Tag Archives: Sunrise

Rosebrough reviews Houston cancelling “Mark the Forgiven” to speak at Hillsong Conference 2015

11 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in Hillsong Associations, Hillsong Conference

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Recently, Chris Rosebrough from Fighting for the Faith reviewed Brian Houston’s interview on Sunrise. Click here to watch the original interview:

Houston bends knee to critics and media (Part 2): Sunrise Interview

Chris Rosebrough does a good job framing this segment and addressing the issue before leading up to his examination of the Sunrise Interview:

“The issue here is that you know, as a pastor, part of my ordination vows if you would, basically say that I am to forgive the sins of the penitent. I can’t forgive the sins of the impenitent. And Mark Driscoll is a man who wants to be forgiven, wants everybody to say, ‘There is mercy in Jesus’. But he wants to be able to skip that part about what, you know, ‘You say you have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness’.

So Mark wants the forgiveness of sins without the thorny issue of having to- you know… actually admit that he’s committed sins to be forgiven of – which is kind of weird. Which then leads us to kind of the big story over the past week. And that is is that everybody knows that Mark Driscoll was invited by Brian Houston of Hillsong to come and be one of the speakers at Hillsong Conference, which will be convening at the end of this month in Sydney Australia.

Well there was a big outcry regarding that and what happened is that the initial invitation went out before Mark and Mars Hill imploded. So the roster was announced in the summer of last year for this 2015 Hillsong Conference. And then really everything got really bad at Mars Hill and now Mars Hill has completely imploded and ceases to exist. But along the way there’s still been no penitence. So what happened is that the outcry went out, you know: ‘He’s not- he should not be one of the speakers at Hillsong’. And so they changed it up a little bit. They changed it up. And rather than him being one of the speakerss, Brian Houston was going to conduct an interview with Mark Driscoll so that they can have a little dialogue so he can talk about the things he has learned regarding his mistakes. And that is how it was literally pitched by Hillsong, which still doesn’t quite meet the biblical standards regarding repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The two really go hand in hand. And especially somebody who wants to be restored to the pastoral office, you would think that they would be a model of somebody who really exemplifies true repentance. Publicly acknowledging their sin. Asking for forgiveness.Seeking reconciliation with those whom he hurt.

But Driscoll hasn’t done that. He just wants to go right back into the ministry and just ignore and act like nothing happened. And that’s the problem.

There was a backlash when one of the news agencies out in Australia the past week, they actually ran a story basically saying what’s the deal with Hillsong inviting this disgraced pastor to come and speak at their conference. And of course they went through and dug up some of the most embarrassing quotes that they could find from Mark Driscoll. And it became quite the event.

And so as the result of it, over the weekend we’ve learned that Hillsong had a conversation with Mark Driscoll. They’ve now uninvited him, Of course they uninvited him because of all the negative PR. Not because, well, Mark Driscoll hasn’t repented; Mark Driscoll hasn’t apologised; Mark Driscoll hasn’t sought to reconcile with those whom he has abused, none of the biblical reasons. But more or less because, well, it was looking really bad for the folks there at Hillsong. [57:29]

The points Chris Rosebrough raises are damning against Mark Driscoll and Brian Houston of Hillsong Church. This segment starts around 55 minutes in.

Chris also raised an interesting scripture.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8

When you listen to the sermon review, you can clearly see the fulfillment of this scripture. Because Mark Driscoll does not see his sin and refuses to repent, look what he does to God, God’s Word and the truth itself: he perverts it to paint himself as a martyr and paints Christians and faithful ministers as satan’s servants. Don’t believe us? Listen to this sermon review.

The sermon review starts at 1:10:30.

Hillsong Cancels Driscoll

Click Here to Download this episode

Program segments:

• Pastrix “Prophet” Patricia King?
• Terri Savelle Foy Explains How to Get on the Cover of Success Magazine
• Joel Osteen and Separated for the Better
• Hillsong Cancels Driscoll
• Sermon Review: Paul the Forgiven by Mark Driscoll

Source: By Chris Rosebrough, Hillsong Cancels Driscoll, Fighting for the Faith, , http://www.fightingforthefaith.com/2015/06/hillsong-cancels-driscoll.html, Published 08/06/2015. (Accessed 11/06/2015.)

NOTE: We may add Rosebrough’s views on his review on Driscoll’s sermon as well as our own observations.

Houston bends knee to critics and media (Part 2): Sunrise Interview

08 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by in Hillsong Associations, Hillsong Conference

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If there is anything Brian Houston of Hillsong hates, it is anyone who criticises him. If they are Christians, they are “Pharisees” and “evil people”. If it’s the media, it’s demonic, anti-Christian and not of God. Again, Brian Houston espouses to his followers that people should not listen or engage with “critics”. According to Houston, these “haters” are out to stunt your potential and growth.

This series of articles will observe how Brian Houston went against his own teachings and decided to act according to the public criticism over Mark Driscoll the last week.

Houston bends knee to critics and media (Part 1): Lateline

Brian Houston yesterday morning had an interview with Sunrise (07/06/2015). It appears that it was this particular interview that drove Brian Houston to deal with Mark Driscoll speaking at his Hillsong Conference 2015.


[Click to download link]

We will be reviewing this script over the next few months to examine his behaviour and claims. His responses deserve it.

SUNRISE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Sunrise: Hillsong church has come under fire for inviting disgraced American preacher, Mark Driscoll, to speak at their annual conference. Among other remarks, he infamously claimed that women were created to house a mans’ penis. Snr Pastor of Hillsong, s Brian Houston, joins us now from Waterloo. Good morning  to you Brian, it is always good for you to talk to us, thank you and I know how busy you are on a Sunday morning.

Ah, pretty offensive comments, Brian. Ah, did you know all these things when you booked him to come out here for the conference?

Houston: Hi Monique. I didn’t know. Mark is very well know in evangelic circles all around the world so we invited him before this major controversy started. He was going to speak, preach and teach at the conference. And when so all these things began to break we changed it to an interview. I wanted to ask him, I wanted to hear if these things were true. That particular statement, the first time I ever heard that to be honest with you in in these last 2 or 3 days. And so if he did say that it is disgraceful and degrading.

Sunrise: Pastor, is part of a general doctrine of Driscoll’s over the years is that women were really created for men’s use and should be subservient and submissive to women. Just to be clear, that is not Hillsong church’s belief?

Houston: Entirely different. I would see things as absolutely the opposite, when it comes to women’s place in society and their role in the church. And of course at Hillsong we’ve got many, many women who are pastors who do speak on the platform, who are heavily involved in leadership positions off the platform, so it couldn’t be further from where we stand.

Sunrise: I understand that one of the platforms you serve under is all about forgiveness. These controversies are quite recent though, particularly him leaving his church in the States, really quite recently. Why not just cancel him Brian?

Houston: Well I am going to talk to him late on today and we’ll talk about the different possibilities. I need to hear from him directly about some of these things. I think the worse things he is quoted as saying are literally the year 2000 or 15 years ago. And it’s true he resigned from his church just last year. As I said we’d already invited him by then. But, I’m gonna talk to him this afternoon and we’ll kinda work out where we’re goon work out where to go from here.

Sunrise: So at that meeting you will seek to determine whether he truly has changed? And therefore has something to offer about a story of change and redemption, I guess?

Houston: I know Mark said “sorry” many times over. Sadly it looks like the damage was already done by then because a lot of people are not  forgiving toward him at all. There’s a lot of feeling around the whole situation with Mark’s claims and some of the ways he led. And so because he is such a well-known figure in Christianity, this interview which by the way is going to be like 30 mins in the middle of a 5 day and 5 night conference.  So it is a small part of the conference. But that is why I think it is of interest to people to find out exactly what is true, what’s not true, and of course, hopefully, to learn from it. Because, for a pastor to make some of those claims, even though he is using the bible to try and substantiate those claims, I just think it doesn’t help the cause of the church at all.

Houston: Or humanity generally, not only are they degrading it within themselves, but  allow an attitude that feeds into all sorts of other problems like violence.

Brian, can I just ask before you go, is Hillsong paying for Mark t come out here?

Houston: Well at this point we are paying his fares, yes. But we are not paying a fee or anything like that. So, we’ll talk this afternoon and work out where to go from here.

Sunrise: Alright, Brian Houston, good to talk to you. Thank you so much for giving us your time this morning, we really appreciate it.

Houston: Thank you, goodbye.