A man named Brian falls from the Hills
The other day I was reading some movie reviews and I got into this review for a Hillsong documentary produced for Discovery channel. In the review, the writer talks about how the documentary was able to tackle the recent demise of Brian Houston, Hillsong Church’s founder pastor, that stepped down from his position due to some sinful behaviors and serious law suit problems.
I’m off social media for almost two months now, and as of reading this took a while to get to me as news. Until, of course, the Hillsong global board wrote a statement about it, explaining the two somewhat recent situations of “drunk” infidelity from pastor Brian that got himself into the public law suits that cost him his job. That happening roughly one year after the Eagle himself fired Hillsong celeb pastor Carl Lentz for some similar flaw. The board statement is pretty vague for such a narrative writing on what actually happened. They use some light terms to imply something that sounds like a one time fling as much as a rape story, I just got more confused. The statement also blames what happened in an anxiety pills related addiction that lead Brian astray.
As the pastor of the most prominent mega church in the world, you’re right to expect a major backlash for the senior pastor’s accusations. It speaks high volumes, loud and clear, that another Christian big boss has fallen down the hills, pun intended. Others before him had found a prominent position in leading thousands of people through TV, music and appealing worldwide sermon tours, and have fallen significantly, usually for similar situations involving adultery, drugs or some other kind of moral failure. It usually does not dig deep enough to go through some other issues involving how they became that much rich or similar stories. What is telling in all this is the distorted image it causes on these (mostly) men and their ministry’s career. I mean, how much can a Brian downfall really hurt Hillsong’s PR as the powerhouse it is in music and other artistic endeavors? Should it hold accountable the rest of the family (Bobbie has also stepped down from it, and I honestly have no clue what’s her say on all this), and if so, how far does this stretch? And what does it mean to be a disgraced mega pastor in our day and age? Aren’t we already too tired of these guys and all this Christ thingy?
This is relevant to me personally. A major chunk of my life I spent in church, ministry and mirroring a lot of the modern church lifestyle championed by Hillsong in a way only they could. I’ve seen this happen before, both watching from afar as some big bucks leader fell as much as walking down the hill to aid my best friend when he fell down from it, at different heights, durex but even more serious consequences. I mean, when my best friend and youth pastor for our church was taken down from the job for getting his newly girlfriend pregnant outside of marriage that had a major effect and tow in our church teenagers than Brian’s will ever do. Regardless, it seems to be a blueprint for successful public ministries, to fall in disgrace under massive scrutiny for all reasons above. A few days after the statement from the church board, it was announced that Brian (and Bobbie) have officially resigned from Hillsong’s leadership, kick starting a whole new chapter in the modern global church history.
Christian people. They do say from time to time (when it’s convenient) that no one would be perfect, only Jesus. As ordinary people, maybe they should just stop playing this game as they are, overstaying their welcome or acting godlike for the mere mortals that attend their church services and programs. I mean, these (mostly) man only fall from such heights because they put themselves there and ask for our help to keep them there making it seem like they have some special divine right to it. Maybe, there shouldn’t be a hill at all. For better or worse, just let ‘em all fall.
And then I took some time on Oscar Sunday to watch the live stream of the morning service from the Hills, as Phill Dooley (the youth pastor turned lead pastor of Hillsong Africa currently acting Global Senior Pastor) read the board statement, shared a bit of his own history and ultimately introduced the church to this new times. After that, Robert “GOAT” Ferguson shared an inspiring message on transition, and I must say, the church is really taking accountability in what they called a time to rebuild health as a community and for their leaders around the world. That was refreshing. Let’s see what comes up ahead. Say a prayer to the eagle and the dove alright?
