On Sunday, a friend and I went to visit Hillsong church in Norwest. I’m no advocate for Hillsong but there were some interesting things I learned while observing in their evening service that I feel that we could glean from.
One thing I observed was the amount of organisation that went into one service. I found out that before the Sunday evening service different teams would meet on different days through the week to setup and prepare for Sunday. They had teams for music, for stage, for arts, for admin etc. They would meet, talk, act. On Sunday the teams would meet again and discuss that evening’s plan and the week. Very organised.
Secondly, their use of people and their gifts. At the end of the service, I saw people who were helping and being developed in the differing ministries that they had. They didn’t use just one person for the same ministry, but rotated people so everyone could get opportunity.
Thirdly, the preaching was strangely biblical… That’s all I’ll say.
Hopefully we can glean a little from this church.
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Hi Apo,
Hillsong are renowned for what can only be described as weekly concerts or even extravaganzas that people would otherwise have to pay to see.
There is always tremendous organisation that goes into productions of the magnitude that attract thousands, especially on an ongoing basis. Hillsong would I guess have a veritable army of volunteers who serve according to their abilities.
While I wasn’t surprised by your comments that the particular sermon you heard that service had Biblical content, I guess I would be interested in hearing a little more now or in another post about your experiences there.
My only concern is for some of our audience who may take your post as a green light to attend Hillsong.
Perhaps you could elaborate some more …..
Grace to you,
Rob
I appreciated Alen’s thoughts over here. Alen took the time to give both a positive and a negative critique.
My main concern with Hillsong is that in almost every contact I have had with their teaching ministry, they have preached a false or at best a shallow gospel. That said, I do think there is much we can learn by observing them.
I’m not sure any of what you saw is uniquely (sp?) attributable to Hill Song. You’ll find all large Churches have similar features in their planning and programming and they way they are able to resource ministries.
e.g. If you attended any one of the dozens of conservative evangelical or IB churches over 1000 you’ll find finely tuned services. They have to be to survive at that size.
The lessons are valid though – but nothing to do with HillSong. It has more to do with planning and committment of those involved.
Re the “strangely biblical” preaching – most false doctrine is strange :) and even Benny Hinn quotes a few verses here and there – but I’d hardly call his preaching biblical.
Thanks guys for your comments.
To Robert: There are a few reasons why I wouldn’t give the green light to Hillsong. Firstly and most importantly is the preaching of the gospel. While the preaching was textually based the gospel presentation was not clear and very man-centred. It didn’t address the issue of sin as the bible explains it, but rather a serious of mistakes we make. It comes from the view that man is inherently good and every now and then makes a mistake. This clearly against the teachings of scripture which show us that we are sinners and wicked by nature and if we do good it is only by the grace of God.
Secondly, I found that there was no distinction between the world and holiness. It seemed to me that people conducted themselves however they wanted and just added the name of Christ as a slogan. It was hard to tell by the way people dressed and talked if they were really Christians.
Thirdly, Hillsong did not come across as a place of worship, but rather, a place of merchandise. People were selling and buying and making the ‘house of God’ a market. Jesus had strong words against this type of irreverence.
Hopefully that answered it for you.
To Jason: Alen and I discussed these issues after blogging. I encourage everyone to read his blog. You’ll find the link in Jason’s comment.
To Albert: I agree wholly with your comments and do realise that these attributes are not only a part of Hillsong. I suppose, I wrote those things just by way of observation rather than look to Hillsong as a ‘good’ example.
In regards to the phrase ‘strangely biblical’, the preaching was strange because in light of the points I made previously, the preaching was textually based. The preacher actually was actually using proper hermeneutics to explain the passage.
Thanks again for the comments and apologies for not putting as much thought in this post.
Apo