Can the decline of Hillsong be tied to a wider crisis in commercialised evangelism and wider christian organisations in Australia?- A detailed look into an upcoming longform podcast investigation of Brian Huston’s former church.
Full story available on Shorthand
A HISTORY OF HILLSONG
Hillsong Church, known as the arguable first ‘megachurch’ and the religious response to neoliberalism, has faced a crisis across this past year. With a layered controversy surrounding former leader Brian Houston, their influence has begun to wane and fracture as major media supporters cut their airtime, celebrity congregants distance themselves from the organisation, and prior churchgoers find alternative paths to practice their faith. To understand how the almost 40-year old global entity has reached this decay, however, an analysis is needed of how it spread to over 30 countries, boasting 130,000 regular attendees.
Brian Houston
Brian Houston, the now-former Global Senior Pastor of the Hillsong Church, was raised Pentecostal by his mother and father Hazel and Frank Houston, devout congregants of New Zealand’s Assemblies of God, itself the largest Penetecostal denomination globally to date. Like his father, Brian had ambitions of forming his own church, spreading the same musically-driven evangelism himself and his four siblings were raised on. Following their immigration to Australia in 1977, Frank Houston founded the Sydney Christian Life Centre. These were more informal congregations that began non-denominationally, a trait that Brian’s work would eventually take on too, despite Frank eventually placing his Life Centres under the Assemblies of God.
During Brian’s childhood years in New Zealand, Frank Houston had sexual assaulted dozens of children placed under his care at Assemblies of God. This pattern continued with the founding of the Sydney Christian Life Centre, where Frank groomed and assaulted children and pastors-in-training over the course of years.
After the move to Sydney, Brian began volunteering at his father’s church, serving as assistant pastor. At the time he was freshly out of bible college and recently married to his partner Bobbie Houston, with the couple still together today. It was in 1983 that he began to work independently, founding the Hills Christian Life Centre, the church that would eventually become Hillsong.
Hillsong rapidly grew to be a more modern evangelical equivalent, with its first corporately evocative ‘Hillsong Conference’ in 1986 debuting the Hillsong Music label, which would become the publicity machine of the megachurch. By 1997 Brian was the head of the Australian Christian Churches, the national branch of the same Assemblies of God denomination he had grown up with. He would leave that position 12 years later, and by 2018 Hillsong had become entirely non-denominational, a move that helped streamline its globalised and urban appeal, while essentially freeing them from the politics and criticisms against pentecostal evangelism.
Frank Houston’s actions weren’t made public until 1999 when a mother of one of his victims informed Hillsong of what he had done. Brian dismissed his father from the organisation following this and seemingly cut contact with his father. More details emerged across the next 15 years, with many criticising Brian for the clear conflict of interest as he investigated his father as head of the Australian Christian Churches.
THE PENTECOSTAL INFLUENCE
Hillsong draws on a specific and incredibly cosmopolitan corner of Christianity, Pentecostalism, specifically the third-wave neo-charismatic movement. A form of protestantism that emphasises spiritual gifts like faith healing and speaking in tongues, known as charismata. It was this, more performative, form of prayer that ostracised many pentecostal communities following its formation in 1901, but also gave rise to their unique songs and hymns, which in the US would go on to become a cornerstone of Rock and Roll.
The second wave, the Charismatics are believed to have originated in the 1970s through Anglicanism, where baptism grew to a similar level of irreverence to the aforementioned charismata. This movement managed to bring pentecostal elements further into the mainstream, as musical protestantism was experiencing a renaissance. Anglicanism however, is in flux now, with a divide between cessationists and continuationists worldwide. It’s only with the third wave of pentecostalism, also known as neo-charismatics, that Hillsong’s theological grounding came into being.
A CELEBRITY INJECTION
There’s arguably one key figure however, who brought Hillsong’s third-wave Pentecostalism into the 21st century, Carl Lentz. The American pastor met Brian’s son Joel Houston in 2003, with the pair soon deciding to establish a Hillsong church in New York. With Lentz as the Lead Pastor of Hillsong NYC, a stubbornly corporate model arose. Lentz built up rapport with major celebrities like Justin Bieber, Chris Pratt and Kevin Durant, who could essentially serve as ‘brand ambassadors’ to Hillsong’s ‘American market’. It would be this shift that not only re-energised the influence of Hillsong Music, but also allowed for the globalist spread of the church, with its American congregation eventually outgrowing the foundational Australian one. Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was known to attend Hillsong services in Sydney, epitomised this culture of influence, after facing criticism for attempting to secure Brian Houston an invite to the White House on one of the PM’s regular visits.
Lentz’s foundational reconstruction however, precipitated the decline of Hillsong as much as its rise. The Pastor was let go by the Church in 2020 after he was revealed to be in an ongoing affair, with later reports from inside Hillsong detailing his consistent abuse of power and sexual assault of an employee.
CONTEMPORARY DECAY
Lentz, known as the ‘Rockstar Pastor’, essentially ran Hillsong NYC with the same informality he channelled in his sermons, working without oversight and bullying employees to the point of multiple reported nervous breakdowns. His downfall had a ripple effect across Hillsong’s American branches, growing increasingly fatal with the revelation of an epidemic of sexual assault in Hillsong after the head pastor of Hillsong Dallas, Reed Bogard, was accused of rape. It eliminated any hopes of an expansion for the organisation, following its non-denominational rebrand in 2018. This was most clear for Hillsong Atlanta, which had opened in 2019 and was led by the church’s first black pastor, Sam Collier, who quit less than a year later, after the torrent of allegations began.
Hillsong Australia was fairing little better, with Brian Houston announced to appear in court for allegedly helping to cover up the assault and paedophilia of his father. The 2018 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, had centered a huge portion of its investigation on Frank Houston’s Life Centres, and the environment of assault created by its founder, with Brian appearing to corroborate accounts of his father’s actions. It was this elaboration as witnessed that opened the conversation once again to his role in the publicity around his father’s action when they first emerged. By 2022 the discussion worsened for Brian when he came under scrutiny for alleged inappropriate communications and conduct with Hillsong staff.
THE FALLOUT
By March of this year, Brian had stepped down as Global Senior Pastor following an internal investigation and is set to appear in court this December where he will plead not guilty to allegedly covering up the paedophilia of his father. Amidst this and the aforementioned controversy, Hillsong has lost the massive amount of radio and television exposure it previously enjoyed, and has led many celebrities to distance themselves from their former congregation. Around 80% of Hillsong’s profits come from this music and media. Scott Morrison has also distanced himself from the Church in recent years. Schwartz Media, publisher of the Monthly, has anonymously published accounts that many in Hillsong believe the Church could split over Brian’s controversy, with his full removal seemingly impossible without a full cessation.
“WAITING FOR A SCHISM”
Phil Dooley, who was the Pastor of Hillsong Cape Town, now leads as Hillsong’s Global Senior Pastor. However, when Brian Houston stepped down for his alleged misconduct, his wife Bobbie Houston was also fired over text, angering many in the family. Their daughter, Laura Toganivalu, has since argued against the decision to essentially dismiss her parents in private correspondence with Hillsong. This has further driven the divide between Dooley and the Houston family, as the wider family, including brothers Ben and Joel, essentially argue on behalf of their parents. It’s this family feud that essentially draws the split between Hillsong’s management led by Dooley, and the remaining Houston family members in the church, most notably Ben who is still head of Hillsong United and friend of the family, General Manager George Aghajanian.
With tensions high, it seems the key players are waiting on the outcome of Brian’s trial in December before determining if or when Brian could return to the fold. As they wait 9 of the 16 US Hillsong congregations have defected, and are unlikely to return.
[Images were sourced from Shutterstock, our interviewee was Shaun Nemorin, a trauma therapist who was a previous congregant at Hillsong Sydney]Digging into Hillsong
To be successful in the investigation, I will have to dig deep into the Hillsong Church, something that could prove to be difficult.
Founder and former leader Brian Huston has done a great job of keeping the leadership team amongst the church secretive and has created a ‘us against them mentality with the media. Like many religions across the world, not much gets in and not much gets out when it comes to the administration side of things. Whether that be Catholicism, Judaism or the Hillsong Church
To be able to investigate Hillsong fairly and accurately, I spoke to someone who has done that and is doing it.
I spoke to Australian freelance investigative journalist Elle Hardy who most recently published “Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over The World.”
I felt that being a young journalist it was important to engage and look for advice from people who are undertaking similar projects.
Hardy’s book discusses how the Christian movement, which was started at the turn of the 20th century by the son of liberated slaves, is becoming the faith with the quickest rate of expansion.
With 600 million adherents, Pentecostalism will represent one in ten people on the planet before the year 2050. This is the religion of the Holy Spirit, and followers of it have personal encounters with God and His blessings, including prosperity in mind, body, spirit, and bank account.
Throughout her research, she focused on Hillsong and how the church is fairing in Australia’s current political and social climate.
If the team is working on an investigation piece this large, we want to be able to have a piece that all Australians can read – not just a limited demographic.
For many people, Hillsong is a name they have just heard in the media, or even heard around. So, for everyone to be able to understand what the Hillsong Church is it will be important to simply explain the five ‘w’s’, what when and why.
Elle Hardy gives a great example of the church and the background information that comes with it.
An important part of understanding Hillsong is to see how the musical performances are managed and what the atmosphere is like.
Hillsong is not exclusive in the sense that anyone can attend their masses. To get a good feel of the church I will look to attend all Victorian locations and see if the atmosphere and musical performances across the state remain the same.
The locations in Victoria include –
– Melbourne CBD
– Melbourne East
– Melbourne West
– Melbourne Greater West
– Geelong
– Online (this will be interesting)
Being founded in Australia, Hillsong has had a massive impact on Australians’ lives. With our podcast series primarily being an investigation on the decline of Hillsong, it is going to be difficult to achieve accurate numbers as Hillsong is very secretive over their data. I cannot imagine them putting out figures saying they have declined.
Something difficult that will be difficult is trying to find out if the church has declined significantly enough for a strong enough story. I believe it will have to be an observation in trying to see if numbers have dwindled. But since the team and I have only started this story in the middle of the so-called decline, we will have to chat with people who have seen the church rise and subsequently fall.
Continuing my chat with Elle Hardy, who here explains from her research where Hillsong is at in this current moment.
Fair and accurate journalism is a pillar in my learning that I know is crucial to the success of a piece. If we are doing a detailed piece about Hillsong, it is very important to give them an opportunity to comment. As you can see in the image, I did contact Hillsong’s team directly and although they gave a limited reply, I believe I can still take a quote out of this that will add an important element to the investigation.
“At the current time of transition is very busy for our church and we would not be on a position to speak on this.”
There is a bit to take away from this. Firstly, the church acknowledges that they are transitioning and that it is very busy for them.
It is not just difficult for a student journalist, as Elle Hardy explains the continued secrecy around the leadership, despite the changes in power.
I mention all this because, in an investigation as deep as ours, we may sometimes hit ‘dead ends’, but I believe it is important to look for a nugget of gold in a pile of dirt, even if you are told no, multiple times.
Moving onto the word “no”, I received an abundance of rejections for interviews and even some strange responses.
I reached out to Tanya Levin, who I believe would be a great guest.
Levin boasts two books to her credit. Levin was reared in the Hillsong Church, which is the subject of the first book, “People In Glass Houses”. It was on the 2007 Walkley Non-Fiction Book Award shortlist. Her relationship with a criminal is the subject of the second book, Crimwife. In addition, she is the host of the podcasts Reading Hillsong, which debuted in 2021 and Leaving Hillsong, which features interviews with Hillsong Church members who have left the organisation.
After originally agreeing to the interview, things with Levin turned a little strange.
Levin started discussing social media star Gary Vee and then the design website Canva and even her son, all in one text message chain.
This conversation alluded me to the fact that throughout the investigation, the team will meet some unique characters along the way.
I believe the best way to get shorter interviews of church and former church members will be to vox pop out the front, hoping to maybe catch them when they are in a good mood or willing to talk. Because as Elle Hardy explains, some people are “embarrassed” to be associated with the church.
Despite being an Australian-based podcast and an Australian issue, I think it is important to also recognise the decline of Hillsong across the globe, particularly in the US.
Roxanne Stone managing editor of Religion News Serice says – “ It seems like the most recent scandals and the U.S.-based sort of implosion really started a little over 18 months ago when the celebrity pastor of Hillsong New York City, Carl Lentz, was fired for an extramarital affair. And that really seems like the sort of first domino in the U.S.”
As we cover the Hillsong timeline, it will be important to cover Justin Beiber’s former pastor Carl Lentz and his impact on the church.
Another major question for us to ask is will Hillsong’s fall from grace will have ripple effects through the larger evangelical community.
As Hillsong became a guiding light for plenty of churches, many religious organisations tried to follow in their footsteps in order to develop in the same way that Hillsong was growing.
It seems inventible there will be a wider downfall.
But that is what we are trying to discover if there is a wider downfall.
As we wait to see the result of Brian Huston’s three-week trial in November, that will dictate a fair chuck on the podcast series. As there will either be a rise, or continued downfall depending on the verdict.
Telling real people’s stories is what is most important in this case.
Is Australia losing faith in Christianity?
Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that the percentage of citizens following the Christian faith, so what do these numbers mean for the future of Christianity in Australia.
The 2021 census revealed that more Australians are further detaching themselves from the religion, seeing a decrease in the number of Australians identifying with it.
In 2011, 61.1% of people identified as Christian dropping to 52.1% in 2016 and currently only 43.9% after the 2021 census conducted by the ABS.
It begs the question as to why Australians are drifting out of Christianity and into a society where religion starting to fade.
38.9% of Australians do not identify with any religion, and that number has doubled since 2006, demonstrating a sharp increase of the country pushing away from
There are a number of layers to dissect when investigating the reasoning behind the country fading away into atheism, but one reason could be the concealment of an array of child sex offences across the global Christian Church community.
The fall of Hillsong appears to be the tipping point for the country’s relationship with Christianity.
Following its founding in 1983, Hillsong has long been synonymous for its significance and role within the Christian community in Australia.
In 2021, Hillsong Founder Brian Houston was charged with concealing child sex offences, with police alleging Houston “knew information relating to the sexual abuse of a young male in the 1970s and failed to bring that information to the attention of police.”
The census of 2021 reflects Australia’s changing perception in relation to Christianity, with Hillsong’s recent scandal potentially being able to explain the reasoning for that
This utter travesty could explain the people of Australia’s push away from the religion, regardless of the longevity the faith held in the country since federation in 1901.
The first census conducted in Australia in 1911 revealed 96% of people stated their religion as Christian, accentuating the basis of Australia’ federation and system being built on a Christian-related idea.
Losing almost half of the population from identifying as Christian to no religion in a quick and drastic way only signifies dark and tough times ahead for the community in Australia with less and less people involved.
I like to compare it to an economic outlook, and similarly to the state of the global economy, the Christian Community in Australia is on a plunge.
These statistics shown on the right reflect only one thing, which is that young people are leading the way in relation to Australia’s push away from Christianity.
Data shows that young Australians from teenage years seem to be leading the trend towards identifying with no religion.
This can potentially be explained by the continuing unravelling of the Christian Church across the world.
Not only have we seen well known leaders from Hillsong charged with crimes in relation to child sex offences, but there has been an array of high-profile cases around the world regarding an array of religious leaders.
The case of Cardinal George Pell would contribute to the impression that young Australians shouldn’t associate themselves with religion, and although he is a cardinal of the Catholic church, there is no doubt Australians wouldn’t associate this with doubt around their religion as a whole.
I believe that because young Australians around the country have seen the repercussions such disgusting acts have caused on the lives of so many Australians in the Christian community.
This notion is further accentuated by the idea that young Australians likely put themselves in the shoes of the similarly-aged young victims of such horrid crimes, seen in groups like Hillsong and other churches.
However, on the opposite side of the spectrum in relation to age it appears that older Australians are trying to keep the faith, so to speak.
It is interesting to note that almost 70% of people 75 and over in Australia still consider themselves Christian, potentially demonstrating a stubbornness to change their identity despite worldwide scandals in relation to the faith.
This provides a stark contrast in comparison to young Australians, with approximately only 35% of young Australians (Gen Alpha, Gen Z and Millennials) identifying as Christian.
It demonstrates that if this pattern of pushing away from Christianity continues to trend in the way in which it is, the demise of the Christian religion in Australia
The more the number of young Australians increases, the more Christianity in the country continues to decay and the trend over the last 15 years in particular.
It is fair to say that Australia’s relationship with Christianity is dwindling into a catastrophic state, one that if trends continue to head in the direction they currently are, might see the end of the religion modern Australia was built on the back of.
What we wish to achieve with the investigation
First of all, our goal for this investigation is to find out how the Hillsong scandal has impacted religion in Australia and how it’s lead to the decline of commercialised evangelism.
This is important not just to us but also for those in Australia, as Hillsong has been frequently appearing in the news as of late, typically in a negative light impacting the manner religion is perceived within Australia.
Additionally, this topic impacts those who rely on commercialised evangelism and also those generally involved with religion and with its popularity in the media at the moment, it is an important topic to make people aware of and informed about.
As Hillsong’s reputation continues to decline we’re beginning to see a shift in religion in Australia as modern values within society are directing the general public away from conservative religion, being a major part of why the Anglican Church recently split over same-sex marriage.
With these change in times, the support of religion in Australia is seeming to grow less mainstream, and with all the bad press around Hillsong it is why we want to look into this topic further.
We want to provide information covering not just the situation of Hillsong but also the state of religion itself. Analysing these causes and effects is key to achieving our investigation.
We will achieve this by conducting necessary research and continuing to seek out interviews with those relevant to the story. As mentioned earlier we have already reached out and contacted some important sources, but it would still be good to continue talking to more people about their opinions on the topic.
In terms of our final product, we had initially planned to record a single podcast episode. But as we started to develop the story more, we realised that it was a much larger project then we had previously anticipated, which is why we have opted to make a larger production plan as we simply need more time to develop this complicated and information heavy topic.
As well as this, the situation is ever changing, especially with Houston’s trial coming up in November, it would be important to hear the outcome on that before finalising the project as it would have a strong impact to how our story ends.
We had also considered something like a scrollytelling story to accompany the podcast as well, so to still keep some part of our initial plan in action, we’ve decided to put our long-form production plan as a scrolly.
So instead of the single podcast episode we wish to achieve a multiple part episodic podcast uncovering the whole situation with Hillsong and how its impacted commercialised evangelism throughout Australia.
The plan for the podcast is to first start off with giving pre-existing context, such as the Houston family and the divide within the church, their loss of airtime, email leaks and the threat of partition.
From there, we will start expanding upon the topic by beginning to introduce key players to the story and looking into the individual experiences of our sources to add a more anecdotal component to the piece.
Our interviews will be one of the most important aspects to our story, as they will be help with the main narrative, giving us fresh voices and opinions that may not already be covered within the media.
As the story progresses, we will begin to elaborate on the international blueprint that Hillsong charted for evangelism as we move onto their current state internationally and in Australia.
We will then compare and contrast with other Christian groups in Australia and look at the impact on international evangelicals. Despite our main focus being on Hillsong we still want to look at other religious groups as seeing what their position in Australia is like could be influenced by Hillsong.
If it flows with the story, we would also like to touch on some other components including the difference between Pentecostal and evangelical, celebrity intersection tangents and where it intersects with Morrison administration policy.
We are aware that our topic is quite broad, meaning that it could be challenging to stay on track with the story.
Additionally, because of there being so much research and information on Hillsong and religion in Australia, we don’t want to overwhelm viewers by over complicating and confusing them with an information overload.
This is why having a multiple part podcast would be the best way to tell our story as viewers can have breaks between listening to episodes as they process the information we are giving them and it also allows as to be more structured with how we want the story to flow.
Having multiple episodes gives us creative room to work with as it allows us to take many different directions as the story continues to develop.
A prime example to how we want to lay out our podcast is New York Times’ Rabbit hole. What makes this podcast the perfect model is the pure creativity of it especially with its play on words.
As the title suggests, it takes you down a literal rabbit hole which really helps with driving the narrative, being story driven without being too boring and keeping viewers entertained, which is something we want to achieve with our own podcast.
It’s important to look at examples like these as when covering hefty topics as it can sometimes be important to amp up the creativity to first of all ensure that the story is something fresh to catch viewers attention and to then keep them entertained, especially when it can be a serious overwhelming topic.
To achieve the goal of our story, we really need to take it slow to straighten out all the facts and make sure we’ve got sufficient sources to support our podcast.
We felt as though rushing to pull together some half decent project would not give the story the justice it needs, as its highly relevant and important to the state of religion in Australia.
As we continue to work on the project more it will be interesting and exciting to see how the story ends up.
