Focus on justice as Hillsong changes its tune

With themes of unity, courage, justice and freedom, this year’s opening of the annual Hillsong conference had the ring of a United Nations convention rather than a church gathering.

The US evangelist Rick Warren, author of the bestseller The Purpose Driven Life, opened last year’s conference by telling Christians gathered for the premier event on the Pentecostal calendar it was not a sin to be rich, just a sin to die rich.

Yesterday Gary Skinner, leader of Kampala Pentecostal Church and Founder of Watoto Child Care Ministries, told them how to spend their money and exercise their faith: tackling poverty and AIDS in Africa.

It was not the responsibility of celebrities, pop idols or government to mitigate poverty, but that of believers of the church, he said.

The “God of the ditch” was not impressed by the price of cologne, church doctrine or the number of times people attended church but by the way his followers practised and lived their faith.

“The world is on an accumulation binge. God is not a grabber; he is a giver.”

For the next five days 26,000 Christians from 68 nations representing 19 denominations will gather around Australia’s biggest congregation for a blend of practical workshops on congregation-building and worship, evangelism and high-energy Christian rock concerts at Acer Arena, an auditorium built for the Olympics that serves nicely as a modern house of God.

Last night’s conference opening began in spectacular fashion with orchestras, choirs and trumpeters ringing in the Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony, and segueing into a contemporary version of Amazing Grace.

Hillsong’s Darlene Zschech brought the stadium to its feet, the front row turning into a mosh pit of believers bopping for Jesus.

The word “justice” and the responsibility it infers was a key message of the conference, said the senior pastor Brian Houston.

Stressing its record of helping the poor, Hillsong is keen to end criticisms that Pentecostal churches, and the Assemblies of God in particular, are more interested in entertainment than religion and more worried about personal enlightenment and spiritual and material abundance than social justice.

Overshadowing the conference is the imminent publication of an unflattering insider’s account of the church, questioning Hillsong’s priorities and its so-called prosperity gospel.

“God tells us that standing against injustice and speaking up for the disenfranchised is the responsibility of every Christian,” Mr Houston said.

Mr Skinner did not go away empty-handed: Hillsong handed over a cheque for more than $700,000 to build a village in Gulu, northern Uganda, for rescued child soldiers.

The federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, might have called on Christians to become more active in politics, but in this election year, amid disquiet about the political influence of the Christian right, Hillsong was again wary of turning a religious revival meeting into a political crusade.

For the second year no official invitations were extended to politicians, although there were expected to be a few private worshippers, including the federal Liberal MP Louise Markus and the incoming police commissioner, Andrew Scipione.

Headlining the conference are American televangelists, including the neo-Pentecostal preacher Bishop T.D. Jakes, who heads an 8000-seater, $35 million church outside Dallas and has an estimated $100 million fortune, and the pastor of the Fellowship Church in Texas, Ed Young jnr.

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