The real reason why Hillsong Church is going viral

It's delivering what the World needs: 21st Century Church, community, fellowship all focused around love. But these things were not really mentioned at all by the BBC in its biased, sensationally edited Storyville program last week ‘Hillsong Church: God goes viral’.

As a member of the church for over 10 years, it really saddens me when the church is portrayed in the way the BBC chose, when what it offers, and the reason it is going viral, is good old fashioned unconditional love/Jesus, fellowship and life skills teaching in a safe place, for all ages, not just for youth which the program implies (80% of the church isn’t youth).

So, I thought I would answer the cynical question posed in the BBC’s programme summary ‘what does this glossy version of Christianity have to offer?” as to why it is going viral, and why the director Nick Aldridge who in my opinion, was as deceptive as a Martin Bashir in weeding his way into the church, only to look for the sensational not build an accurate helpful picture, which could have actually be a positive benefit to people at this time of huge mental stress, loneliness and need.

Here we go:

Worship Music for a global Christian and non-Christian audience – one of the most obvious reasons Hillsong is going viral is its music, but the BBC doesn't mention this music is used by ‘most’ evangelical and other churches throughout the world, to keep their worship fresh, alive, relevant. The music and its lyrics offer millions spiritual and mindful support whether they are a practicing Christian or not. I was recently chatting with a group of men and we got on to the subject of faith, I mentioned I was a member of Hillsong and in the one chap said “oh that's the church where the pastor molested children” then in the next sentence said “but I have their music on the whole time, its amazing”. Worrying he had it so wrong from a fake news perspective, but interesting the impact the music made on his life.

Teaching for a Global Christian audience – Hillsong pre lockdown, put on physical conferences (now online) for all churches not its own congregation. In Europe it was at the O2 and the speakers and drawn from the best Christian speakers in the world, like Bill Johnson from Bethel church in the US who is brilliant. What this shows is how Hillsong isn’t trying to gloss its own message and take people’s money, its global mindset is contributing to the message of Jesus/God and its church.?It just happens to be very good at organising, marketing and putting on events e.g. Christmas Carols at the Wembley Arena which is essentially for a London audience, and its FREE, with 100,000 turning up for the show.

Giving everyone the opportunity to serve – Unlike some churches where the opportunity to serve might come after being ‘accepted’ or after ‘tenure’ Hillsong gives everyone the opportunity to serve ‘on team’ from day one. This is because Hillsong knows that one of the biggest problems most people have is they are ‘stuck on self’ and their own problems and secret to solving this is to serve others. Basic Christian teaching. This also gets people to meet others, form friendships etc. The BBC program decided to focus on an Australian woman who left the church in 1991 (yes 30 years ago) and one woman from London, who obviously had a bit of a gripe about serving out of the 1000’s who do. I might add that the governance for serving as well as the team leaders running the service teams are second to none. And unlike the BBC program portrays, there is no pressure to serve or ‘over serve’.

Connecting people in groups – I call Sundays ‘corporate worship’ we are coming together as a church, meeting each other, worshiping, hearing a message and then going home or out to lunch, having a coffee. As there are many services to accommodate the large numbers this has to be regimented and timed to perfection, they are not ‘slick’ like the BBC implies but highly professionally delivered – which is what people want. Where ‘church’ takes place is in connect groups formed from its members. The BBC programme doesn't even mention these. This is in fact where I first came across Hillsong. The church I was in at the time was struggling with structure around connect groups and a Hillsong member (Don Cooper Williams) who ran the APAC operation at the company I was working in at the time in Australia (I was running EMEA), kindly shared their approach. The structure, openness and teaching in these groups is attractive.?Hillsong recently ran the Alpha Course from HTB (Holy Trinity Brompton, the Church of England version of Hillsong if you want to label it – who also speak at Hillsong conferences), as part of its connect groups, using HTB’s materials.

Provision for young families – Hillsong offers a great Kids church, welcoming families with children of all ages. There are excellent security systems, CRB checks on all taking part and this offers the parents a chance to relax and worships themselves each week. One of these groups is the Youth mentioned by the BBC, and yes its important. One of the reasons I got involved in getting Hillsong to come to Tonbridge was hearing about teenage suicides in the area and thinking how can that be happening here? what can one do to help this? But Hillsong is also able to reach inner city youth, not just suburbs youth. I am not an expert here but they are doing an amazing job.

Intelligently Supporting Causes – giving is part of church, otherwise, there is no church to support its buildings, its staff, and its causes. The BBC focused on tattoos, trendy clothing, and training shoes (not the focus of the pastors I know – theirs is supporting their young families), no mention causes Hillsong support over and above its own operation, like the Green Light service Hillsong set up to give medical support to rough sleepers in London, its support for refugees coming into the UK, its partnership with A21 the human trafficking movement, its support for Vision Rescue that supports children on the streets in India, or the whole communities it supports in Africa through Compassion. It's intelligent use of the giving it receives and the involvement of the church in all these causes is what I see not the financial BS engineered by the BBC.

Focusing on 'The One' – A principle that is from a place of that's its difficult to sit there and consider how to change the World or help people when there are so many in need, so its much easier to think about helping just ‘The One’ person at a time. So that is how Hillsong operates at a local level in terms of making sure new people are welcomed into the church and not left to their own devices.

Modern communications – Before Lockdown, Hillsong already had a strong YouTube channel for its music, its own cable TV channel and was able to simultaneously broadcast a message to all its locations thought massive screens at each location. 21st Century Church. ?With good sound, music, lighting and multi-media to help communicate. The switch to fully online was easy, and will continue to be refined, and of course acts as a library for all of all the great teaching put out there by the Hillsong Pastors and guest speakers across the world. Just today my wife recommended a message preached by Tim Douglass to a friend really struggling mentally.

So these are just some of the bits the Storyville program missed out. A lot of other churches offer much of what I outline above. The bible teaches us that God is love (simple as that) and to love one another, so if you want an environment that fosters that in a contemporary, alive, bible-based, vibrant, community-centric, professionally run way, then Hillsong is worth experiencing.

As for the never-ending BBC (and other media) focus on the lead pastors’ dead father (not and never part of Hillsong), it's a really hard that Brian Houston has to carry that shame and is hounded at every turn. ?When I met him, before I even joined Hillsong, in fact my wife didn't know who he was when we met him, he was the epitome of a humble leader and should be left to get on and be the force for good that he is.

I feel privileged to be part of Hillsong, have a Hillsong Campus on my doorstep here in Tonbridge, and also confident that anyone who experienced our church would leave with a different view that the one portrayed by the BBC.