Many once sound churches theologically are no longer that due to their music. This article will help you understand this statement https://g3min.org/stop-singing-hillsong-bethel-jesus-culture-and-elevation/
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‘In the past, The Alpha Conference has been hosted by two ecumenical organizations — Major Change, a charismatic Evangelical organization, and Stone to Flesh, a charismatic Roman Catholic ecumenical organization. The two organizations have practically merged into one big ecumenical mess. And in the past, we’ve lambasted Hillsong Church for hosting the conference on their facilities.
But now that Hillsong Church is practically dead from its endless sex scandals among its leadership, Alpha seems to have found a new home—in the Southern Baptist Convention.
First Baptist Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, a Southern Baptist congregation according to both the Southern Baptist Convention’s church search engine as well as the church’s website, will be hosting the ecumenical conference this January 2023.’https://disntr.com/2023/01/02/major-southern-baptist-church-to-hold-ecumenical-conference-with-roman-catholic-speakers/
To the church at Rome (NOT the Roman Catholic Church) Paul wrote I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service Romans 12:1. Sadly, in this day of mega-churches and easy beliefism that word “holy” is so often neglected either on purpose or ignorance of true Biblical Christianity. It will be interesting to see how much different the following new “church” will be different from the Hillsong group and if it will be a place of carnal worldly entertainment or true Biblical HOLINESS!
‘On his final Sunday as pastor of Hillsong Atlanta, Sam Collier reflected on the crucial role justice, trust and safety play in the health and growth of a church and expressed his confidence in God’s sovereignty as he prepares for the next season of ministry.
“We are living in a new generation. And this generation is focused on justice, on calling out what’s right and what’s wrong, and making sure that we’re living honestly in all of our actions, while in the previous generation, we handled a lot of these ills behind the scenes,” the 33-year-old pastor told The Christian Post.
“Now more than ever, one of the things that the Church can learn is, it’s important to let people know that they can be safe. It’s just so paramount. Justice, safety, trust matters more than anything. People used to assume trust as soon as they came into the church. Now, people are saying, ‘Prove it to me.’”
Collier understands firsthand what it means to be tasked with rebuilding trust in the face of ministry scandals. On Wednesday, Collier, the first-ever African American lead pastor of a Hillsong church, announced he would be stepping down from his position as controversy continues to swirl around the global church and its founder, Brian Houston.
“With all of the documentaries, scandals, articles, accusations and the church’s subsequent management of these attacks it’s become too difficult to lead and grow a young Church in this environment,” he wrote in a public statement.
And after a brief sabbatical, during which Collier and his wife, Toni, plan to reset and rest, the couple and their ministry team will launch a new church, Story Church, on Easter Sunday 2022.
But the pastor acknowledges that rebuilding in the current climate will come with challenges.
“Transitioning into Story Church, so many people have questioned, ‘Well, we hear what happened over here, but what’s going to make you different? What policies are you putting in place?’” the pastor said. “We’re imperfect; somebody is going to make a mistake. But when somebody makes a mistake, what are we going to do to reassure members and congregants that they can trust us with their lives and their investment?”
Ahead of Story Church’s opening, Collier and his leadership team are partnering with a team of experts, including a chief culture officer and fellow pastors, to “really go deep on how we can guarantee that safety.” And like Hillsong Atlanta, Story Church will be focused on racial reconciliation and modeling unity amid division.
“Racial reconciliation is our number one reason for existing besides salvation,” Collier, who is also an author and founder of A Greater Story Ministries, contended.
“There are so many churches within Atlanta; Atlanta doesn’t need another church. But what we believe is that Atlanta needs a church that is focused on uniting our world. In such a polarizing climate, no matter how you vote, no matter how you look, no matter where you come from, there should be a safe place for believers, for believers to gather under one name, and that’s Jesus.”
“We can work out our differences,” he added. “I believe if we all come to the table and become unified about being unified, we can change the world.”
This time, Collier is looking forward to shepherding a young church without the shadow cast by the scandals that have plagued Hillsong over the last two years.
Speaking before hundreds gathered for an emotional final Sunday service, the pastor reflected on the moment in 2020 that Brian Houston and his wife, Bobbi, told the Colliers they’d be launching Hillsong Atlanta in early 2021.
“We were in,” he said, reflecting on the excitement that came with being affiliated with one of the world’s most well-known churches and the opportunity to realize their vision of a unified church focused on racial reconciliation.
“We would be announced as the first-ever African American couple to lead a Hillsong Church. We were excited to be the Jackie Robinson of the situation.”
But shortly after Hillsong Atlanta was announced, over the next few weeks, Collier estimated “there was probably an article every single week” about a scandal surrounding a Hillsong Church or its leadership.
In December 2020, Carl Lentz, the famed leader of Hillsong Church in New York City, was fired over “leadership issues” and moral failures, including being unfaithful to his wife.
In early 2021, it was revealed that former Hillsong Dallas Lead Pastor Reed Bogard and his wife, Jess, were under investigation for leadership failures when they abruptly resigned in January of that year.
Later that year, Darnell Barrett, who served on the leadership of the church’s Montclair, New Jersey, branch resigned after sending a sexual photo to a church volunteer. Around this time, Hillsong leadership was made aware that documentaries about the church were going to be released.
But amid all the headlines and negative media attention surrounding the church, which has about 80 branches in 21 countries, Collier said he sought to faithfully lead his young congregation.
“I said, ‘Well, God, if I want to ever leave, what’s the sign?’” he recalled. “God said to me, ‘The moment you begin to lose trust, and you cannot continue the growth or the expansion of the vision is the moment that you should leave.”
In August 2021, Brian Houston, who founded the church in 1983, was accused of covering up his father’s crimes against underage boys, and criminal charges were brought against him in Australia. Though he denied the allegations, the charges led Houston to step down as Hillsong’s Global Pastor in January.
At that time, Collier said, Hillsong Atlanta leadership “started to notice that there was a shift that started to happen in our ministry,” adding: “People started to become more and more skeptical of not just the global church, but our church.”
During this time, the pastor said donors, members, and even Hillsong Atlanta staff would tell him, “This is not what we came to church for. We didn’t come to church to continuously go through scandal after scandal after scandal. We’re not sure we can trust this.”
“In that moment, the Holy Spirit reminded me, ‘I told you, the moment you can no longer continue to build the ministry because of the scandal, because of the mistrust, is the moment for you to go,'” he shared.
On Monday, March 21, Collier formally informed Hillsong of his resignation. Two days later, Houston formally resigned as global senior pastor in the wake of recent revelations that two women made serious complaints of misconduct against him in the last 10 years. Collier publicly announced his resignation hours later.
“Between Monday and Wednesday, things did speed up. And why did they speed up? Because, as a global church, we entered into crisis mode,” Collier said. “There’s one goal for me as a pastor, and that’s that you will be able to trust the church you attend and that you will feel safe. And that’s my decision.”
Though the Colliers are leaving Hillsong entirely, the pastor stressed that the global churches “are not our enemies.” He shared a brief video of Phil Dooley — who has taken over for Houston — giving Collier the church’s blessing.
“Hillsong Church is so excited that we’re continuing,” Collier said, adding that he and Dooley “speak almost every day.”
Story Church, he said, will remain in the same location as Hillsong Atlanta, with the same worship team, and likely, the majority of the congregation.
“Same people, same goodness, new name,” the pastor said. “There is a multicultural movement being birthed here. We want you to be a part.”
Collier knows there’s work to do ahead of him — but he expressed repeated confidence in God’s sovereignty over the future of Story Church. He added that coincidentally, the end of Hillsong Atlanta comes a symbolic nine months after its launch.
“Hillsong has been the ground on which the seed is planted,” he said. “[God] does nothing on accident. He used that incubation period to birth somebody new … I believe God for the new.”’https://www.christianpost.com/news/sam-collier-says-trust-plays-crucial-role-in-health-of-church.html
The fruit of Hillsong is evidence that Hillsong was and is not good ground upon which the seed of the Gospel may be planted!
‘Facebook has reportedly begun partnering with a megachurch with a notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ history.
As the New York Times reports, ahead of the grand opening of its new Atlanta outpost, the Los Angeles-based Hillsong Church reached out to the social media giant to discover “what the future of the church could be on Facebook,” according to lead pastor Sam Collier. Given the challenges of holding in-person worship services during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hillsong allegedly reached out to the tech platform for advice on how to properly utilize its social networks.
“They are teaching us, we are teaching them,” Collier told the Times.
Facebook proposed that Hillsong be used as a test case for how religious entities can “go further farther on Facebook,” according to Collier. The church’s leadership soon began meeting with representatives from the company on a weekly basis, and when the Atlanta location opened its doors in June, Hillsong announced that services would stream exclusively on Facebook.
Collier could not share further details about the agreement because of a non-disclosure agreement with the platform.
Facebook has begun deepening its relationships with faith-based groups following widespread criticism of its role in spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The Times claims that Facebook wants to “become the virtual home for the religious community” as the pandemic surges in many areas of the country following the spread of the Delta variant.’https://www.them.us/story/facebook-partnering-with-notoriously-anti-gay-megachurch-hillsong?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=pol&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_mailing=thematic_ballot_080421&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9cb2a3f92a40469de68dc&cndid=54860030&hasha=08b5a1e2f2263b83e918fb56d7a12a3e&hashb=540cb2beb83a4ef31cb396d0878f05e711d54d68&hashc=5a05e186fc85b30f55c28204f849862c04192d97b134e516f76782809875c086&sourcecode=thematic_ballot&utm_content=B&utm_term=Thematic_Ballot_Subscribers
“As for Saul, he made havock of the church” Acts 8:3. What Saul did before he was saved is what Hillsong and others like it are doing today.
‘Hillsong Dallas has closed and other locations in the megachurch network are reeling from accusations of sexual and financial misconduct. But Hillsong Atlanta—the first in the denomination to be led by an African-American pastor—celebrated its grand opening this past Sunday.
Its services feature rap music and took place in a former nightclub, Christianity Today reported. Sam Collier, the senior pastor, took the stage in the dimly lit space to cheers from a diverse crowd.
Collier came to Hillsong from Andy Stanley’s North Point Ministries but has deep roots in Atlanta’s Black community, having previously ministered at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a well-known Black congregation in the metro area. Collier also served at Martin Luther King Jr.’s home church, Ebenezer Baptist Church.
In introducing Hillsong global senior pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston, Collier acknowledged the denomination’s recent controversies. “It’s been a difficult year, but you’re the greatest leaders I’ve ever met,” Collier told them. “We pray against demonic forces” and for “victory in Jesus’ name” for the Houstons, he added.
Similarly, Hillsong Atlanta posted on Instagram, “We have no words for what God did this past weekend other than, ‘Great Days Ahead. Thank you Jesus . . .”’https://julieroys.com/hillsong-atlanta-launch-turmoil/?mc_cid=6914ede852&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
These worldly mega organizations are not New Testament Bible teaching, Bible preaching, Bible believing local New Testament churches. Note in Acts 16:5 And so were the churches established in the faith NOT in hyper emotion and feelings.
Does anything surprise you anymore? Paul the Apostle wrote to Pastor Timothy in 1Timothy 6: 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
‘Pastors at the scandal-ridden Hillsong Church lived lavishly on congregants’ tithe money, according to former Hillsong members and staff who spoke recently with the New York Post.
The church provided pastors and staff with pre-paid expense cards that they used to buy whatever they wanted—from designer purses to Manhattan hotel stays to huge quantities of food, the sources said.
Former Hillsong LA service pastor Nicole Herman told the Post that she personally loaded the funds onto expense cards for Hillsong pastors, including former Hillsong NYC Pastor Carl Lentz, who recently was fired from the church for an adulterous affair. Herman said the cards were also given to volunteers to make purchases for the church and its pastors.
According to Herman, all the money loaded onto the cards came from church donations and was refilled through her former husband who was the CFO of Hillsong LA.
Another former Hillsong congregant who spoke with the Post was 27-year-old Jenna Babbitt, who started attending Hillsong NYC in August 2011. Babbitt said she worked as a nanny for several Hillsong pastors, including Reed and Jess Bogard who unexpectedly resigned from Hillsong Dallas earlier this month.
Babbitt said she was given access to a pre-paid card to buy food for the children she babysat. She added that she and other volunteers also used the cards to buy spreads of food for the pastors before every service. The cards were also used to buy luxury presents and meals from upscale restaurants for visiting pastors, she said.
According to Babbitt, the church never required her to reconcile the purchases she made with the card, nor was there an expectation that the pastors would reimburse the church for personal purchases made with the card.
During the six years she attended the church, Babbitt said she donated thousands of dollars to Hillsong and worked without pay, even though she was poor at the time.
“The exploitation of free labor while these pastors are making bank is just crazy to me,” Babbitt told the Post. (In a podcast released earlier this month, former Hillsong member Janis Lagata recounted a similar experience.)
Another Hillsong NYC member who worked as a nanny for Hillsong pastors is former member Megan Phalon. Phalon told the Post that she began attending, volunteering and tithing to the church in 2011 and began baby-sitting for Pastors Kane and Karla Keatinge about a year later.
Phalon said she also was given a pre-paid card with the instructions to explicitly use it for the Keatinge’s kids, not herself.
Phalon said Keatinge was required to report his expenditures to Reed Bogard each month, but could never remember what the receipts were for. According to Phalon, the receipts included “hundreds” of purchases from restaurants, $700 for a new iPhone, and four-wheeler ATVs the pastors would drive around Williamsburg, a pricey neighborhood in Brooklyn where all the Hillsong NYC pastors lived.
Similarly, Brandon Walker, a 28-year-old who helped the Bogards start a Hillsong branch in Dallas, spoke of the lavish lifestyle Hillsong pastors lived.
Walker told the Post he remembered “a lot of eating out” and renting “very nice Airbnbs,” including one that cost $1,100/night. Walker added that Hillsong kept the finances secret because the expenditures were so excessive.
Walker said Reed Bogard once gave him $600 when he needed money. “That’s a tactic a lot of these pastors use to keep their secrets,” Walker told the Post. “Buying us expensive gifts, giving us money, like, ‘I got your back, so when I need you to have my back, this is something to remember.’”
I reached out to Reed Bogard for comment, but he did not respond by time of publishing. The Post said it also reached out to the Bogards, but the couple responded by blocking the Post reporter on Instagram.
Hillsong is reportedly investigating its East Coast branch, following the scandal involving Lentz.
Phalon said she shared details of her experience with investigation lawyers who “were shocked” by what she shared. Lawyers also reportedly contacted Babbitt, asking about the church’s use of expense cards.’https://julieroys.com/hillsong-members-tithes-funded-pastors-lavish-lifestyles/?mc_cid=616742f2a5&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
Are all those institutions that call themselves a ‘church’ really a church? Are some ‘church’ leaders Biblically qualified to lead? It’s interesting that ‘In a leaked audio call obtained by The Daily Mail, the founder and senior pastor of Hillsong Global, Brian Houston, described the events that led up to the firing of the lead pastor of the church’s New York City congregation, Carl Lentz.
Houston said difficulties with Lentz’s leadership emerged long before the recent revelations about the Hillsong East Coast pastor’s affair with Ranin Karim, a 34-year-old designer he met in Brooklyn, New York.
“I was already at the point, at the end of the summer, that I felt like Carl and Laura’s time in New York was coming to an end,” Houston said of Lentz and his wife, who also worked for the church.
Brian and Bobbie Houston founded the original Hillsong Church in 1983 in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. It now has locations in 28 countries and, pre-pandemic, saw an average 150,000 attenders each week, according to its website.
Houston accused Lentz in the Daily Mail recording of “general narcissistic behavior. Manipulating, mistreating people. Breaches of trust. Constantly lying.” Houston went on to describe the global megachurch network as “one house with many rooms,” but he said Lentz always seemed to be doing his own thing with Hillsong East Coast.
“If it was just about a moral failure, perhaps it would have been possible to work with Carl and Laura and work their way through it and have a period of restoration,” Houston said on the call that took place the week before Thanksgiving with global church leadership and top donors.
“But the nature of where my relationship with Carl already was, then add the significant nature and the serious nature of the moral issues, just meant that I believed, and the board believed, the only way to go was to terminate Carl and to start with a fresh start in New York,” Houston said.
The Daily Mail’s report quoted anonymous sources alleging that Lentz had multiple affairs during his tenure at Hillsong, and that Houston implied the same in the recording the newspaper obtained. But while Houston talks about “affairs” in the plural, the recording is not entirely clear.’https://julieroys.com/leaked-call-houston-details-narcissistic-lentzs-firing/?mc_cid=fdfa821960&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Philippians 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
1Timothy 5:22 Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure.
‘Brian Houston, global senior pastor of the international Hillsong Church, announced today that an independent investigator will review the “inner workings” of Hillsong’s New York City branch after the firing of its lead pastor, Carl Lentz, on Nov. 4.
“We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning,” Houston said in a tweet, adding, “The best is yet to come.”
We are launching an independent investigation into the inner workings of Hillsong NYC/ East Coast. We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning. The best is yet to come.
— Brian Houston (@BrianCHouston) November 12, 2020
On Nov. 4, Houston emailed staff and members of Hillsong East Coast about Lentz’s termination. His email, which was obtained by The Roys Report, cited “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures” for Lentz’s firing but did not reveal more details, saying to do so “would not be appropriate.” He later posted a similar statement on the church’s website.
The following day, Lentz, who founded the New York Hillsong location in 2010 with Houston’s son Joel, admitted in an Instagram post that he’d been “unfaithful to my wife.”
Lentz’s confession was accompanied by a photo of Lentz with his wife and three children. “I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura and my children and taking real time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need,” Lentz wrote.
According to Boz Tchividjian, a former prosecutor and founder of GRACE, an organization that works with churches to investigate abuse, he and an unnamed source reported sexual transgressions to Hillsong in 2017, but were rebuffed. “There have been many sexual transgressions at Hillsong NYC,” Tchividjian said. “We tried to address them in 2017 and we were told that we were spreading gossip.’”
Tchividjian added, “This is a common & effective method leaders use to shame victims into silence in order to protect offenders & institutional reputations.”
Brian Houston and his wife Bobbie founded the original Hillsong Church in 1983 in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. It now has locations in 28 countries around the world and, pre-pandemic, saw an average 150,000 attenders each week, according to its website.
The various global churches all report to Houston and a board of male elders.
Relatively unknown before taking the helm of Hillsong NYC, Lentz became a media darling for his hipster clothes, tattooed arms and his celebrity congregants, including Justin Bieber and his wife, Hailey Baldwin Bieber, as well as the Jenner sisters. He was one of a number of pastors GQ Magazine has described as “hypepriests” who lead churches frequented by celebrities.
In answer to Lentz’s Instagram post, Esther Houston, Joel Houston’s wife, implied that, despite his admission, Lentz had not stopped the affair that led to his dismissal.
“Amazing to see all the support being poured out for this despicable ongoing behavior,” she said in the comment. “Listen. I’m not gonna play this game. I fully denounce this and will make no excuses for it. You’ve been dealt a good hand, and you played it wrong.”
The British tabloid The Sun has reported that Lentz posed as a sports agent when he met a 34-year old designer, who identified herself only as Ranin, in a Brooklyn, New York, park. Ranin told The Sun she had been having an affair with the pastor for the past five months.
Ranin said after a few dates, she began to suspect he was married and asked. At that point, he admitted he had three children and had been married for 17 years. She later used his phone number to find out his last name and, at that point, discovered he was a pastor.
“My mind was blown,” she told the tabloid.
Ranin said Lentz told her that when he first saw her, “God told him to tell me that I need to know my worth and there’s something special about me … whatever whatever.”
According to Ranin, the two broke up last week. She said Lentz’s wife discovered their text messages on his computer at the Hillsong offices, with several of his coworkers there.
Lentz met his wife, Laura, a family friend of the Houston’s, in Australia when he attended Hillsong’s training program, Hillsong College. It is unclear whether she will remain in her position at Hillsong NYC, though some reports have said that she has also been let go.
In a brief appearance at Hillsong NYC’s Sunday streaming service, Brian Houston expressed gratitude for the team of leaders at the Manhattan church and said they were not only supportive of the decisions made, “but were part of the process.”
Houston also noted that during transitions, “It’s always a time where there’s speculation, rumor and gossip when change is made, and especially when radical change is made.”
“There’s great days ahead,” Houston assured the church. “We will continue to stay in touch when it comes to the long-term leadership of Hillsong East Coast.”
Neither Hillsong NYC nor Hillsong Global immediately responded to request for comment.’https://julieroys.com/hillsong-investigation-lentzs-firing/?mc_cid=17ba77ef58&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
‘In an Instagram post on Thursday, Carl Lentz, the lead pastor of Hillsong NYC, admitted he was “unfaithful” in his marriage, ending a day of speculation as to why he had been fired.
On Wednesday, Hillsong founding pastor Brian Houston notified staff and members of Hillsong East Coast by email of Lentz’s termination. The email, which was obtained by The Roys Report, cited “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures” as the reason for the firing but did not reveal more details, saying to do so “would not be appropriate.”
“I know this will come as a shock to you, but please know that this action was not taken lightly and was done in the best interests of everyone, including Pastor Carl,” Houston wrote.
In his Instagram post, Lentz admitted to being “unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life.”
“This failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions,” according to the post.
“When you accept the calling of being a pastor, you must live in such a way that it honors the mandate. That it honors the church, and that it honors God. When that does not happen, a change needs to be made and has been made in this case to ensure that standard is upheld,” Lentz said in the post.
He expressed gratitude for his time at the church and said leading Hillsong NYC “has been an honor in every sense of the word.”
“This is a hard ending to what has been the most amazing, impacting and special chapter of our lives.”’https://julieroys.com/lentz-ousted-unfaithful-to-wife/?mc_cid=4b3777fbc5&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
whatyareckon 