Hillsong = Justice?

JUSTICE HAS A
FRONT SEAT AT HILLSONG CONFERENCE

July 10, 2007

With themes of unity, courage, justice and freedom, this year's
Hillsong conference held last week in Sydney, which each year is the
largest single gathering of Christians in Australia, had the ring of
a United Nations convention rather than a church gathering. Criticized
in the past for its deemed emphasis on prosperity as a blessing from
God, this years Conference featured at its opening session, Gary
Skinner, leader of the Kampala Pentecostal Church and Founder of
Watoto Child Care Ministries, who told delegates how to spend their
money and exercise their faith tackling poverty and AIDS in Africa.

He said it was not the responsibility of celebrities, pop idols or
governments to mitigate poverty, but that of individual believers and
the church as a whole. "God was not impressed by church doctrine or
the number of times people attended church, but by the way his
followers practised and lived their faith" Mr Skinner went on to
say."The world is on an accumulation binge. God is not a grabber; he
is a giver."

Some 26,000 Christians from 68 nations representing 19
denominations attended the Conference which provided delegates with a
blend of practical workshops on congregation-building, worship,
evangelism, and high-energy preaching, at Acer Arena, an auditorium
built for the Olympics that serves nicely as a modern house of
God.

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
criticism that Pentecostal churches are more interested in
entertainment than religion and more worried about personal
enlightenment and spiritual and material abundance than social
justice. "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.

Source: Compiled by APN from various media
reports http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/