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If you aren’t aware of our page, we are starting to record people’s experiences from Hillsong Church.
Recently, we were informed of this person’s testimony.
‘S’ writes,
I had first hand experience of being part of Hillsong. I attended the church in london and as a person of 16 at the time it all seemed incredibly appealing. This was not my first experience of church, My whole family are christians. I found a friendship group, a new spiritual out look on life and for the first time I had found hope in humanity. This was not to last though. I gave extensive amounts of money to the church through purchasing bibles, books, CDs and tshirts (also not forgetting donations). All of this to feel more a part of what I thought was my family. I was a musician and was told I had a gift from God and that I should utilize that to help win others over to christ. the problems began as the years went on. I became more involved not just on a sunday but almost every day of the week. Soon I was working more then I was sleeping but I was being told that this was all for God. I finished college and soon after was following my dreams (like I had been taught). this started to take up more of my time so I started to drop some of my commitments with the church, as soon as I had done so suddenly I had fingers pointed at me. I was ‘backsliding’ and I was told to quit my dreams. If I frowned during a service or failed to smile then it looked bad on the others. I was now being told how to think and feel. The less time I spent at the church the more I was shunned by those that had called me their ‘family’. I soon found out people were talking about me behind my back. I felt judged and my relationship with God died. I finally found the courage to leave but it wasn’t easy. My heart felt broken and my soul felt crushed. I had put so much time, money and effort into the church, I was 100% committed, I gave my heart and soul only for it to be thrown back at me. I still feel nervous every time I pass the theatre where they hold their services. It’s safe to say I will never go back to that place nor will I ever support an organization that treats their members this way. I have not been the only one who has gone through these experiences. I have met others who have very similar stories.
Source: Brian Houston lies about the bible to sell his book, Hillsong Church, http://hillsongchurch.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/brian-houston-lies-about-the-bible-to-sell-his-book/#comment-86, January 9, 2012 at 5:47 am. (Accessed 03/09/2012.)
Hillsong Church Watch 
Sadly his commitment was to the church and not to Jesus Christ.
Ali – yes, however that’s what you are forced to do – get with the program or get out!
I think this is the case for a lot of people at Hillsong. Take Hillsong out of the equation and there really isn’t much left to their faith. It’s interesting that the author said they found “hope in humanity”. The focus is more on pastors than on Jesus. The pastors of Hillsong are revered over everything else, to the point of being idols.
It also sounds like this person was bullied, which doesn’t surprise me. Hillsong has a culture of bullying which I experienced first hand from other church members and leaders. I believe it starts at the top with Brian Houston who has been a known bully for decades. Individuality is discouraged at Hillsong, and if you don’t fit a certain mould, talk a certain way, or have an particular personality, you get bullied under the guise of “leadership”.
It’s really sad you would dedidcate your time and energy to make a website to hate on churches. But, that’s not the purpose of my response. Let me be the one to tell ‘S’ that your issue is not an effect or a cause of being at Hillsong but a global issue in the church. I’m not a Hillsong church member and I deal with what you’re dealing with. Unfortunately, until Christ returns we will deal with human beings and that means that distorted views of service to God and our purpose in serving will exist. We are not called in Christ to have a church career, make our dreams come true by coating it in Christianity. Hillsong is not the only church guilty of putting that pressure on people. We are called in Christ to be His church, live like Him, whether you’re a musician or the maintenance guy. I pray you understand the tone of my reply and that vi understand how you feel. Seek in Christ to forgive and to have a clear, christ-like view of the church and your calling as a follower of Jesus.
In Love,
Camila
Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
*so what if it is not the only church that does this in the world – Hillsong has a disproportionate amount of influence due to its music, therefore its problems need to be addressed!
*Is Hillsong a church that teaches what the apostles taught? Since it is not, why do you believe that should be ignored? Did the apostles ignore false teachers?
* Why are you condemning NOT encouraging if you deal with similar topics on your website?
*If similar situations are going to continue until Jesus comes, why have *you* taken the “just be resigned to it/ tolerate it” position? Does the bible approve of fatalism RE evangelism/ false teachings?
*This is not a “just think positive and things will turn out for the best …” situation. You sound well-intended but ill-informed. You need to read Revelation chapters 1-3 to see JESUS’ messages to churches going astray. Jesus rebuked them when they needed rebuke!
Thinker – you took the words right out of my Bible – Revelation 1 – 3 is a Christ like view of the church, in all of its phases, right down through the church age – good news for some and bad news for others.
When you’ve seen the kind of Hillsong rubbish invading the church scene here in Australia over the last 30 years, and then you realise one day that is it spreading like a cancer throughout the body of Christ, of course you want to say something.
Perhaps you could consider this blog and others like it to be “chemo therapy” and ‘Gamma Ray treatment’ – it takes a lot of know how to excise a cancerous growth on “the body” Camila. Some parts will thin out and other parts will go bald, but the ‘body’ will survive.
No offence to you at all, but some of us have been exposing “false prophets” and their “false profits” for a long time now and we know just how harmful these false ministries can be towards God’s faithful believers. Precious lives can be destroyed.
What happens here is the result of an apostolic command – not an optional extra:
“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17, 18)
Hillsong/C3 and their ilk are ‘marked’ and everyone that will listen is ‘warned’.
Hillsong and ‘churches’ like it do not teach the apostle’s doctrine. Instead, they teach half truths at best, with a lot of New Age mixture, with ad-on motivational speeches, all hyped up so that the crowd will be “most generous” when it comes around to the “tithing sermon”. I’ve never seen Jesus or the apostles preached a ‘tithing’ sermon…
I’m sorry Camila, but worshiping Mammon and bowing down to humanistic and New Age philosophy, dressed up in Christian terminology, is not serving God at all…
What you are witnessing is the prophesied End Times deception – the beginnings of the apostate One World Church. This is the strong delusion, given to them by God, because they did not love the truth of the simple Gospel, but have gone their own way.
Hillsong’s influence world wide runs into tens of millions of people. What has happened is not a series of ‘mistakes’ or ‘short comings’ This is not a game – it is for real Camila, and the end result will be for keeps – for ever.
Just because a problem is widespread doesn’t mean it should be ignored. Hillsong has a serious problem with its culture of celebrity and bullying. Then there’s also the many problems with their doctrine and false gospel. They position themselves as a leader of the church in Australia so they need to be held to account. The Bible certainly doesn’t say to ignore these issues. There are many examples in the Bible where churches were publicly rebuked for going astray and Jesus tells us clearly how to handle false teachers. This website is a fantastic resource for helping people who may be experiencing similar issues. I wish this website existed when I was at Hillsong. I would have realised much sooner how evil Hillsong really is.
That’s a very pathetic response, Camila. Thinking that we have created a site to hate on churches . How about the truth – that the church is a very sick institution that harms people, destroys people, and does not practice what it preaches. My advice, stay away from these sick institutions if you value your salvation and want to walk close to God.
“It’s really sad you would dedidcate your time and energy to make a website to hate on churches.
This website does not “hate on churches”. This one examines Hillsong in particular (the clue is in the name) and provides reasoning, including Biblical, why some of the things they are doing or saying are completely wrong. Do you think, just because the are Hillsong, they are beyond scrutiny? Because I know some people who have had their lives ruined by them who would completely disagree with you.
I hope you don’t misinterpret my tone Camila but if you’re just trolling please do that lovingly somewhere else and let the thinking people get on with the discussions here.
Yours in love with a big hug,
Icarus
Hi there,
Thanks for the updates, really appreciate it.
My name is David (real name by the way) and I was a full-time pastor at Garden City Christian Church in Brisbane (2006-2009) when Hillsong took it over; I still worked in that same capacity under the Hillsong banner until July 2010 when decided to resign. Actually, I preached on that Sunday morning service at Garden City when the “voting” to become Hillsong took place (April 2009).
The reason for this email is to share my own personal experience with Hillsong, which wasn’t positive at all. What I witnessed first hand there as an “insider member of the pastoral team and staff” really shocked me (back then I already had over 23 years in full-time ministry). I had a glimpse of how that religious business operate. Among many things, I would like to mention a couple at this stage:
1) One weekday, right after the “take over”, Donna Crouch came from Sydney to teach and show us “how to create the atmosphere” during a Hillsong service. We were told straight away that preparing the room with dimmed lights, darker paint, loud music, smiles, cool dressing, could help create an atmosphere for God to operate in our midst (her words). She then (together with a few helpers) demonstrated to us how to do it (either at the auditorium or up the platform); rehearsal then followed by some of us practicing how to “do church service at Hillsong as a staff member.” Basically, we were told to: “choreograph our worship with raised arms, closed eyes, ocasional jumping and ocasional shouts.” If rostered to go go up the platform for announcements, prayer, offerings or preaching, to make sure we would go up the steps fast, on a hype, expressing joy and excitement, really “pumped”. Looking downcast in front of the crowd was an “absolute NO.” We were told that, in Hillsong culture, verbal and body language is everything (“your language locates you”).
2) One Sunday morning during the service, I was sitting in the front row with my wife paying attention to the preacher when I received a text message from a guy brought up from Sydney – Steve Mawston – to help implement Hillsong culture in Brisbane. He was there in the same service sitting opposite to me at the other aisle. I showed my wife the text message which read: “David, your aisle is very quite during the service. Now is the time for you to start shouting “yes”, “yeah”, “amem” and “preach it” , raise your arms and make some noise to liven it up a bit so others might follow suit and do likewise.” That really saddened my heart when I noticed how things are fabricated and simulated in order to create a hype during the service and portray an apparent image of “revival, worship and spirituality.” I really feel for those who still work there as I believe they must be lost in what’s true worship and what’s just done to impress the crowd and please others. Young people are surely the most vulnerable and easy victims of brainwash.
Hope it helps shed some light on the “hillsong phenomena.”
Keep up the good work in exposing them.
God can’t be mocked!
Bless you heaps,
David
Thank you David. Your experience confirms the controlling nature of those churches. There is no “off the cuff”, my belief is that everything is tightly controlled for a purpose.
From a purely technical perspective you have to admire how well they do it however. I suspect they paid Tony Robbins (or another Neuro Liguistic Programming (NLP) guy) a small fortune to teach them…
I feel you have missed the point of creating an atmosphere.
What they talk about is not about manufacturing and being false but being an example. At the end of the day people are fickle. In an ideal world, it would be amazing if everyone was prayed up and ready to go into a service with a perfect attitude of praise and worship, but that is not the case. At my church we say similar things and I know where Donna Crouch was coming from (and i suspect you have slightly twisted the heart behind her words f you meant to or not).
If we as leaders of a church cannot get excited about lifting up name of Jesus then why should anyone. It isn’t about pretending or putting on a mask for people, but leading by example. Like I said people are fickle and sometimes they need to see someone else losing themselves in worship in order to feel comfortable and get to a place where they can just let go of their inhibitions and truly praise God. I wish this wasn’t the case but it is, and if me lifting my hands in praise and truly let go in worship, means someone else feels comfortbale enough to do the same, then I am going to. There will be days where I really don’t want to, but it is not about me. It is about God and seeing others wanting to worship him.