Hillsong Church

God calls all women to some level of leadership. Yet seeing yourself as a leader, discerning what one is meant to do, and navigating one's role as a woman and leader can be a challenging task. Drawing on the wisdom of 40 years of ministry, Bobbie Houston helps all women to discover their specific purpose and divine calling in STAY THE PATH. She shares the truths and experiences that have kept her and her husband, Brian Houston, on course, on point, and focused on the path before them. Readers will be able to recognize and believe in their unique gifts. Packed with personal stories, helpful advice, and leadership strategies for women, this book will challenge readers to claim their God-given potential and lead with confidence, poise, and grace.

This book highlights the expansion of the influential Pentecostal Hillsong Church global megachurch network from Australia across global cities. Ethnographic research in Amsterdam and New York City shows that global cities harbor nodes in transnational religious networks in which media play a crucial role. By taking a lived religion approach, media is regarded as integral part of everyday practices of interaction, expression and consumption of religion. Key question raised is how processes of mediatization shape, alter and challenge this thriving cosmopolitan expression of Pentecostalism. Current debates in the study of religion are addressed: religious belonging and community in global cities; the interrelation between media technology, religious practices and beliefs; religion, media and social engagement in global cities; media and emerging modes of religious leadership and authority. In this empirical study, pressing societal issues like institutional responses to sexual abuse of children, views on gender roles, misogyny and mediated constructions of femininity are discussed.

Book 4 is a series that appears as Part Four in Church Schism & Corruption, a published volume consisting of more than 600 pages. Church Schism & Corruption has been separately published in this series which comprises of Books 1 - 6 to afford readers some choice of content. For there are some readers who cannot afford to read through more than 600 pages of Christological history, therefore it is for this reason that Church Schism & Corruption has been republished into these books numbering 1 - 6 with specific Parts 1 - 6 forming corresponding Books 1 - 6.

The eighties were my formative years, and while other teenagers were gyrating to rock 'n' roll, we were praying for revival. We were taking communion, not cocaine. We treated virginity like a wedding present, not a cold sore. And why wouldn't we? We were told we could be, we already were, anything we wanted to be... We were armed and dangerous. Armed with the power of God and dangerous in the eyes of Satan. Tanya Levin grew up in the church that became Hillsong—the country’s most ambitious, entrepreneurial and influential religious corporation. People in Glass Houses tells how a small Assemblies of God church in a suburban school hall became a multi-million dollar tax-free enterprise and a powerful force in Australia today. Opening up the world of Christian fundamentalism, this is a powerful, personal and at times very funny exploration of an all-singing, all-swaying mega church.

This book is a study of how congregational song developed and has been used in the worship of Western churches in general and specifically churches in the United States. Beginning with the worship of ancient peoples, the Hebrews, and early Christians and continuing to the present, the author examines historically how song has been and is used as an intentional sacred ritual action, like prayer or Scripture reading. Written primarily as an introductory text for college and seminary students, the overall goal is to make a historical journey with the people, events, and ideas from which have evolved the various types of song we have in American worship today. To help readers think more deeply about the material, study questions are given at the end of each chapter.

Starting as a single congregation in Australia, Hillsong Church now has campuses worldwide, releases worship music that sells millions of albums and its ministers regularly appear in mainstream media. So, how has a single church gained such international prominence? This book offers an ethnographic exploration of the ways in which music and marketing have been utilised in the pursuit and production of spiritual experience for members of Hillsong Church. An experience that has proven to be incredibly popular. The main theme of this book is that marketing, specifically branding, is not just a way to "sell" religion, but rather an integral part of spiritual experience in consumer society. Focussing on the London Hillsong church as a case study, the use of its own music in tandem with strong branding is shown to be a co- and re-productive method of organizing, patterning, and communicating information. The church provides the branded material and cultural context in which participants’ sacred experience of self unfolds. However, this requires participants to "do the work" to properly understand, and ultimately embody, the values associated with the brand. This book raises important questions about the role of branding and music in forming modern scared identities. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Religious Studies, Ethnomusicology and Media Studies.

This book develops an ecclesiological method used to describe and analyse the transitions in culture and structure of Australian Pentecostal churches during the course of the twentieth century. These changes provide a case study of global developments in Pentecostalism.