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Do Hillsong & C3 Churches Know What The Role Of A Pastor Is? Do You?

01 Friday Mar 2013

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The famous preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,

“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.”

Do you think that a Hillsong or C3 Pastor comes across more like an entertaining clown rather than a faithful shepherd? Chris Rosebrough from Fighting For the Faith wrote an exceptional article what the role of the pastor should be. Sadly, we do not know any C3 pastors or Hillsong Pastors who reflect the role of a proper biblical Christian pastor.

For Whom Do Pastors Exist?

If I had ten dollars for every time I’ve heard a seeker-driven pastor justify the crazy antics that happen in their churches by claiming that “the church doesn’t exist for believers”, I’d be able to purchase James MacDonald’s home with cash. These seeker-driven antics include such things as playing AC/DC’s Highway to Hell to open their Easter service, refusing to preach the Bible with any depth or accuracy, performing Michael Jackson’s Thriller, recreating the famous kiss scene from the Spiderman movie and a whole host of other crazy worldly stunts.

When you call these pastors out on their antics their responses are predictable and consistent and usually go something like this:

Example 1

Church Attender: Hey pastor, why don’t you ever preach exegetical sermons? I feel like I’m not being fed here because your sermons usually only contain 3 or 4 verses taken out of context in order to teach some relevant life principle.

Pastor: Why are you so selfish? The church doesn’t exist for you. It’s not about you.

Example 2

Church Attender: Hey pastor, why did you have the worship team begin our Easter service with AC/DC’s Highway to Hell rather than a song proclaiming Jesus’ victorious resurrection from the grave? AC/DC is worldly at best and satanic at worst and that blasphemous song should not be brought into God’s house.

Pastor: Why are you so selfish? The church doesn’t exist for you. It’s not about you. Church isn’t for the already convinced its for the not yet convinced.

Example 3

Church Attender: Hey pastor, why are you preaching about movies rather than preaching God’s Word like 2 Tim 4:1-3 commands?

Pastor: Why are you so selfish? The church doesn’t exist for you. It’s not about you. Our church exists for people who are not yet believers.

Notice that each time the pastor answers using the standard seeker-driven talking point and doesn’t answer the question but makes a blanket claim that the church doesn’t exist for believers and therefore the person asking the question is guilty of selfishly believing that the church exists for them.

Anyone who’s been railroaded by these tactics knows that something is way off about these claims being made by seeker-driven pastors but don’t exactly know how to put their finger on the problem or know how to put it into words. This post will help you do that.

Notice that every time the word pastor has appeared, thus far, in this post that I’ve bolded it and underlined it. That is to help you spot the irony of the statements being made by seeker-driven pastorsand that irony will help you identify the underlying error in their tactics and methodologies.

Here’s the irony…No where in scripture does it say that the church exists for unbelievers. BUT, there are clear passages that state that pastors and elders are to serve the church. Therefore, it is ironic and foolish for a pastor, whose job is to serve the church to justify methods that don’t serve Christians by claiming that the church doesn’t exist for believers.

Here are the key passages that address this topic. We’ll begin by first looking at the passages that discuss spiritual gifts. The reason for this is that the ability to teach God’s word is a gift given by the Holy Spirit to certain people within the body of Christ.

The Purpose of Spiritual Gifts is to Build Up the Church Not The World

The Bible teaches that God, The Holy Spirit gives different gifts to different believers for the building up of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:4–7). Teaching is one of the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to pastors and this gift is to be used specifically for believers.

Ephesians 4:8–13 states this very clearly:

“(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,”

In clear and unambiguous language God states that shepherds (pastors) and teachers in the church exist to equip the saints (not unbelievers) and to build up the body of Christ (not the world). This is clear and irrefutable.

Those Who Have the Gift To Teach Are Commanded to Feed Christ’s Sheep by Teaching the Word of God

The duties of shepherds and teachers within the church are governed by the instructions given by Jesus Christ.

“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him,“Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15–17)

Notice that in this passage Jesus doesn’t tell Peter to entertain goats or dazzle the world. Instead, Christ soberly and firmly reinstates Peter after he’d denied Jesus three times. And Peter was reinstated into ministry and that ministry was to shepherd and feed Christ’s sheep. These commands by Jesus to Peter stuck with him his entire life. Peter himself would later exhort elders (pastors) with these words:

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight,not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you;not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” (1 Peter 5:1–4)

This shepherding language is also use by the Apostle Paul when he addresses the elders of the Church of Ephesus. Here are Paul’s words of exhortation:

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” (Acts 20:28–31)

It’s clear from these passages that pastors are not literal shepherds and that Christians are not literal sheep. All of these images are metaphors that help create a mental picture of the difficult and sacrificial work of pastors. So, when Jesus told Peter to “feed my sheep” what was Jesus referring to? What does a Pastor/Shepherd feed Christ’s sheep with?

The answer is simple, the Word of God, and two passages will suffice in demonstrating this fact:

“[Jesus] answered, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 3:14–4:4)

No commentary is needed for these verses because they clearly teach that God’s Word is ‘sheep food’ and that pastors are to be feeding the scriptures to Christ’s sheep.

The Bottom Line

The next time you hear a seeker-driven pastor attempt justify his shallow sermons and entertainment driven stunts by claiming that “the church doesn’t exist for believers”, kindly inform him that regardless of who the church exists for, his job exists to serve believers and Christ’s sheep and that if he won’t do his job that he’s rebelling against Jesus Christ Himself.

Source: Chris Rosebrough, For Whom Do Pastors Exist?, http://www.letterofmarque.us/2012/10/who-do-pastors-exist-for.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=for-whom-do-pastors-exist, 19/10/2012. (Accessed 23/02/2013.)

Guess Which “get-rich-quick” scheming Pastor This Journalist Is Warning Us Against?

26 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by in Associations, Books, Brian Houston's Beliefs, News Headlines

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Is this journalist warning us against ‘Pastor’ Brian Houston from Hillsong Church?

Is this journalist warning us against ‘Pastor’ Phil Pringle from C3 Church?

Is this journalist warning us against ‘Pastor’ Pat Mesiti who ministers at both C3 and Hillsong and is close friends with Pringle and Houston?

Houston Pringle Mesiti get rich quick scheme

Before reading the article below, please read how Phil Pringle of C3 Church mentored Pat Mesiti and restored him to be a ‘legitimate’ pastor again in 2006. It’s worth further noting that Pastor Brian Houston from Hillsong Church is close friends with Pat Mesiti and was also with him though this restoration process.

Phil Pringle ‘Restoring’ Pat Mesiti As A Church Pastor

Therefore, ask yourself these questions while reading the below article:

1. If this journalist is asking people to be wary of Pat Mesiti’s “get-rich-quick schemes,” don’t you think it is worth being concerned who restored this Hillsong/C3 pastor back into ministry?

2. If Brian Houston and Phil Pringle see themselves as motivational speakers like Pat Mesiti, use similar ‘money magnet’ language like Pat Mesiti, spread similar teaching like Pat Mesiti and still endorse Pat Mesiti, how are they any different?”

3. How are Brian Houston and Phil Pringle’s prosperity-driven churches any different to Pat Mesiti’s “get-rich-schemes” organisation?

4. Does slapping Christian language on Pat Mesiti’s work and getting people “handing their cash over taking a leap of faith,” make his content 100% authentic Christianity?

5. If Pat Mesiti provides “no audit trails, no published success rates to prove it one way or the other,” then why is it also rare to hear these success stories in Hillsong and C3 Church?

6. What are the chances that Pat Mesiti got his prosperity theology from his ‘pastor’ friends Brian Houston and Phil Pringle?

Please keep these questions in mind as Fairfax NZ News reports the following:

Just who’s getting rich quick?

BY ROB STOCK

Books have always been used by salesmen to enhance their credibility, though a new series arriving in New Zealand takes that to a new pitch.

The nine books in the Millionaire Makers series ($14.99 each) tempt buyers with promises of “$100,000 in 100 days”, achieving “financial abundance for life”, or “Cracking the million dollar sales code”.

But these are really advertisements disguised as books, trying to drum up bums on seats for seminars in Auckland’s Aotea Centre in August, November and February at which the nine authors – some of the biggest names of the Australian wealth seminar scene – will attempt to sell mentoring schemes, high-risk options trading systems, boxed software programs and even franchise-style online marketing businesses to Kiwis who want to barely work at all and yet be fantastically rich.

Each book contains a “free” invitation to a seminar “worth $1994” (a very specific sum derived by comparison to the pricing of the seminars of US motivational speaker Tony Robbins).

In effect, punters who pick the books up from the natty black display stands in bookstores around the country are being asked to buy the advertisement for the seminar.

It’s brilliant marketing really, as befits the man behind the series, former evangelical pastor Pat Mesiti, now a preacher in the secular church of financial abundance.

Mesiti is a fascinating and charismatic man to meet, not least because of his colourful background as a preacher with the evangelical and highly commercial Hillsong church in Australia.

There’s no doubting the energy of the diminutive Mesiti (who is in great nick for a man whose brows now sport receding grey locks) nor his acute awareness that any journalist he meets is a single internet search away from learning about his past.

In fact, Yahoo’s new helpful habit of trying to anticipate your searching requirements suggested I add the word “scandal” to my search command even before I finished typing Mesiti’s name.

Consequently, it is he who brings up his public disgrace in 2001 when he was stood down as a preacher at Hillsong for visiting prostitutes, a scandal that led him to reinvent himself on the wealth-creation speaking circuit.

It’s still a sensitive point. As we talk the phone goes. A current affairs show producer calls as we talk, asking Mesiti to front for an interview. “Are they dirt-diggers?” he asks nervously, clearly weary of constantly revisiting his sexual sins.

Hillsong church and Mesiti still have much in common, including the message that God and Jesus want their believers to be rich, and, unusually, that Jesus was himself wealthy.

Mesiti sums it up for me. He doesn’t believe Jesus was broke. If Jesus was poor why did he have a treasurer? How could he have afforded to keep such a retinue of disciples? How else could he have afforded to take so much time off work?

Mesiti adheres to the school of thought among predominantly US preachers with a penchant for the good life that Jesus was wealthy, and what’s more, the mainstream churches know it, but are keeping the truth from people in order to amass riches for themselves (Mesiti points out that mainstream churches are among some of the biggest landowners in the world).

Mesiti’s stance is not far from Hillsong head man Brian Houston’s claim that true Christians are money magnets. “If you believe in Jesus, he will reward you here as well [as in heaven],” he once told a Sydney Morning Herald reporter.

Mesiti claims that despite having left Hillsong, he has a similar mission to the wealth- dispensing God. “I tell the people, their prosperity is my passion,” he says.

The nine authors of the Millionaire Makers series share that mission, Mesiti claims. That’s handy, because it is the only way to address the key paradox of the motivational speaker/ professional mentor: If they are so wealthy and successful, what are they doing on the speaking circuit flogging their books and mentoring systems?

“Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach,” is the old saw that comes to mind, particularly for a journalist who has met many financially successful people.

The standard response is that they have a mission to teach and to free humanity from the shackles of society/poor schooling/bad parenting, which all combine in a malign conspiracy to keep us from the secrets of wealth.

Of course, the way to break free from the shackles and achieve wealth quickly and painlessly, according to the Mesiti school of thought, is to buy the book/the mentoring scheme/the software. Such mentoring brings “wisdom without the wait”, he tells me.

For the record, this cynical journalist for one is deeply sceptical about get-rich-quick schemes. I have no doubt they work – the problem is, I think they work for those selling them, not those buying them.

There are no audit trails, no published success rates to prove it one way or the other.

That leaves those handing their cash over taking a leap of faith.

I wouldn’t dispute that speakers like Mesiti can be a powerful force to motivate people to get out there and improve their lot, but it’s hard not to see that as secondary to the sales pitch. Pick your gurus carefully.

Source: Rob Stock, Just who’s getting rich quick?, Fairfax NZ News, http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/2548780/Just-whos-getting-rich-quick, Last Updated 29/06/2009. (Accessed 02/12/2012.)

proof_stuffNZ-Mesiti_02-12-12NOTE: SCREEN GRAB TAKEN ON THE 02/12/2012.

Amway, Hillsong & C3 – The Mesiti Connection & Restoration

16 Sunday Dec 2012

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It is uncomfortable to note that Hillsong ‘Pastor’ Pat Mesiti was restored to ministry while the Hillsong worship leader Geoff Bullock was left with no help, having his image maligned by Hillsong.

Why was Hillsong and Phil Pringle of Christian City Church (C3) more concerned about restoring immoral Pat Mesiti and not others like Geoff Bullock (who were not immoral)? Below is an excerpt that examines Pat Mesiti, Hillsong and another victims story more closely.

The following is an interesting extract from a book titled ‘A life of unlearning – a journey to find the truth‘ by Anthony Venn-Brown. (We do NOT endorse the doctrinal content of this book.) Emphasis ours.

“It was time to find someone else to take on Youth Alive and so I approached Mark, an experienced youth leader, who was managing a Christian organisation in New Zealand. As I’d been supporting myself through Every Believer Evangelism, Youth Alive had no salary to offer him and he declined. Pat Mesiti, the youth pastor of an Italian congregation in Sydney, had been my enthusiastic assistant, so he was my next choice. Pat did a tremendous job and under his dynamic leadership, Youth Alive continued to grow, opening up opportunities for him to preach around Australia and overseas. Seeing the potential in Pat, Brian Houston, the senior pastor of Hillsong Church, invited him to join their team. Basing himself at the large church in Sydney, Pat became a very popular speaker and sold thousands of tapes, videos and books on youth topics, as well as speaking regularly at multi-level marketing conferences for companies like Amway.

It hurt me when I heard, not long after I had fallen off the radar so to speak, that Pat had taken on the title of ‘founder’ of Youth Alive NSW. My teenage daughters were finding it difficult enough to come to terms with what had happened to their dad, but hearing Pat regularly acknowledged for what their father had done caused them even more pain. My sense of pride and achievement in founding a successful youth organisation, eventually growing to events of 20,000 or more people, was now, along with many other things, also to be taken from me.

However, Pat would eventually discover himself what it’s like to have your humanity become public knowledge, with all the pain and grief this brings to your family. In 2002, Pat was stood down from all ministry in the Assemblies of God because of misconduct, the result of a sexual addiction. I’m sure he was unaware how blessed he was to have a pastor like Brian Houston support him and his family in counselling and other ways. This support meant Pat could focus on getting his life and marriage back on track in order to be restored to the ministry. Sadly, even with that support, Pat’s marriage didn’t survive. Phil Pringle, the Senior Pastor of another mega-church in Sydney, willingly took Pat’s healing and rehabilitation in hand. In his new church home and with his new wife Andrea, Pat was re-instated as a preacher on Sunday 19 February 2006 and serves God with a new awareness and humility.

The Christian Church—a place of love, forgiveness and restoration—proved to be so for Pat. His repentance opened doors and people came to his rescue. Why hadn’t it worked like that for me? I wondered. Was my sin so unforgivable?” – Anthony Venn-Brown, A life of unlearning – a journey to find the truth, 15/11/2007. 

What Happened To Pat Mesiti of Hillsong?

02 Sunday Dec 2012

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If you would like to read more about Pat Mesiti’s involvement with Hillsong, read here:

A Hillsong History

The Sight Magazine interviewed Pat Mesiti. Below is the interview.

THE INTERVIEW: PAT MESITI

8th May, 2006

By late 2001, Sydney’s Pat Mesiti was one of Australia’s most well-known evangelists and a high-profile corporate speaker. Then came a very public moral fall and Mesiti stepped down from ministry. In February, after an absence of four-and-a-half years, the 46-year-old started preaching once again. He spoke with DAVID ADAMS about what led to him stepping down and his return to public ministry…

Pat, thanks for your time. You’ve just returned to preaching after a considerable absence. What happened that caused you to move out of preaching?

“Basically, about four-and-a-half years ago or so, I was on a speaking tour in America and I received a phone call and had to come home because an area of my life that was out of order was brought to light. I’d fallen morally and it came to light through a series of events and I came home. My (church) leadership confronted me on it and I owned up to it…Probably the hardest day of my life was in telling my children that their father had failed.”

Can you tell us a little bit about what it was – there was nothing illegal involved in what happened?“No, there was nothing illegal. There’s so many rumours out there about what I did and what I was supposed to have done. Someone said something about ‘predatory behaviour’ which I was not (involved in) and someone said I’d been dealing drugs – I’ve never even smoked a drug in my life. I was basically struggling with a sexual addiction and again, I reiterate, I did not do anything that was illegal.”

You’ve mentioned that since you stepped down, you’ve been going through a ‘healing and restoration’ process. What’s that involved?

“I was stood down, and rightfully so, and what I thought was a long sentence in my life was actually something that saved my neck and really got me on track spiritually. The process of restoration was, of course, standing down, and just learning to be a Christian rather than a ‘preacher’…There was a process of counselling – and I can tell people now I never believed in counselling until I needed it. And having good friends – there was not a lot of friends that I could talk to about it because I don’t believe you should talk to everybody about your situation but to good leaders…I kept going to church week in, week out – that was very hard sometimes and very embarrassing at times. But I kept going to the house of God because I knew the church was where I would get healing…”

What prompted you to start preaching again now?
“It wasn’t just me…I tell people that you don’t have the call of God, the call of God’s got you…I certainly would go back and forth on but I couldn’t shake it off. It wasn’t just me – I don’t deserve probably to preach ever again – but there’s obviously some people around me that seriously believe in me and believe in the gift of God – and my family certainly did, my wife and my children – and on that basis, (on that of) my spiritual leadership, Pastor Phil Pringle, and on the green light of other Christian leaders, we felt that it was good, that it was the right time.”

Obviously at the time of your stepping down there was criticism both from within the church and without the church…
“Actually, most of the criticism was from within the church.”

…and, I was going to ask, it is the criticism that comes from within the hardest to bear?

“The media – they weren’t after me, they were really after Brian and Hillsong. You know, Hillsong’s a great church and I tell people ‘Hillsong never hurt me, I hurt them; the body of Christ never hurt me, I hurt them’. But, you know, we’ve had people that have just said terrible things and it’s very hurtful. One of my friends – a successful businessman who’s not a Christian – said to me ‘Let me get this right Pat – you Christians, you’re the forgiven, is that right?’ I said yes. He said ‘Jesus died to cleanse all your sins?’ ‘Yep -He’s thrown them all in the sea of forgetfulness’ . And he said ‘You know what? For a bunch of forgiven people, you’re very unforgiving. Why do you people keep getting the scuba gear out?’. And I thought that was quite funny, I’d never heard anyone really put it that way before.”

You’re now going to Christian City Church in Oxford Falls…What prompted you to move from Hillsong?

“It’s a long story. I just felt that it was very hard for Brian and for the team there…People just didn’t know what to do and I was there and I want to get married now and I want to start again and we just kind of felt that it was time for me maybe to get a clean start and a clean break somewhere.”

When you stepped down from ministry in 2001, you were a best-selling author, presenting a weekly show on the Australian Christian Channel, and travelling the world talking to huge audiences. As a result of what happened, you lost your marriage, your business and you say, your friendships were ‘tested’. How hard is it to come back after such a public fall and was there a time when you were tempted to walk away from the church altogether?

“Well, let me first say that it is a very long walk home. And it’s a very painful walk home. Being such a public figure – you’d walk through airports and you’d hear things that people would say…it was a very hard walk, but a very worthwhile walk. I never once thought of walking away, it didn’t even cross my mind. That was never an option and I think you’ve got to make up your mind whether you really believe in this Christian deal or not. I get so disappointed with leaders that fall and they never go back to the church – they never follow the Lord and they get bitter at everybody rather than owning their own stuff. And I think through God’s grace and mercy, I’ve been able to own my stuff…That’s pretty hard, the blame. You can justify it but it doesn’t heal you, it doesn’t help you. It’s the old story of the serpent and Adam and Eve in the garden where you’re all looking for blame.”

Do you think that now that you’re back in a public forum preaching, the experience you’ve been through will be useful in that?

“It’s very easy to talk to me now about stuff and…On a one-on-one session, I find it very easy…but at my first preaching (session) I couldn’t sleep for a week or so, I was tossing and turning. But it was great and we’re back. I’m taking invitations and so forth – I’m certainly not going to be spending the rest of my life talking about the past but if I can use it to help some people…especially the leaders (I will).”

Do you think your experience helped to bring home to you in a new way, the spiritual condition of man?

“I knew it and I preached it. But, gosh, when you go through something like that…And also, I remember, one of my friends Steve Kelly telling me ‘Pat, you know, everything you’ve preached to others, it all applies to you – all the forgiveness’. I’ve got to tell you, it was very hard to believe that…”

Since your return to preaching, has there a particular message, God’s burning on your heart?

“Oh, how many?…I think one thing that I do believe is that I believe everything I believed before and preached before but I believe it more now. I certainly believe in the message of prosperity more now than I ever did. When I had a big income coming in – and boy, there were a lot of rumours about that as well, what I was earning – it’s easier to believe Jehovah Jireh and He’s the provider and then all of a sudden you’ve got nothing coming in and you still believe that He’s Jehovah Jireh. I think it’s certainly made me a lot softer towards people’s predicaments and I’ve probably realised that everybody has issues. And that’s why we need a Saviour and that’s why I love the Lord so much… I’ve preached in church at the moment and I’ve said, you know, ‘How many of you here think you have disappointed God?’ and 98 per cent of the congregation raise their hand. ‘Well,’ (I say), ‘I’ve got news for you – you can never disappoint the Lord. He has no allusions about you in the first place – He knows exactly what He’s got, He knows what I’ve made of and He’s knows that I’ve got clay feet and that’s why He bids me to come to His mercy seat’…”

The last few years you’ve been working as a motivational speaker and are known as “Mr Motivation”…Your website talks about getting a ‘millionaire mindset’ – what do you mean by that?

“It’s basically a catchy phrase on how to really renew your mind. People live like kings and think like paupers and it doesn’t work. I try and teach people to think differently – to think generously, to think prosperously, to think graciously, to be a bigger person. That’s my message really…”

There’s obviously been considerable debate about prosperity doctrine…

“It’s not a doctrine, it’s a principle…”

…what are your thoughts on that?
“I believe that God gives us prosperity for a purpose in every area of your life – in your relationships, in your faith. People like some of the great charismatic leaders of some of our large churches, they get torn down by the media and yet some New Age guru comes over here, charges $2,000, fleeces everybody and tells a pack of lies and the media have got no problem with that. Yet a man of God will get up and teach something that is Biblically sound…and get shot down in flames, even from some of his own people. It’s never about the money. It’s not about money, it’s about people and helping people live better, think better, act better and be generous and be kind and be fruitful and have a big spirit. I’m kind of going – where is the problem with this message? I don’t know where the problem is, it’s beyond me.”

So the money really is irrelevant in that sense – whether you have a lot or a little?

“You know, the widow’s mites – she gave all she had. She was generous. She wasn’t a millionaire but boy, she had something about her that was different to all the others. The millionaires were broke in their thinking – they gave out of their stinginess, she gave out of her abundance of heart. That’s where people kind of miss it.”

Can you now go a little back further in time and tell us about how you came to be a Christian in the first place?

“I gave my life to Christ when I was a teenager at an Assemblies of God church in Sydney. My grandmother had been in the faith and she would share the Lord with us and, of course, me being an arrogant, smart teenager, I didn’t want to hear it. But then I went to Italy and came back and..went to a youth group and gave my life to Christ. There was a guy there from Youth With A Mission who preached that night and I gave my life to the Lord.”

You went on to become one of the pioneers of Youth Alive in Australia – how did that come about?

“(I)’ve always had this burning desire to help young people and I was involved in a youth group as a youth pastor – a very conservative one at that – and I just felt we needed to do something. I was involved with another gentlemen in starting Youth Alive in Sydney and he kind of fell by the way and I took it on to a state event and got it more, not so much bands orientated, but worship and praise orientated. I really believe that Youth Alive was the instigator for a lot of the modern-day worship that we have in Australia…I think Youth Alive as a whole was very instrumental in what we have now. As a matter of fact, quite a lot of the Youth Alive team were people like Darlene Zschech and Geoff Bullock and…John Waller and Randall Waller – so a lot of the modern-day heroes of praise and worship were members of the Youth Alive band…”

Where do you see yourself five years from now?
“Five years from now?…Let me put it this way: I still think my calling is to come alongside pastors and help build their churches through winning people to Christ. I see myself as doing more of the same – not the negative behaviour, by the way – but more of the same as far as reaching lost people and reaching broken people and helping those that need help. My passion has always been to build the local church. It hasn’t left me and I want to continue to do that. Evangelism, crusades, business functions – any opportunity we can get to really impact people. That’s what I really see myself doing is being a builder of churches and being a builder of people…I can’t undo what I did and I won’t do it either because there is no way you can unravel that. But the best I can do is try by…the Lord’s ability to forget what lies behind and press on to help build what Jesus is building and that’s His church. That’s where I see myself in five years time and hopefully for the rest of my life. I’m very grateful to God that He’s given me a second chance. People say that God’s a God of second chances and I say ‘Well, God’s a God of the seventy times seventh chance’. We must never limit God and His ability to use us – what He can do and what He can’t do – and I think alot of people do that…I’m open to whatever God has for me but it will always be, I think, in the confines of helping to build the local church and winning people to Himself.

Source: THE INTERVIEW: PAT MESITI, Sight Magazine, http://www.sightmagazine.com.au/stories/Features/mesiti8.5.06.php,08/05/2006. (Accessed 08-07-2012.)

NOTE: SCREEN GRAB TAKEN ON THE 08/07/2012.