Reining in its pastors and dealing with the scandals enveloping the megachurch risks creating a brand that’s bland and bureaucratic
Hillsong Church is in crisis. Australia’s greatest cultural export – with 131 churches in 30 countries, 150,000 weekly congregants, 50 million churchgoers singing their songs each week, and over three billion YouTube views – has been enveloped in a series of scandals that sound like a biblical parable: the thing that has made it so powerful is what has brought it to its knees.
I’ve spent the last few years researching Hillsong and the wider neo-charismatic Pentecostal movement, and a lot of people have been asking me what’s next. Not being in the market of prophecy, I can’t say for certain. However, Hillsong’s popularity stems from showing believers that they can live Christian lives in a secular world – and now the church’s survival depends on whether it can straddle both worlds too.