches are also moving into a host of new business ventures that have nothing



to do with religion – turf farms, fruit juice manufacturing, furniture making – often sending their competitors broke along the way.



Tim Costello wants to know how much of the Hillsong wealth is going to Brian and Bobbie. “The churches have an enormously privileged position in society – not only do they not pay tax, but they are exempt from many of the fringe benefit rules as well. As a result, they need to be open and fully accountable. Anyone can walk into my church and find out exactly how much I earn, what car I drive, whatever, including any other associated monies I might earn from being a minister. I would like to ask the same of Hillsong.”



So I do. Brian Houston’s open, good-guy demeanour disappears. No, he will not tell me what he or Bobbie earns. “All you guys [the media] want to know about is the money,”



he says. “You don’t want to know about the church.” Well, it’s a bit like walking into Rose Hancock’s house and not noticing the chandeliers – the money at Hillsong just leaps out at you.



Houston says that while he draws a wage, he donates it back to the church. “I want to make it clear that I cost this church nothing, I want that on the record.” He earns some of his money, he says, as a property developer, “being a silent partner with a couple of guys from the church in building developments”, but he gets “the vast majority” of his money from overseas speaking engagements at other charismatic churches. He and Bobbie also get the royalties from those “Christian resources” out the front of the church.



Phillip Powell, a Pentecostal preacher and a former general secretary of the Assemblies



of God (the umbrella group of which Houston is now president), says Houston’s overseas speaking engagements are at churches whose own senior pastors are “on the circuit”. Powell, who has set up a “watchdog ministry”, Christian Witness Ministries, in part to monitor Hillsong, says, “They get paid huge amounts of money to speak at each other’s churches. The money goes to Brian, but his profile comes from Hillsong.” It is a bit like the Pope charging for speaking engagements, and then keeping the cash. (Houston says Powell’s sentiments are “pitiful comments from a pitiful man who knows nothing of Hillsong or of me”.)



The Hillsong church structure is tightly controlled. The general manager, Brian Aghajanian (also an elder), says the elders are nominated “by Brian or the other elders”. No elections? “No, we feel that people might stand who don’t have a great understanding of the way the church works or have the same vision we have for the church,” Aghajanian says.



What we do know is that Houston wears a watch worth thousands of dollars, he owns an enormous house overlooking a bush valley, in a suburb of other enormous houses, at Glenhaven. He also owns a picturesque spread on the Hawkesbury River, near Windsor, just west of Sydney, gets paid handsomely to speak overseas and is a property developer – and he’s not ashamed of any of it.



“Look,” he says, “I can tell you that if I was in business, and held this sort of position, I would be earning three times as much. I don’t do it for the money.”



So, you couldn’t see Jesus running into Hillsong and overturning the cash registers, as he famously did with the money changers in the temple? “Absolutely not,” he says. “Absolutely not. Because the spirit of those people was … the house of God wasn’t even about God any more. It was about, you know, it had become a marketplace inside the temple – it wasn’t about Christian resources, resources that are helping people. It [the books and tapes and CDs] are not just about making money, it is about putting tools in people’s hands. [But] I have no problem if it makes a profit.”



So, what exactly is in those Christian resources? One particularly irresistible title is Bobbie’s three-tape boxed set Kingdom Women Love Sex ($22, also available on CD). In it, Bobbie explains why it is important for Christians to be good at “it”. “We need to be good at sex ourselves so that if the world happens to come knocking we can tell the story of God in our lives,” Bobbie says, on the tape. “Without being lurid or untruthful – hello! – we can say [she whispers], ‘I have a great marriage and a great sex life’ – wink wink, nudge nudge. Yeah, truly.”



Bobbie also offers some practical advice.



Fat is out. Do some exercise. “If I carry weight I feel like a retard … How are you going to do anything to surprise your man when you need a hydraulic crane just to turn over in bed?” Have plastic surgery, if it makes you feel better and it is for the right reasons, and “girls, pelvic floor exercises – can you believe I am saying this? – you know, I have heard that orgasm is not as strong if you are really sloppy in that area”.



As Bobbie says, “When you are doing what is correct in God there is a protection over your life. Like – hello! – it is just there. So it is a very powerful thing. Amen. Yeah, fully.”



There have been some dramas in the House of Camelot in the past few years. Houston



had to sack one of his senior preachers and good friends, Pat Mesiti, after it was revealed he’d been visiting prostitutes. And then Brian’s father, former minister Frank Houston, confessed to being a pedophile.



Finding out his father had abused a child back in New Zealand was, Houston tells me, “like the jets flying into the twin towers of my soul”. It was, understandably, one of the hardest issues he has ever had to deal with. “Basically I received a complaint, so I confronted my father and he admitted it.” Houston removed his father from all roles in the church, but did not contact police in New Zealand because the victim was old enough to do that himself. He said that he was candid with his congregation, although he has been criticised for not acting quickly enough.



“I told our church what had happened [several months after he found out], but as soon as I found out I told the elders of this church and the Assemblies of God,” Houston says. “To my congregation, when I told them, I used words like predator and sexual abuse and so on – I did not try to hide it.”



It is a matter that appears unlikely to go away, and Houston tells me that, since the initial allegation was made public, other alleged victims have come forward. Good Weekend understands that another alleged male victim of his father is “extremely unhappy” with his treatment by the church and is currently considering civil action.



Bobbie says that the sexual abuse claims were the hardest thing her husband has ever had to confront. “But the leader in him rose and I think that is what endeared the congregation to us. This issue is rampant through society and you don’t have to be Blind Willy to see that – sorry, blind Freddy, I always get my sayings wrong – but as a church we are dealing with those issues.”



Phillip Powell, the watchdog, says he doesn’t believe Brian Houston has dealt adequately with a whole range of issues within his church regarding accountability, and says he will continue to monitor the work of Hillsong. “There are alarm bells and people need to ring them,” he says.



On one of the Sundays I attend a Hillsong service, Anne Luckwell, a 36-year-old administration officer with the Harvey Norman retail chain, is excitedly waiting to be baptised. She joined the church six months ago and is now ready to “dedicate my life to the Lord”. She has a child and has been through a rough time. “I lived with a man for 15 years and we were splitting up – he said he was not going to give me anything from the house [he owned] in the settlement.” She says that now, since she found Hillsong, she has come to an agreement with her former partner for a share of the house. It has as much to do with the law as it has with the Lord, but still she attributes the agreement to Hillsong. I call her up a few days later to see how she feels, post-baptism. “Not too good, actually,” she croaks. “I’ve got the flu. I think it’s because of the wet hair.” Still, she says, she’ll be back in church next Sunday, ready to hear the word of Brian – and, of course, willing to give in order to receive.

credits to :   http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/13097.htm

Hillsong's true believers

It's a quiet Sunday evening in Sydney's north-west. There are few cars on the road and even fewer people in sight. But a large building in a business precinct in Baulkham Hills - the area known as Sydney's bible and mortgage belt - is heaving with people. Inside, an auditorium is bursting with music and shouts of "awesome!" Old people, young people and everyone in between are singing, dancing, jumping . . . and praying.
This is Hillsong Church, one of the most conspicuous of the contemporary pentecostal and evangelical churches whose collective growth is fast outstripping that of the more traditional denominations. The music is loud and catchy. The band members young and good-looking. The senior pastor conducting the service, Brian Houston, is charismatic and commanding. And the congregation is collectively lapping it up.
They pray, mostly with one arm outstretched, for the new converts - those who decide to walk to the front of the state-of-the-art auditorium and publicly "honour" God - and they pray for the year 12 students present who will sit their first HSC exams the next day. Slick film clips promoting Hillsong's works and the next week's events flash up on two large television screens at the sides of the stage.

And when it comes time for the offering, parishioners are reminded they can pay by cash, cheque or credit card.
At the centre of Hillsong is Houston. He and his wife, Bobbie, are the force behind the Assemblies of God church, which celebrates its 21st birthday this year. It has become so popular that its July annual conference, held at the Sydney Olympic Park SuperDome, attracted 21,600 registered delegates, a remarkable increase from the 150 who attended the first conference in 1986. More than 18,000 people flock to the Baulkham Hills and city Hillsong churches to hear The Word each weekend. That word is usually recounted by Houston. A gifted speaker, he paces back and forth across the stage during the sermon sporting a tiny hands-free microphone near his cheek. The sermon features stories from the Bible in easy-to-understand language, peppered with jokes and anecdotes. The audience frequently yells out in agreement with him. "Who's ready for the word of the Lord?" Houston asks. "Anyone here love the word of the Lord?" "Yeah," comes the enthusiastic response from the thousands-strong crowd. "Anyone up in the back sections love the word of the Lord?"
"Yeah!" is the reply, reverberating through the auditorium.
Hillsong merchandise, including CDs, books by Houston and DVDs, is given to those who are "really blessed". Then the sermon begins.

Easter Sunday celebrations at the Hillsong Church in Baulkham Hills.
Photo:Ben Rushton

The story of Hillsong, self-described as "the church that never sleeps", began 21 years ago when Brian and Bobbie founded the Hills Christian Life Centre. As newlyweds in 1978 they migrated from New Zealand and joined the ministry team of the Sydney Christian Life Centre, an Assemblies of God church in the city founded by Houston's parents, which is now Hillsong's city worship centre.
The Houstons' new church started with a congregation of 45. It now numbers thousands.
The church is known not just for its style of Christian worship, but for its links to the burgeoning political influence of the "religious right" through politicians associated with it.
The Liberal Party's Louise Markus, a Hillsong church member, won the seat of Greenway, which had been held by Labor since it was proclaimed in 1984, with a 7.02 per cent swing. Liberal MP for Mitchell, Alan Cadman, who retained his north-western suburbs seat with a 1.09 per cent swing, and two Family First Senate candidates, Joan Woods and Ivan Herald, who failed to win Senate seats, were featured in Hillsong's latest glossy circular, with members being asked to pray for them. Prime Minister John Howard opened Hillsong's Baulkham Hills convention centre in October 2002 and Treasurer Peter Costello spoke to thousands at the SuperDome conference this year.
Pentecostal and evangelical churches are attracting parishioners at a rate far higher than their traditional counterparts. Catholic mass attendance in Australia declined by an estimated 13 per cent between 1996 and 2001, while Anglican and Protestant denominations grew by just 1 per cent. Conversely, attendance at Christian City churches grew by a staggering 42 per cent and Assemblies of God and Apostolic churches grew by 20 per cent each.
Houston attributes Hillsong's growth to people "getting answers in their everyday lives". "People have a spiritual hunger and people have real lives and real needs," he says. "The testimonies and the stories are there that lives have been transformed."
Undeniably, the Hillsong faithful at prayer are happy. The atmosphere during services is unrestrained, friendly and emotional, the responses loud and heartfelt. Hillsong promotes that God wants people to live "healthy and prosperous lives in order to help others more effectively". It is a message of "personal effectiveness" so people can make a bigger difference to the world. The church believes that in order to live that "holy and fruitful" life God intends, followers need to be baptised in water and be "filled with the power of the Holy Spirit", which then enables them to "use spiritual gifts, including speaking in tongues".
Mark Reddy and wife Vickie have attended Hillsong Church for several years, attracted not just by the energetic nature of the worship, but the lessons. "You can get good life teachings out of it," he says. "It's not just doctrinal. It's contemporary and reverent at the same time."
He appreciates that the congregation is encouraged to put back into the community and get involved in the church's charity works - such as helping underprivileged families or cleaning up streets. "It's something that we've been encouraged more and more to be part of," he says.
The Sydney Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell, says the Hillsong style of worship seems to be "courting excitement", and acknowledges it's attractive to many people, "at least initially".
The Anglican Bishop of Western Sydney, Bishop Ivan Lee, says the style of worship is "very positive, very contemporary and very accessible to Australians who are no longer churched". "It's dynamic, full of energy," he says. "That's great." He points out that the Sydney Anglican diocese is also trying to be "more relaxed" in its liturgy and more relevant in its style. But he is concerned that the extreme emotion of Hillsong services could be manipulative "and their worship is in danger of being experience-centred rather than Bible-teaching-centred".
Senior lecturer in religion at the University of Sydney Dr Carole Cusack says Hillsong's style of worship is more attuned to secular values in the community. "It's part of the re-branding of Christianity as fashionable, trendy, not dowdy," she says.
Houston doesn't see why the church should be the only sector of society that "isn't allowed to be effective, that isn't actually allowed to get out there and physically effectively reach people and build people's lives". "It's as though the church has to apologise for doing things well," he says, "and I just don't feel that way."
Hillsong has been dogged by criticism of its message emphasising wealth and the individual. Cardinal Pell says while it was good people were coming to know Christ "rather than being unaware of the spiritual growth in their lives", there was nothing in the gospel to say that if you followed Christ you would be more prosperous and successful. "We know from Christ's teachings that riches are no great advantage in moving towards heaven," Pell says. "The rich, in God's eyes, are sometimes seen to be disadvantaged. The poor are blessed."
Houston says the criticism of the church's finances is unfair. "Ours is a message that challenges Christian selfishness," Houston says. "[A message] that encourages people to live lives that reach out beyond themselves and make a bigger difference, help more people . . . my motivation in encouraging people to resource their lives has always been so that they could live a Christian life that goes beyond themselves.
"It's selfish for Christians to live for themselves. If I, as a Christian, think all I need is enough food for my table, I'm only thinking about myself and I've always tried to encourage people to think about other people's tables."
This year, he says, the church's congregation has been encouraged to sponsor children in Uganda through Compassion Australia, as well as supporting Australian charitable programs through the Hillsong Foundation.
Houston says he doesn't know precisely what portion of the church's funds are directed to charity, but believes the majority is.
He defends Hillsong's state-of-the art facilities. "We've obviously built great facilities but that's a great thing too," he says. "You can't fit 18,000 people in a country women's hall.
He is sensitive about criticism of the church's financial position. "I have a responsibility to answer the questions . . . I just probably get frustrated when people make it one-dimensional, they bring it back to that all the time," Houston says, irritated. "We have nothing to hide. There are no skeletons in the cupboard."
Dr Max Wallace, author of The Purple Economy, which investigates the business of churches, says "[Australian] citizens are underwriting the churches". "But," he adds, "what we are getting is a lack of accountability, a lack of transparency and no obligation to do any charitable work." He says Hillsong has charitable programs "but we have no way of reconciling their income with their charitable work".
The full church accounts are not publicly available. Hillsong, along with all churches in Australia, does not pay tax and does not have to file its accounts with the Australian Taxation Office. Houston says any regular member of the Hillsong congregation can make an appointment and be shown the accounts.
Houston tackles criticism with the same gusto he applied to allegations that his father Frank had abused a child in New Zealand 30 years ago. He confronted his father, removed him from active ministry at Hillsong and then told his congregation.
Not only does Houston encourage success in his congregation, he embraces it for himself and wife Bobbie. He wears a Breitling watch and rides a Harley-Davidson Fatboy.
The couple owns a house in Glenhaven and a 1.2 -hectare block in Wilberforce. As well, Bobbie owns a unit in Bondi, which The Sun-Herald has established she bought for $650,000 in January 2002. Houston says he returns his pastor's wage, set by the church board, to Hillsong and earns his money mainly from books and speaking commitments.
Houston has told The Sun-Herald previously that he earns money as a silent partner in property development and on speaking tours. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission lists Houston as the director of a range of companies including a cafe and a deregistered travel company. But Houston says he is the director only of companies within Hillsong; he is a director of the Hillsong Foundation and other associated entities that are all not-for-profit.
Houston's assets are not unreasonable, he says, considering he has worked nearly 35 years and his wife for about 30 years. They live by the principles they teach and have nothing to hide, he says. "Anyone who's got the kind of responsibilities and worked as hard as we have would be in that position or better.
"I feel confident that we're the real deal, genuine people, love God, love people and we're doing our best to help people."
An integral part of Hillsong Inc is its merchandise, ranging from books, including How To Flourish In Life by Houston and Heaven Is In This House by Bobbie, to Hillsong Music CDs and DVDs, notebooks, magnets and cassettes.
All of these are available at the Hillsong "resource centre" stationed at the main entrance to the auditorium, which is teeming with people after the Sunday night service. There are also CD, DVD and cassette recordings of the sermon just heard, no less than 20 minutes earlier, along with other sermons from that weekend's service. Even mobile phone ringtones featuring tunes from Hillsong CDs can be bought via its website. Hillsong Music's recent release, For All You've Done, debuted at No. 1 on the Australia album chart in July and Hillsong has sold more than 6 million albums worldwide.
There are Hillsong Health Centres and the Hillsong Foundation, the charity arm of the church. As part of the foundation, volunteers working in "Hillsong Street Teams" perform "random acts of kindness" and help local communities ; Hillsong Life runs programs on relationships and "body + soul + spirit"; Hillsong SAFE aims to help people who have been sexually abused; and Hillsong Enterprise Development aims to help people start their own business, providing mentoring and support for people and publishing the annual Christian Business Directory.
And then there are the conferences. There was a Prosperity and Purpose Conference in August on "practical keys to doing life well financially", a Colour Your World Conference, a women's conference held in March, the annual Hillsong Conference in July, and a men's conference, held last month.
Houston warms up for his sermon, and the congregation listens intently to every word and follows readings in the Bible. Some take notes.
He tells them to stay on the path God has chosen for them. To stay committed and to not be distracted. "When it comes to the bigger things in life, the important things in life, do you know the best thing you can do when the enemy comes to limit you, or shrink you or, as I spoke of earlier, tries to oppose you?" he asks. "The best thing you can do is stay even more committed to your purpose . . . because then you frustrate the enemies, you frustrate the opposition, you bring it to nought."
His commitment, he says, is that when those people who try to "shrink or oppose" him are gone, he will still be there. "It just makes me even more determined," he says. "I'm not going to allow any scandal or any foolishness or any temptation or any distraction to rob me from finishing my course.
"And when the opposition is gone, I'll still be there."




credits to :  http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Hillsongs-true-believers/2004/11/06/1099547435083.html

Hillsong United (band)

The Hillsong United band is an Australian praise and worship band, a part of Hillsong Church. the band tours the world, around its various different churches and also many other venues. The band makes albums and CD's, and are usually the guys who tour the world performing songs that they created. Those songs are then played by worship teams (other bands in Hillsong Church) at the nearest church.

Talking about Hillsong band in general - there are many members of the Hillsong band as a whole, because of the various churches there are around the world. There are bands who perform on regular Sundays, and some bands who perform at venues for youth which in London happens once a month. The youth band also performs at summer-camps, which happens in almost every city which has Hillsong Church.

The band was originally formed by close friends from within the youth ministry called 'Powerhouse Youth' that was led by Donna Crouch for many years. As the house band for the youth meetings of Powerhouse, the band played covers of Hillsong Church and various other ministries' music, sometimes members contributing to Youth Alive and its' albums (Darlene Zschech was involved in Youth Alive before Hillsong Church). Dr. Mark Evans (Macquarie Uni) states in his Ph. D thesis, "A youth band was formed from the Hillsong music team, which took what was happening in the church musically and played it louder and rockier, appealing directly to a youth demographic". Steve McPherson, Deb Ezzy and Donia Makedonez were significant members. Powerhouse grew and was split in the late 1990s into two youth groups, 'Powerhouse' (18–25 years of age) and 'Wildlife' (12-17 yrs). Reuben Morgan, assisted by Marcus Beaumont and Tanya Riches were placed in charge of the Powerhouse band, with the former Channel V Leg-Up competition winner 'Able' band boys, Joel Houston and Marty Sampson in charge of Wildlife, while Luke Munns was the main drummer, and Michael Guy Chislett the main guitarist. In the Summer of 1997, the new team made a huge impact at their youth ministry's Summer Camp. After coming back from Summer Camp, the many youth ministries in Hillsong Church joined together as one, and started to call the nights, "UNITED" Nights.

Delirious?' Martin Smith's song 'Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble' was the theme song of the camp, and the momentum of youth carried well beyond the camp into church services. Reuben Morgan wrote 'My Redeemer Lives' as a way for the youth to continue worshipping, along with many other songs that appear on the album 'By Your Side' written by Marty Sampson and Luke Munns 'Stay'.

Darlene Zschech suggested to Reuben that they make an album in 1998 after many songs were written in the youth ministry, and the EP 'One' was recorded. The album was packaged with the Hillsong annual album, and both achieved Gold sale status in Australia. 'Everyday' was recorded in 1999. The band continued to release an album each year, rebranding asHillsong United in 2002 after Reuben Morgan stepped down as co-worship leader of the band. Joel Houston, the eldest son of the church's senior pastor Brian Houston, stepped up to lead the group together with Marty Sampson.

Current members of the Hillsong United band include Jonathon Douglass (J.D.), Jadwin "Jad" Gillies, Joel Houston, Annie Garratt, Matt Crocker, Dave Ware, Sam Knock, Dylan Thomas, Joel Davies, Braden Lang, Peter James, Matthew Tennikoff plays bass guitar, Simon Kobler & Brandon Gillies play drums. Former original drummer Luke Munns made a transition from the drums to front the rock/indie band LUKAS. Popular New Zealand artist Brooke Ligetwood (aka Brooke Fraser) recently joined the band when she joined the church, first appearing onUnited We Stand.

The annual Hillsong United CD/DVD was recorded over many years during their October youth conference Encounterfest, with the album released in the first quarter of the following year. The 2007 album All of the Above was the first album to be fully studio recorded, containing videos of songs on the DVD. The band has toured in a number of countries, leading worship to thousands in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Following his marriage to Michelle on November 2006, Marty also stepped down as one of the main worship leaders of the band. He contributed two more songs with United, 'Devotion' (which he wrote & sang on the album) & 'Saviour King' (which he wrote w/ Mia Fieldes), before he officially stepped down. These songs were part of the 2007 release All of the Above . Brooke replaced Marty as one of the principal worship leaders of the band, while Marty moved on to join the main band to serve as one of main Hillsong worship leaders alongside Darlene and Reuben.

Hillsong United posted on their Facebook page March 28, 2010 that they were in the studio recording. It is being recorded at 301 Studios in Sydney, Australia. The name is Aftermathand will release in February 2011.

credits to :     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsong_United_(band)

Hillsong Church

'Hillsong Church' (formerly 'Hills Christian Life Centre') is a Pentecostal Christian church, affiliated with theAssemblies of God. The church is located in Sydney, Australia, headquartered at its "Hills" campus in Baulkham Hills'Norwest Business Park in the Hills District. It also has a congregation designated the "City" campus which is located inWaterloo, near Sydney's central business district. The church is lead by Senior Pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston, who started the church in Baulkham Hills in 1983, later to merge with a church in the city to form Hillsong Church.
Apart from the two main campuses, Hillsong Church currently has 14 extension services across Sydney. These extension services are based on either location or culture and rely on Hillsong Church for support and leadership. Hillsong Church's international offshoots include Hillsong London, in the United Kingdom and Hillsong Kiev in Ukraine. These churches also have services in Paris, Berlin and Moscow.
Hillsong Church has grown in both size and influence over the years. Hillsong Music has become well-known in Australia, topping charts and achieving gold and platinum sales status. Hillsong has made its mark internationally with many travelling to Sydney for the annual Hillsong Conference, which attracts over 26,000 people, as well as the sales of albums and teaching and the international reputation of its leadership. The Hillsong Television program is seen in over 160 countries and Hillsong International Leadership College is attended by over 900 students from many different countries. Hillsong Church is currently attended by over 20,000 people each week. ^[1]


credits to :    http://tripatlas.com/Hillsong_Church