Hillsong was first formed in 1983 by Brian and Bobbie Houston as the \u201cdecidedly functional, even dowdy\u201d The Hills Christian Life Centre, in outer-suburban Sydney. Now one of Australia\u2019s most recognisable Pentecostal megachurches, it has congregations and campuses across the globe.<\/p>\n
In recent years, \u201cunlikely king\u201d Brian got widespread attention as a \u201cclose friend\u201d of Scott Morrison, who had regularly attended Horizon Church, founded by a former Hillsong pastor, before he became Australia\u2019s prime minister.<\/p>\n
However, Houston resigned in March last year, after\u00a0allegations of inappropriate conduct<\/a>\u00a0of \u201cserious concern\u201d with two women.<\/p>\n In the same month, Hillsong was accused in Australia\u2019s parliament of\u00a0\u201cfraud, money laundering and tax evasion\u201d<\/a>. And, last August, Houston was found not guilty of charges of covering up sexual abuse by his pastor father Frank, whom he described as a \u201cserial paedophile\u201d<\/a>. (The court accepted Brian\u2019s claim his father\u2019s victim had asked him not to report to police.)<\/p>\n In the last two years, there have been two four-part documentary series, a podcast and and an SBS documentary on Hillsong.<\/p>\n Now, Crikey journalist David Hardaker tells the story of Hillsong in his new book,\u00a0Mine is the Kingdom<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n How did Hillsong come to dominate Australian Pentecostalism \u2013 and Australian Christianity more broadly? Through the 1990s and 2000s, Hillsong drew crowds and attention: it was young, vibrant and popular. Until at least 2016, Pentecostal churches\u00a0were growing<\/a>\u00a0while other Christian churches were declining.<\/p>\n Hardaker tells the story of Hillsong by charting Houston\u2019s ministry through a \u201crise and fall\u201d narrative, in which the success and failure of Hillsong and Houston become one and the same. For Hardaker, \u201cHillsong was Houston, and Houston was Hillsong. It was a concentration of fame and power not possible in the traditional Christian denominations.\u201d<\/p>\n He begins by depicting Brian Houston as a boy from New Zealand who \u201cinherited his father\u2019s name as a leading New Zealand preacher, but not much in the way of wealth\u201d. The Houstons moved to Sydney in the 1970s after Frank Houston received \u201ca picture of Sydney, Australia\u201d and a divine message to start a church there.<\/p>\n Hardaker presents Frank and Brian Houston as \u201coutsiders\u201d who \u201cmoved to the very top of the Assemblies of God movement in Australia\u201d. He then documents the early contributions of other key players, drawing on a mix of news sources, documentaries and interviews conducted for the book.<\/p>\n Hillsong is known for its\u00a0music<\/a>. While music production is not central to the book, one chapter begins with former music pastor Geoff Bullock, who left his ABC job in the late 1980s to work for Hillsong full-time. He left the church in 1995, after 12 years, deciding he no longer shared its vision.<\/p>\n This chapter also introduces Nabi Saleh, former co-owner of Gloria Jeans coffee chain, who is described as a \u201cfabulously wealthy\u201d donor and key advisor to Houston. Hardaker shows how the business interests of Gloria Jeans and Hillsong were often \u201csymbiotic\u201d, with coffee shops on site at Hillsong churches and Gloria Jeans franchises owned by Hillsong attendees (who returned financial tithes or donations to the church).<\/p>\n He details how Saleh cultivated relationships with leading American evangelical preachers, including two, Casey Treat and Rick Godwin (also authors and motivational speakers) who were \u201camong the most influential\u201d in Houston\u2019s life.<\/p>\n In the second half of the book, Hardaker moves on to discuss \u201cthe sins of the son\u201d. He begins by turning to an incident in 2019, when Houston spent 40 minutes in a hotel room with a woman \u201cknown to Houston as a financial supporter of the church\u201d.<\/p>\n Little detail is known about this incident, and\u00a0Hillsong has stated<\/a>\u00a0Houston can\u2019t recall what happened in the room, as he was under the influence of alcohol while taking anxiety medication.<\/p>\n Hardaker also focuses on the mishandling of complaints made by\u00a0Anna Crenshaw<\/a>, who was assaulted by Jason Mays, an administrator and volunteer singer at Hillsong, at a party in 2016. She was 18. She says Hillsong only took her complaint seriously and notified police after her father, an influential American pastor, pushed church leaders to act. Hardaker describes this as starting Hillsong\u2019s \u201cown #MeToo movement\u201d.<\/p>\n Hardaker records that one young woman, Helen Smith, said after the Crenshaw incident:<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t sure that I was okay with taking my kids to church, which is what I grew up expecting I would do. I didn\u2019t see it as a safe place anymore for me or my children. The way they handle serious allegations, they think that they\u2019re above the law.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In documenting these accounts, Hardaker is compelling, while largely resisting sensationalism.<\/p>\n In the next chapter, Hardaker takes us back to 1995. He describes the burnout experienced by volunteer music and production crews. Bullock re-enters the story, and recalls telling Houston, \u201cListen, if we keep going this hard, it\u2019s gonna break.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a spiritual home for them and they were just working like dogs,\u201d he reflects. Houston apparently had little concern, dismissing Bullock by saying, \u201cyou\u2019re not a union rep [\u2026] if they don\u2019t like it [\u2026] Go to another church.\u201d<\/p>\n Houston\u2019s response is certainly uncaring. Yet, churches typically rely on volunteer labour and Hillsong is no different in this sense. As Hardaker notes, \u201cHillsong\u2019s music had taken off worldwide and was set to become the river of gold that would fund the church\u2019s expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n Hardaker describes Houston\u2019s dream of \u201ca world beyond borders, where Hillsong and Pentecostal Christianity would reign\u201d. Houston, who \u201cruled the roost\u201d as a \u201csalesman\u201d for Jesus, is described throughout using images of monarchical rule, sales and showmanship.<\/p>\n Hardaker is interested in another rise and fall, too. Hardaker weaves Houston\u2019s story with that of Scott Morrison, whom he works to \u201cunravel\u201d. The first chapter sets up this dual narrative by recounting\u00a0the moment<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthe two men \u2013 the pastor and the politician \u2013 prayed on stage together\u201d, at the 2019 Hillsong conference. \u201cBoth of them, at this moment, were at the peak of their powers.\u201d<\/p>\n This pairing is an interesting aspect of Hardaker\u2019s book \u2013 one I wish had featured more prominently.<\/p>\n The convergence of Pentecostal theologies and neoliberal ideologies is embedded in the text, but underexplored. Early on, Hardaker uses Morrison\u2019s oft-repeated refrain, \u201cIf you have a go, you\u2019ll get a go\u201d, to introduce the concept of prosperity teaching and to frame the wealth of the Houstons and Hillsong<\/p>\n As the Houston story would show, all things were possible if you had the spirit to spread the word of Jesus Christ. If you had a go you would certainly get a go \u2013 and a God-given go at that.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hardaker explains that within prosperity teaching, the word \u201cblessing\u201d has:<\/p>\n …an overt meaning of \u201cmaterial blessing\u201d. It was based on an interpretation of the Bible that Christ lived in poverty while on earth so that we could live well and be removed from the curse of poverty. [\u2026] if we did not claim our rightful blessings as Children of God, then we were wasting the life of poverty that Christ had led.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is a risky lesson. Hardaker rightly notes it \u201chas the effect of demonising the poor: if you are wealthy because you believe in God, then the flip side is that you are poor because you lack faith.\u201d<\/p>\n Pentecostalism\u2019s creep into Morrison\u2019s politics emerges as a key issue. Hardaker contends:<\/p>\n In some ways, Houston\u2019s brand of prosperity Pentecostalism is so perfectly intertwined with neoliberal thinking that it is difficult to say where the religion stops and the political policy begins.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Though Australians tend to feel uneasy when they see religion creeping into public life, Christianity has\u00a0long been part of it<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 through policy, education, church-based charity and welfare.<\/p>\n Pentecostal leaders and churches who embody the neoliberal values of individualism, competition, market value and merit are not merely influencing politics \u2013 they are\u00a0responding to neoliberal conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n As pastors and politicians continue to \u201crise and fall\u201d, we need to look to the systems and cultures that enable them.<\/p>\n Brian Houston is not the first evangelical leader to \u201crise and fall\u201d. Hardaker tells us other global ministers Houston had been close to falling from grace long before he did.<\/p>\n Hardaker illustrates a \u201cfamiliar pattern\u201d. South Korea\u2019s\u00a0David Yonggi Cho<\/a>\u00a0embezzled church funds. In the US,\u00a0Jim Bakker<\/a>\u00a0was found to have sexually assaulted a church staff member and committed fraud.<\/p>\n \u201cRise and fall\u201d narratives bring us into the lives of powerful leaders and show how the worlds they create spectacularly fall apart. As outsiders looking in, the personal drama is part of the appeal.<\/p>\n The problem? Such narratives frame these once-powerful leaders as the source of trouble. If only we could be rid of such people, churches (and parliament) might be safer, healthier places! It is an enticing idea.<\/p>\n However, we need to look beyond analysing the actions of any individual church leader. We need to ask what sort of systems allow abuses of power to happen again and again.<\/p>\n In her analysis of the now-dissolved American megachurch Mars Hill, anthropologist\u00a0Jessica Johnson<\/a> argues we should not view abuse of spiritual authority as the isolated acts of a few bad men \u2013<\/span> the supposed rotten apples. Rather, we need to attend to the networks and systems that support and produce the kind of hierarchical leadership which parishioners do not feel safe to question.<\/p>\n If we want a healthier Hillsong, we cannot look just to Brian Houston. While he may have been the founder and face of the movement, the movement is bigger than him.<\/p>\n Throughout the book, Hardaker points to a lack of institutional accountability to explain both the minimisation of Frank Houston\u2019s crimes and the \u201creign\u201d of Brian. Hillsong\u2019s elders were apparently unaware of how Brian Houston operated as global pastor:<\/p>\n Hillsong\u2019s elders are the church\u2019s most illustrious figures; some date their association with the church back to its earliest days. They are meant to act as spiritual counsellors and to provide wise advice to the church, But they were now hearing disturbing details about Brian\u2019s behaviours for the first time.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This raises more questions than it answers. If a church has elders who are charged with providing spiritual care, how can a king-like leader rise without being kept in check \u2013 and without being cared for? Is a leader only in need of oversight after they fall? And then, are they cared for or cast aside? How can we make sure such a figure does not rise again?<\/p>\n Who actually cares for men like Brian Houston? I mean that in its most generous sense. Houston was successful. Hardaker asks: \u201cSo why the pills? And why the booze?\u201d. He refers us to an interview Houston gave in 2018:<\/p>\n I was overseeing a whole movement of churches in Australia, eleven hundred churches. I sort of dealt with it as a church level and on a father level \u2026 but I\u2019ve probably never, ever really looked after myself, and the grieving and the impact on myself. So from that point \u2013 over the next, maybe, ten to twelve years \u2013 I think, slowly, I was winding down emotionally.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Neoliberal conditions push us to be responsible for our \u201cown wellbeing and self-care<\/a>\u201d. Yet, at the same time, the need to work, to make money, to be bigger and better, often robs us of the ability to genuinely care for ourselves or our communities.<\/p>\n I\u2019m wary of being overly sympathetic towards Brian Houston, but for the sake of the community of believers who were under his \u201ccare\u201d, we need to ask: who is making sure these people and their leaders are genuinely cared for?<\/p>\n Houston may have cared for his own material wealth, but did he have the capacity to care for his spiritual and emotional health, to seek help when it was needed or to genuinely care for others?<\/p>\n As Hardaker acknowledges, within Pentecostal Christianity \u201cthe extraordinary reigns\u201d and miracles are commonplace. Christianity itself is centred on the belief the dead do rise.<\/p>\n Phil Dooley, the new global pastor of Hillsong, wants Hillsong under his leadership to be a\u00a0\u201chealthier\u201d church<\/a>. Brian and Bobbie Houston have\u00a0announced on social media<\/a>\u00a0they\u2019re starting a new online ministry and church.<\/p>\n As we plot the rise and fall \u2013\u00a0and potential rebirth \u2013\u00a0of churches such as Hillsong, we should leave space in the narrative to carefully attend to the ways churches and their leaders are safeguarding against spiritual, financial and sexual harm.<\/p>\n We should care that Christian leaders are cared for, so they may be able to care for those in their community.<\/p>\n This article was originally published in<\/em>\u00a0The Conversation<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n David Hardaker, author of Mine is the Kingdom,<\/em> will appear as a guest speaker at the next RSA Webinar on Wednesday 10 April. For more information about the webinar, and to register to attend, visit the Rationalist Society of Australia’s website<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n