Edit (03/02/2015): Before publishing this story, we were careful about laying the charge that Hillsong pulled the below article.

However, other articles from the Hillsong website appeared to be fine. Our conclusion was that the article was pulled? Just to be sure, we waited two days before publishing the missing article. Since publishing – we have been notified that the article is back up on the Hillsong site. It would appear that Hillsong may have been aware of the attention this article received and perhaps placed it back in drafts until it was decided what should be done about it?

The attached article below was recently published by Hillsong, written by Hillsong worship leader Jonathan Douglass (JD). Not long after they published this article, someone mentioned part of its content on our site and we started analysing it.

Now we’ve discovered the article was pulled two days later after publication. Why?

Did JD inadvertently give us too much information on how Brian Houston ‘controls’ the worship arm of Hillsong? We know that Houston relies on music to influence churches as they expand/rebrand/takeover them into the Hillsong movement. Note the point that exposes Houston’s control:

2. We are about fulfilling our senior pastor’s vision (not our own)

It is so important that as amazing as our creative ideas might be, if they don’t ultimately line up with what our senior pastor and leaders want, then we happily put them aside.

The church doesn’t exist to build our worship teams… our worship teams exist to build the Church!!

This makes sense considering Brian Houston preaches his sermons from the latest Hillsong songs and pushes his Prosperity, Liberal, New Age or Christianity agendas through them. We’ve also seen Hillsong try to make their music appear more reformed in their musical flavour.

So now we ask this: is Hillsong music out to ‘deceive’ people. Why? If Brian Houston’s 2014 Vision Sunday is the standard of Hillsong’s worship integrity, honesty and faith – then God help Christians everywhere!

Houston’s 2014 God-given “Vision” (Part 1): “New grace” scrutinised

Houston’s 2014 God-given “Vision” (Part 2): The Father, Son and “Pioneer Spirit”?

Furthermore, the above quote raises an important question (and this in relation to the upcoming Hillsong movie): Considering the fact that Brian Houston is their visionary senior pastor, why is all the credit and focus on the UNITED band on Joel Houston?

Wouldn’t it be more honest to showcase Brian Houston leading the band since UNITED bends their knee to Brian’s prophetic visionary direction?

Here is the deleted article:

5 Things That Should Matter to a Worship Pastor

At the beginning of a brand new year, I always like to remind myself and ‘take stock’ of the basics, and re-focus on what really matters in every area of my life … my walk with God, family life, relationships, health, etc.  And of course, the basics in my role as one of our team’s worship pastors.

SEE ALSO: 4 WAYS TO CARE FOR YOUR WORSHIP TEAM

At the start of a new year, I re-focus myself on the things that really matter! I always find it a helpful exercise, so I thought I’d share some of them with you!

5 THINGS THAT SHOULD MATTER TO A WORSHIP PASTOR

1. Jesus is leading us

We are responsible for leading people into the presence of Jesus… to do this, we need to know how to enter His presence and be very comfortable there… I can’t get past Exodus 33:14 where Moses’ authentic cry to God was that He would lead him! And Moses would not move unless the presence of God went before him! This is how we should approach every day.

2. We are about fulfilling our senior pastor’s vision (not our own)

It is so important that as amazing as our creative ideas might be, if they don’t ultimately line up with what our senior pastor and leaders want, then we happily put them aside.

The church doesn’t exist to build our worship teams… our worship teams exist to build the Church!!

3. It’s an honour to serve

We are servants first… it’s not about what we do! So that means if we have to do things that we don’t want to do, then it’s not a big deal because the truth is that it’s not about us anyways!!

4. We need to get better

Yes, Jesus loves us and yes, we have His grace when we hit the wrong note in a song… BUT with a little old-fashioned hard work and commitment we can get better and minimise our mistakes! It’s not about being perfect but getting better!

The goal is not to play a SONGLIST perfectly, but eliminate as many distractions so that people can connect with the meaning of the songs and encounter Jesus. This is otherwise known as an expectation of excellence! (Read more about Excellence)

Mistakes are allowed but making the same mistake twice… now that should be addressed… (In love) there’s always room to improve!

5. It’s not WHAT you do but WHOSE you are that matters

What we do is very important! And doing it to the best of our ability is also important. On top of these, we must seek our value as WHOSE we are rather than what we do! And we are sons and daughters of the living God that created EVERYTHING… who knows and loves us. When we understand this, it becomes the fuel to do what we do and also means that we don’t make it about what we do, but rather the ‘what’ becomes secondary to the ‘why’!!

These definitely aren’t the only things that should matter to us as worship pastors, but they’re a great place to start!

JD

Source: By Jonathan Douglass, 5 Things That Should Matter to a Worship Pastor, Hillsong, http://hillsong.com/blogs/collected/2015/january/5-things-that-should-matter-to-a-worship-pastor, Published 28/01/2015. (Accessed 29/01/2015.)