Aseity
June 14th 2004, 12:16 PM
* Please Note *
This article, voicing my concerns about Hillsong, originally contained material which could have implied that Geoff Bullock left Hillsong because of moral failure. I was contacted by email from Geoff on 12 March, 2004, where he pointed out to me that this was not so. Consequently, the article has been edited to remove the insinuation. Geoff has made a request that I provide a link to an interview that was conducted with him by Diane Benge of Reality Magazine. The article entitled "No Longer the Golden Boy" is an honest and open discussion in which Geoff's bares his heart about his past and tells about where he is today in his walk with the Lord.
[ Click here to access "No Longer the Golden Boy" ]
http://www.reality.org.nz/articles/27/27-benge.asp
[ My linking to this article should not be seen as an endorsement for Contemporary Christian Music. My views on this topic can be found in the "Music in the Churches" section of this website. ]
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rseaborn/music.html
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From the 4th through to the 7th of September, 2002, with great excitement amongst the local Christian community, Hillsong was the main attraction at the “World of Worship” Conference at the Cairns Convention Centre. Hosted by a local AOG church, Emmanuel Christian Fellowship (ECF), it drew large crowds. World of Worship was the brain child of Tim Edwards, the indigenous senior pastor of Emmanuel Christian Fellowship.
The World of Worship conference had been advertised nationally, months in advance, through Christian bookshops, such as Koorong, Christian Literature Crusade and Christian Bookworld.
A single-page, three-fold leaflet was produced by this ministry and distributed locally. It warned of the dangers of Hillsong generally, as well as the type of music they offer to God, supposedly as praise and worship. The contents of the leaflet is the subject of this article.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING!
World Worship - Cairns 2002
Darlene Zschech & The HILLSONG Team
Cairns Convention Centre September 4th to 7th
Do you know someone going to this conference? Are you thinking of going yourself? Find out the truth about HILLSONG. Perhaps you’ll have second thoughts.
What Do You Know About HILLSONG??? other than that they produce Contemporary “Christian” Music that appeals to you.
Who are the people involved in this organisation? What do they believe?
Hillsong had its beginnings in 1986 and was the inspiration of Mark and Darlene Zschech and Geoff Bullock. Bullock was a leader in the “music ministry” of Brian and Bobbie Houston’s Hills Christian Life Centre at Castle Hill, Sydney. Along with Pat Mesiti who eventually founded Youth Alive, the Zschech’s were formerly part of a band that outreached to high school kids. (Pat Mesiti, who rose to the exalted position of National Director of Australian Christian Churches, was recently sacked after it was discovered he was involved in adultery.) The Zschech’s were introduced to Hills CLC by Mesiti and were soon thrust into the “music ministry” alongside Bullock. When Geoff Bullock “resigned” from Hillsong, Darlene Zschech stepped into his position and is now “worship pastor” of Brian Houston’s Hillsong Church.
Brian is the son of Frank Houston, an ex-General Superintendent of the AOG in New Zealand. Frank Houston moved to Australia from NZ in 1977, in controversial circumstances of a sexual nature, and established Sydney Christian Life Centre. Despite the sexual offences committed in NZ, Frank Houston rose to a position of eminence and great respect in the Pentecostal churches, as well as to the most senior position in the AOG in NSW. In 2000, Frank Houston was sacked after the NZ sexual offences became public, offences that were so serious he was not even given the option of quietly retiring. [Sydney Morning Herald, 27/03/2002]
When questioned by the SMH news reporter about the prevalence of sexual misconduct in high places in the AOG, Brian Houston, speaking as General Superintendent of the movement, informed the reporter that, of the AOG's 2000 Australian ministers, no more than five in any year were exposed and disciplined for sexual misconduct. He went on to defend the former AOG New Zealand General Superintendent, Jim Williams, who serves as an AOG pastor in Brisbane but whose licence in New Zealand was permanently revoked for his involvement in “adulterous offences and other indiscretions involving different women over an extended period of years.”
Today, the Hillsong Church, which incorporates Hills CLC and Sydney City CLC, has a collective congregation of over 10,000.
If you are like me and the SMH reporter, by this time you will probably be asking also, “Why is there so much sexual misconduct among the leaders of these highly popular and famous organisations?” And these organisations confidently profess to be Australia’s representatives with a clear mandate from God Himself to lead the nations into His presence in holy worship.
Worship Of The World
Click here to continue http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rseaborn/world_worship.html
This article, voicing my concerns about Hillsong, originally contained material which could have implied that Geoff Bullock left Hillsong because of moral failure. I was contacted by email from Geoff on 12 March, 2004, where he pointed out to me that this was not so. Consequently, the article has been edited to remove the insinuation. Geoff has made a request that I provide a link to an interview that was conducted with him by Diane Benge of Reality Magazine. The article entitled "No Longer the Golden Boy" is an honest and open discussion in which Geoff's bares his heart about his past and tells about where he is today in his walk with the Lord.
[ Click here to access "No Longer the Golden Boy" ]
http://www.reality.org.nz/articles/27/27-benge.asp
[ My linking to this article should not be seen as an endorsement for Contemporary Christian Music. My views on this topic can be found in the "Music in the Churches" section of this website. ]
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rseaborn/music.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the 4th through to the 7th of September, 2002, with great excitement amongst the local Christian community, Hillsong was the main attraction at the “World of Worship” Conference at the Cairns Convention Centre. Hosted by a local AOG church, Emmanuel Christian Fellowship (ECF), it drew large crowds. World of Worship was the brain child of Tim Edwards, the indigenous senior pastor of Emmanuel Christian Fellowship.
The World of Worship conference had been advertised nationally, months in advance, through Christian bookshops, such as Koorong, Christian Literature Crusade and Christian Bookworld.
A single-page, three-fold leaflet was produced by this ministry and distributed locally. It warned of the dangers of Hillsong generally, as well as the type of music they offer to God, supposedly as praise and worship. The contents of the leaflet is the subject of this article.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING!
World Worship - Cairns 2002
Darlene Zschech & The HILLSONG Team
Cairns Convention Centre September 4th to 7th
Do you know someone going to this conference? Are you thinking of going yourself? Find out the truth about HILLSONG. Perhaps you’ll have second thoughts.
What Do You Know About HILLSONG??? other than that they produce Contemporary “Christian” Music that appeals to you.
Who are the people involved in this organisation? What do they believe?
Hillsong had its beginnings in 1986 and was the inspiration of Mark and Darlene Zschech and Geoff Bullock. Bullock was a leader in the “music ministry” of Brian and Bobbie Houston’s Hills Christian Life Centre at Castle Hill, Sydney. Along with Pat Mesiti who eventually founded Youth Alive, the Zschech’s were formerly part of a band that outreached to high school kids. (Pat Mesiti, who rose to the exalted position of National Director of Australian Christian Churches, was recently sacked after it was discovered he was involved in adultery.) The Zschech’s were introduced to Hills CLC by Mesiti and were soon thrust into the “music ministry” alongside Bullock. When Geoff Bullock “resigned” from Hillsong, Darlene Zschech stepped into his position and is now “worship pastor” of Brian Houston’s Hillsong Church.
Brian is the son of Frank Houston, an ex-General Superintendent of the AOG in New Zealand. Frank Houston moved to Australia from NZ in 1977, in controversial circumstances of a sexual nature, and established Sydney Christian Life Centre. Despite the sexual offences committed in NZ, Frank Houston rose to a position of eminence and great respect in the Pentecostal churches, as well as to the most senior position in the AOG in NSW. In 2000, Frank Houston was sacked after the NZ sexual offences became public, offences that were so serious he was not even given the option of quietly retiring. [Sydney Morning Herald, 27/03/2002]
When questioned by the SMH news reporter about the prevalence of sexual misconduct in high places in the AOG, Brian Houston, speaking as General Superintendent of the movement, informed the reporter that, of the AOG's 2000 Australian ministers, no more than five in any year were exposed and disciplined for sexual misconduct. He went on to defend the former AOG New Zealand General Superintendent, Jim Williams, who serves as an AOG pastor in Brisbane but whose licence in New Zealand was permanently revoked for his involvement in “adulterous offences and other indiscretions involving different women over an extended period of years.”
Today, the Hillsong Church, which incorporates Hills CLC and Sydney City CLC, has a collective congregation of over 10,000.
If you are like me and the SMH reporter, by this time you will probably be asking also, “Why is there so much sexual misconduct among the leaders of these highly popular and famous organisations?” And these organisations confidently profess to be Australia’s representatives with a clear mandate from God Himself to lead the nations into His presence in holy worship.
Worship Of The World
Click here to continue http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rseaborn/world_worship.html