Hillsong Church expands to Brisbane

The popular Hillsong Church has expanded to Brisbane, where it has taken over one of the city's largest Pentecostal churches, Garden City Christian Church.

Garden City Christian Church on Brisbane's southside that will now be renamed Hillsong Brisbane Campus, was acquired after church-goers voted in favour of the Houstons.

Pastor Brian Houston who resigned as president of the Australian Christian Churches, in a bid to focus on the Hillsong expansion, will be elected as the senior pastor of the acquired church on May 24.

According to sources, Houston chose to move into Brisbane because "it is a fast growing area with great potential for the Gospel".

Some speculate that the global economic crisis might be one of the reasons for Hillsong vying on its expansion ambitions.

However, although unverified, sources say, Garden City's senior pastor, Bruce Hills, was forcefully made resign by the congregation after scrutinizers noted the poor growth of the church.

When he returned from eight weeks' leave, Garden City Christian Church elders told him: "We'd rather have more of a CEO leader than you. We'd like you to resign," Brisbane Times quoted him saying.

Describing it as "the deepest, darkest experience I've ever been through", Mr Hills said he was "really angry about what these people had done".

Hillsong presently has a 21,000-strong congregation across Sydney. The Pentecostal group was founded by the Houstons in Sydney's Hills district in 1983 and now has branches worldwide.

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Brian Houston's Hillsong arrives at Garden City

HILLSONG evangelist Brian Houston has defended his takeover of the Garden City Christian Church, saying "we are all part of the same church".

Hillsong logos have already replaced Garden City Christian signs have in preparation of Mr Houston’s installation as senior pastor tomorrow.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail today, Mr Houston said the board of the re-branded church would be governed by three Hillsong members, three GCC members and himself.

“We’re all Australian Christian church, so we’re all part of the same church, so were already part of the same greater movement,’’ he said.

The Mt Gravatt church is one of Brisbane's oldest and largest pentecostal churches.

More than 70 per cent of registered members voted that he and wife Bobbie should be senior pastors of the church.

Mr Houston said while the Garden City Christian church will still exist, “it essentially will be like a campus of Hillsong’’ and will be called Hillsong Brisbane Campus.

Garden City Christian members who fear the loss of their church’s autonomy must adjust to change, he said.

The church’s constitution, which will be reviewed by Mr Houston, will still control the operations of the church.

“The members of Garden City control the assets, and are the ultimate decision-making body,’’ he said

Changes to the constitution require a 75 per cent vote of registered members.

Mr Houston said he felt the changes to the church were biblical.

“I absolutely do. In the new testament church, there was a real sense of cooperation and working together, town by town, village by village, city by city.’’

Sydney-based Hillsong, with a membership of 21,000 and assets estimated at $150 million, is considered Australia’s largest and wealthiest single congregation.

It has a television audience in the millions, and churches through Europe, but Garden City Christian is its first interstate campus in Australia.

Mr Houston said there were no plans for other interstate moves, but “I’m not saying we would never ever do another thing somewhere else,’’ he said.

Next stop secular Europe, says Hillsong founder

More money... Brian Houston, newly installed senior Pastor of Hillsong Brisbane.

IF HILLSONG founder Brian Houston had his time over, he would not write a book called You Need More Money.

That purposely provocative title - which encapsulates Mr Houston's "prosperity theology", but also irked Hillsong's many critics - has dogged him throughout the phenomenal growth of his Pentecostal church.

"If you said to me 'what are the three silliest things you've done', that probably would be No. 1. The heart of the book was never just about being greedy and selfish … I put a bullseye on my head."

Mr Houston doesn't shrink from his view that people need money to be effective, but the book title ensured his enormously successful church would forever be associated with proselytising for financial gain.

Hillsong estimates it earned $60 million in 2008, half of which came from its congregation. It would not disclose how much Brian and his wife Bobbie Houston were paid, but said all profits were ploughed back into church activities.

Unlike the sacrifice and humility preached by other Christian faiths, Hillsong members are told material success is nothing to be ashamed of. But Mr Houston cautioned it must be "prosperity for a purpose". "It's great if you want to go make money for a purpose. If it's just all about you and selfish, then we wouldn't [preach that]," he said. "It's about being effective, not just being self-absorbed, but living for things that are bigger than you are."

But since the global financial crisis, increasing numbers of Hillsong members are reporting financial hardship rather than financial gain.

"Definitely people are asking deeper questions about life and spirituality," Mr Houston said. "The people in our church are hurting like everybody else is, which means that we've got more call on us to be giving assistance to people and reaching out to people … That's definitely been magnified through the global crisis."

Hillsong now provides outreach services to 2000 people in Sydney every week. Yet the financial crisis isn't curtailing Mr Houston's plans to expand Hillsong. The church officially set up in Brisbane yesterday, after taking over Garden City Christian Church. It is likely to be Hillsong's only Australian branch outside Sydney.

While he says he receives letters "almost every day" from people around the world wanting a Hillsong in their city, Mr Houston is more interested in expanding further into Europe. Hillsong operates in London, Paris, Kiev, Stockholm and Moscow.

"Europe obviously has such a huge Christian tradition but has become so secular … I would like to think over the next few years it would be great to impact a few of those European cities."

Mr Houston said Hillsong does not receive any money from its international branches.

He said the church's growth from 45 people in a school hall in Baulkham Hills 25 years ago to 15,000 in cities around the world was a "miracle story".

"We're preaching to people's Mondays, not just to their Sundays."

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Hillsong pastor defends ministry against cult claims

CELEBRITY evangelist Brian Houston has defended his Hillsong ministry against allegations it is a "cult-like" organisation as the Sydney megachurch opened a "campus" church on Brisbane's southside yesterday.

He also denied Hillsong had misspent Commonwealth grant money or recruited students in NSW schools.

Mr Houston and his wife Bobbie were installed as the new senior pastors of one of Brisbane's largest Pentecostal churches, the 1000-member Garden City Christian Church.

The church's governing board is now dominated byMr Houston, pictured, and Hillsong appointees, and the church has been rebranded with Hillsong logos.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail, Mr Houston, credited the dramatic growth of the 21,000-member Hillsong to a need for fellowship and "the grace of God".

"It's also because people want answers to life," he said.

Criticism that Hillsong is overly focused on money, flashy entertainment and fund-raising, were rejected.

"We're big and because we're big people wonder what all this is about," he said.

Hillsong critics, including politicians who have been contacted by former Hillsong members, have accused it of cult-like behaviour, including psychologically abusing people who questioned the church's practices.

"Recruitment and fundraising is what it's all about," said Tanya Levine, whose book People in Glass Houses exposes her experiences with Hillsong.

"Fundamentalism is not open to free thought and questions."

But Mr Houston said Ms Levine was only a spectator.

"There's 21,000 people who attend Hillsong on Sunday in Sydney and I would say 20,500 or 20,800 have awesome things to say," he said.

Former ALP leader and long-time MP Carmen Lawrence, now teaching at the University of Western Australia, said there was not proper scrutiny of $600,000 in federal grant money Hillsong received for indigenous employment and hundreds of thousands more for other programs.

"One thing that worried me was whether they were using funds to recruit members for their church," she said.

Mr Houston said "absolutely 100 per cent" of the allegations were false, blamed people with "an agenda" for prompting the reports, and gave assurances the ministry had strict accountability for grant money.

Students in NSW were not being recruited by Hillsong in schools, he said, although Hillsong was active in schools, as other churches were.

He also said Hillsong members giving 10 per cent of their pre-tax wages to the church were not asked directly to do so.

Faith film festival opens at Walmer Park

STARTING this weekend, the Nu Metro cinema at Walmer Park offers fans of movies with inspirational messages the chance to watch a faith film festival.

The festival will comprise six films which will be rotated throughout the week.

I Heart Revolution: With Hearts As One is a concert movie showing the popular Hillsong United worship group in action.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a satirical documentary, arguing against scientific theories like Darwinism, the big bang theory and Einstein‘s theory of relativity.

Not Easily Broken is a drama about a couple who reach breaking point in their marriage when the wife is injured in a car accident.

The fourth film in the festival is No Greater Love about a divorced couple contemplating giving their relationship another chance.

Intonga is a local production, filmed in Mdantsane about a young stick fighter who is forced to take up boxing when bullied by the local champion.

The last of the films is Fireproof, starring former Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron as a firefighter whose marriage is falling apart. The festival runs until May 14.

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Hillsong on a mission to spread the word north

The languid Queensland capital has become the latest stop in Brian and Bobbie Houston's odyssey to franchise their pentecostal Hillsong Church around the world.

Mr Houston has resigned as president of the Australian Christian Churches, a position he held for 12 years, to focus on the "multisite" expansion of Hillsong. And that, coupled with the controversial move interstate, has prompted speculation that Hillsong is ramping up its domestic network of churches, ready to pounce on churches struggling amid the global financial crisis.

Garden City Christian Church on Brisbane's southside will be renamed Hillsong Brisbane Campus and the Houstons installed as senior pastors there on May 24, after 79 per cent of Garden City members voted in favour of the takeover.

An information document circulated before the vote said the Houstons had chosen to move into Brisbane because "it is a fast growing area with great potential for the Gospel".

The Garden City Christian Church's 3000-strong congregation will significantly bolster Hillsong's numbers, which stand at 21,000 across Sydney.

Hillsong told the Herald there are "currently no plans" for other churches in Australia. "However, our heart is to bless and build churches through example, encouragement, and strategic partnerships and we believe it is right for churches to endeavour to reach and help people wherever there is need," it said in a statement.

The Sydney-based Houstons, who already spend much of their time travelling to the branches they have set up overseas, intend to be in Brisbane "as much as possible" to lead services and meetings.

Garden City's senior pastor for eight years, Bruce Hills, was forced out before the arrival of the Houstons. Garden City Christian Church announced Mr Hills's resignation in December, amid criticism that the church was not growing enough. Yet in an address to a Christian conference at Easter, Mr Hills revealed he had a nervous breakdown last September. "Emotionally I just imploded," he said.

When he returned from eight weeks' leave, Garden City Christian Church elders told him: "We'd rather have more of a CEO leader than you. We'd like you to resign."

Describing it as "the deepest, darkest experience I've ever been through", Mr Hills said he was "really angry about what these people had done".

Steve Dixon, who has been acting pastor at Garden City since Mr Hills's resignation, will now be "campus pastor" of Hillsong Brisbane.

A former Hillsong staff member for seven years, who now blogs as The Thinking Theologian, argues the worldwide economic downturn has crimped the Houstons' global expansion ambitions, forcing them to look closer to home for new Hillsong branches.

"An established, sizeable congregation, with a catchment of wealthy city-slickers, is far too lucrative an opportunity to turn down," the blogger posted. "But it won't stop at Brisbane. I suspect as increasing numbers of churches feel the pinch of the global recession, they'll be more than willing for Brian Houston and co. to step in and give them a makeover, repackage them, and then market them under the Hillsong brand."

Since starting their church with 45 people meeting in the Baulkham Hills Public School hall in 1983, the Houstons have been trying to emulate the model of established churches, where there is one leader for the faith, and "operational" pastors appointed to run individual churches in locations around the world.

The takeover of Garden City Christian Church coincided with Mr Houston's resignation from the Australian Christian Churches presidency at its conference conference on the Gold Coast.

"Its [sic] a happy, sad time for me as my time as leader of ACC comes to an end tonight. My heart is full of vision for the future though," Mr Houston said on Twitter.

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Hillsong Power In Latin America

Latin Americans are flocking in their millions to energetic Evangelical churches - and now they're starting to flex their political muscle.

The Catholic Church is in trouble in Latin America. There is a major trend underway in the region, threatening to end Catholic supremacy. Protestant churches — especially the Pentecostal ones — are growing quickly and becoming politically influential, from Mexico down to Chile.

Nothing reflects this trend better than the Chilean Government's proclamation of 31 October as a Protestant and Pentecostal church public holiday. Announced at the end of 2008, the decision was described by The Economist as a "cultural milestone".

And while socio-theological prophecy is not its specialty, the magazine was onto something when it speculated that "Protestantism by Latin America's socially aspirational poor looks like an inexorable trend". What The Economist didn't mention is that Latin American Protestants — especially Pentecostals — are seeking and exercising increasing political influence all over the region.

The fact that around 14 to 15 per cent of Chile's population of 20 million are Protestants is not lost on Chile's President Michelle Bachelet, an agnostic and socialist who was briefly exiled in Sydney in the 1970s. Her declaring the public holiday "was a decision taken in the context of the next December 11 election, and the Government is courting the growing Protestant vote, especially the Pentecostal," Rubén Orellana, a leading Methodist pastor, told newmatilda.com.

The growing political power of Pentecostals — the fastest growing branch of Protestantism in the world — marks a shift for the movement, previously regarded as "apolitical", and more concerned with individual conversions.

There are around 30 political parties in Latin America that could be branded as Pentecostal (or Evangelical). A few of them are already well established. One example is the right-wing Nicaraguan party "Camino Cristiano Nicaraguense" (Nicaraguan Christian Path). At the 1996 elections the party became the third-largest political force in Nicaragua.

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez — whose relationship with the Catholic Church has soured since he came to power in 1998 — has attracted the support of Pentecostals for his programs of social assistance for the poor. Bolivian president Evo Morales has developed a similar proximity towards these churches. His friendly relationship with Protestants has been in sharp contrast to his confrontations with the hierarchy of the Bolivian Catholic Church. In 2006 Morales rewarded Protestant Churches' support for his government by appointing Casimira Rodríguez, an indigenous Methodist, as Justice Minister.

Brazil has the largest community of Pentecostals in the world. Since 2002 the left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been actively courting them. In 2006 President Lula's Workers Party forged a powerful political coalition with the Brazilian Republican Party (BRP), established by the large Pentecostal group the Church of the Kingdom of God. The Brazilian Vice-President José Alencar and 62 members of the Brazilian Congress are Pentecostals. While there is no evidence of a "bloc vote", the political slogan "A brother votes for a brother" voiced in the latest Brazilian elections speaks of a trend of Pentecostal faithfuls voting for Pentecostal candidates.

In Mexico — a historical stronghold of Latin American Catholicism — Pentecostals have become a powerful presence in grassroots movements. In Chiapas — the birthplace of the radical indigenous Zapatista movement — over 30 per cent of the community is Protestant. A former local governor, Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia, is a member of the Evangelical Church of the Nazarene.

The impact of the Latin American Protestant movement is not only political. It is also changing the religious landscape of the region dominated for centuries by the Catholic Church. Fifty years ago 90 per cent of the 560 million Latin Americans were Catholics, today it's 70 per cent and still declining.

And this is happening while Protestant and Evangelical churches keep on growing. Today 20 per cent of the Latin American population is Protestant. With 75 million adherents, Pentecostals are the overwhelming majority among these, according to the 2005 figures from the World Christian Database.

Guatemala is the Latin American country with the largest percentage of Protestants, with Pentecostals making up the majority of these. The Protestantism movement in Guatemala emerged in the mid-1800s, and has enjoyed rapid growth since the 1960s. Today 30 per cent of its 13 million population belongs to a Protestant Church.

Some predict Brazil will follow Guatemala's path and in the next two decades Pentecostals will be a majority of Protestants. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, nearly 40 out of 188 million Brazilians today are Protestants. Three large Pentecostal churches are the dominant forces in this group: the fast-growing Pentecostal Universal Church, the Assembly of God (with 10 million followers), and the Kingdom of God Pentecostal Church. The latter has developed an unparalleled media apparatus, controlling newspapers, magazines, television networks and radio stations.

The rank and file of the Protestant movement come mainly from the poorer classes, many of whom live in Latin America's sprawling shanty towns. What's concerning the hierarchy in the Vatican is that they're not coming primarily from population growth, migration or indigenous religions — they're coming directly in disenchanted droves from the Catholic Church.

According to the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), 10,000 people a day leave the Catholic Church and around 8000 each day convert to Protestantism. "The largest number of converted evangelicals come from the Catholic Church", Bernardo Barranco, a sociologist and religious expert, said.

"Pentecostalism is an attractive option to the poor of the region", Dr Manuel Ossa, a theologian at the respected Diego de Medellín Ecumenical Centre in Chile, told newmatilda.com. "Pentecostalism relies on the so-called 'theology of prosperity' to attract followers", he said. "This claims that material wealth is a divine blessing achieved by an active and frequent participation in the religious services."

In marked contrast to the weekend's empty pews in Catholic masses, the Pentecostal churches popping up all over Latin America — typically no more than humble, undecorated wooden houses — are thriving, noisy and crowded places of worship.

Respected Belgian Catholic theologian and priest José Comblin told magazine Punto Final that Pentecostals were filling the vacuum left by the Catholic Church in the impoverished slums of Latin American. "The Catholic Church has abandoned the popular masses," he said. "In one of the Brazilian shanty towns where I live — with around 10,000 people — there are 84 Pentecostal chapels and three Catholic."

The loss of Catholic followers to the Protestant movement was one of the major points of discussion at the 2007 Latin American Episcopal Conference held in Brazil. The final document said the expansion of Protestantism "constitutes a serious concern due to the fact that the majority migrating into these groups are Catholics."

The late Pope John Paul II described the growth of Pentecostal Churches as an invasion of sects, and rapacious wolves who were robbing Latin America of its Catholic culture and destroying social cohesion. However, according to many observers, that Pope was himself one of the culprits behind the vacuum left by the Catholic Church among the poor.

The role claimed for itself by the Catholic Church as the "preferential option for the poor", was not part of John Paul's narrative. Closer to spiritual conservative centre and right-wing upper-class movements such as Opus Dei and Legionaries for Christ, Pope John Paul II destroyed Liberation Theology, a movement that was seen as a real option for the poor and a sort of antidote to the Pentecostal tide. Followers of Liberation Theology — Catholic priests and lay members working with the poor, marginalised and ethnic minorities — were unendorsed by the Vatican and persecuted by right-wing governments.

This is a big part of the hearts-and-minds battle for the region's poor that the Pentecostals are winning. Expect to see these groups wielding a lot more political power in the near future.

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