Look at any of the nearly 700,000 Instagram posts with the hashtag #Hillsong and you’ll see inspirational quotes, videos of services, and pictures of those attending every week who are mostly young people under the age of 35 who have professional jobs, spend their money on seeing the world, and party with their friends on weekends – they could be, and maybe are, your friends. uk was unable to get a breakdown of the figures and demographics but Hillsong UK have services in in Guildford, Oxford, Bermondsey, North London, Kent, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Birmingham, some of which have only started in the last two years. In London, Hillsong UK confirmed they ‘fill the Dominion Theatre four times every Sunday’ the Dominion can hold just over 2000 people suggesting around 8000 people worship at the location each week. The church was founded in Australia in 1983, but with help from the ‘hipster’ pastor Carl Lentz, Hillsong reports that there are now 100,000 people attending services weekly, with 250,000 members in Australia alone.
Not that the criticism is hurting the church right now.
It’s a catch 22 for the church – name power can help spread the gospel and gets bums in seats but it also leads to greater attention and criticism. She trails off and laughs ‘no, it probably hinders’.Ībi suggests that the focus on celebrities does arguably get more people in to Hillsong even if they ‘may be coming for the wrong reasons’ but recognises that ‘it may be harder to take pastors seriously if they’re connected to celebrities’.Ĭlarke added that Hillsong UK does not ‘have a stated position on celebrity, there’s only one person we chose to elevate and that’s Jesus’. ‘You want to get to know them, and then Justin and Hailey and Selena and Vanessa start going and it makes it more attractive to even more people…’ ‘There is more awareness ,’ she says, ‘I think a lot of the speakers are cool and relatable and like Carl Lentz – who does the New York church – he’s very cool and you want to be his friend. ‘I don’t see it as a great thing,’ she admits candidly, adding that when she thinks about Justin and Selena and co, she mostly feels ‘indifferent’. With so much attention on Hillsong, you begin to wonder if the celebrity connection is more of a hindrance than a help – something Jane agrees with. Nearly 40,000 people attended Hillsong Conference in Sydney in 2018 (Picture: Raze Razon)
0 kommentar(er)
