Questioning Hill$ong for dummies

The Thinking Theologian blogs…

“It’s possible for a person to be a member of a church like Hillsong for years, and have deep concerns about its doctrine and practices which are never properly addressed. After a while, the tendency is to accept things as “just the way it is”, and hold on to some vague hope that, in time, things might improve.

But how will things improve? If something is never recognised as being a problem, time and effort will never be put in to changing it (“if it aint broke, don’t fix it”). For something to be recognised as a problem, those in positions of power must be made to pay attention.

The challenge for the earnest Christian then, is to voice their concerns to the right people, and in such a way that the underlying issues can not be ignored. So I’ve put together a few thoughts on how to navigate through the false walls and mirrors that are the maze of Hillsong’s rhetoric and spin, so that the concerned Hillsonger might have half a chance of having their questions heard.

Rather than address each and every issue, I will deal in general terms with the common problems that someone questioning Hillsong is likely to come up against. Hillsong spokesmen approach sceptics in much the same way, and I suspect their tactics are common to most other cult-like organisations. By being wise to their devices, I hope you’re able to survive them.

1. Damage Control
When a person first questions an element of Hillsong, whether it be their “open book policy”, or some dodgy doctrine, the first response is invariably damage control. You see the problem is not really with Hillsong, they’ll say, but with your perceptions of it. In the nicest possible way, it’ll be suggested that you’ve been listening to negativity, and should check your attitude. If you persist, the responses will gradually become less and less ‘pastoral’ as they move away from their defensive stance, toward an offensive one.

2. Personal Contact
Usually, a leader who is closest to the dissenter will be dispatched to smooth things over. This might be a youth pastor if you’re under 25, or the leader of the team in which you serve on a weekend. If you’re on staff, it’ll be your department head, or oversight. But the strategy is always the same: a friendly face.
By trying to make your concern a person-to-person disagreement, the hope is that you’ll fold, in favour of maintaining brotherly unity.

3. The Personal Contact Taking it Personally
If the usual rhetoric and spin doesn’t wash, your contact (whether it’s still the ‘friendly face’, or a ring-in tag-teamer) will feel personally wounded by your “attack” on Hillsong. This is probably a legitimate response in most cases. After all, for you to insist that something is wrong, the fact they believe everything’s fine means that you’re suggesting they, too, are wrong. The hope at this stage of course, is that by appearing hurt and saddened by your behaviour toward them, you’ll admit that perhaps you have been a bit harsh, and maybe its just all been a big misunderstanding. Nonsense. The important thing to remember is that your concerns are not personal, but relate to systemic problems of a far more pressing kind.

4. The Stone Wall
If your argument is sound, and leads to the logical conclusion that Hillsong is flawed, what happens next is a little discouraging, and quite anti-climatic: you’re stone walled. You’ll simply be ignored. Suddenly your friendly faced contact is swamped with work and can’t spare even a moment; your phone calls are never returned; people you thought were your friends won’t look you in the eye, and walk past you as if you don’t even exist. This, fellow-dissenters, is when Hillsong proponents show their true colours. “If you don’t toe the party line, you’re not one of us”, is the message sent loud and clear.

This is the point where I suspect most dissenters either leave Hillsong altogether, or admit defeat and convince themselves they were wrong, and everything’s alright really. I would really suggest the former: leave, and never look back.

You see, what matters to people who want to get ahead at Hillsong, isn’t Christ’s love, or even the salvation of souls. It’s “building the church”. And to build it, you’ve got to believe in it… and believing means giving your life to it. Once they have your heart, your mind will not be far behind.

But with any luck, you won’t reach the stone wall. If you insist that your concerns be taken seriously, and don’t cave-in at their tried and tested tactics, you may yet stave the terminal write-off.

But remember that the issues at Hillsong are not down to petty differences of opinion, or mere methodological disagreements; they are fundamental problems of Christian doctrine and practice. There is far more at stake that one person’s ostracization from the ‘Hillsong club’. In the grand scheme of things, what does it really matter if you have to find yourself another church? Surely of more importance is Christ’s bride who, thanks to the likes of Hillsong, is far from blemish-free, and covered with spot and wrinkle.

If each and every member of Hillsong who has a legitimate concern (and there are more than you might think), were to pluck up the courage to speak up, I believe there would be cause for hope; and hope for positive change.”

From http://tttdiscussionforum.blogspot.com/2009/08/hillsong-heretics-dissenters-guide.html