On Sunday March 20, 2022 Ps Terry Crist stood humbly before his Phoenix, Arizona congregation, explaining why their church will be withdrawing from Hillsong. This article provides the key take-aways from Ps. Crist’s moving pastoral address in the video below, and gives the full transcript at the end.

OVERVIEW:

• The announcement.
• Watch the video (now edited).
• Read the transcript from the original footage.
• Read the notes from the transcript that capture key moments of Ps. Crist’s sermon.

(Note: the original YouTube video has been edited, thus some transcript notes and some of the transcript may not reflect the newer edited version.)

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

Ps. Terry Crist basically calls Hillsong out for its:

• Celebrity culture.
• Culture of idolatry.
• Lack of transparency in the church.
• Lack of accountability.
• Its focus on corporate style governance as opposed to biblical local pastoral governance.

Source: Terry Crist, Hillsong Church Phoenix | Terry Crist “40 Days of Deeper Devotion – This Is How We Overcome”, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHRNvwxF5lY, Streamed live on Mar 27, 2022. (Accessed Mar 30, 202.)

TRANSCRIPT:

Starting 1 hr into the video of the service.

01:00:30 …It bears mentioning because we see Moses. Oftentimes as a solitary leader. We see Moses as a towering figure who stood alone to defeat the Pharaoh and to lead the people of God out of captivity in Egypt. But it dawned on me this week:

01:00:50 – There would never be a Moses without an Aaron. There would never be a Moses without a ZIpporah. There would never be a Moses without a Miriam. There would never be a Moses, without a Joshua and Ahur(?) and a Jethro. In fact, in the next chapter that I’m going to briefly touch on, there would never be a Moses without an eldership in Israel. There would never be a Moses without partnership. And we see it in the next chapter. When Moses tries to lead Israel on his own and he burns out and he breaks down and his father-in-law says, ‘Hey, bro, this one man show is not working. It is not working’. It’s okay. If you are a leader. It’s okay. If you take these moments, it’s okay. If you have disability in the nation. It’s even okay if they write about you in history, but what is not okay is for you to do this alone, because the people of God are being neglected and your soul is breaking down and your character is breaking down and your emotional well being is breaking down. 1:02:05 So teamwork is what I have intended, even though you are Moses.

1:02:24 – Exodus 18 Here’s what God says. So here’s what I want you to do Moses, teach them God’s decrees and give them his instructions. Show them how to conduct their lives, but select from all the people some capable honest men who fear God and hate bribes for who fear God and hate bribes, who fear God and advance transparency, who fear God and say, I can cover sin, but I can’t be a part of cover-ups. Come on, hate bribes, and appoint them as leaders over groups of 1000s, 100s, 50 and 10. They should always be available to solve people’s common disputes. But have them bring the major cases to you and let the leaders decide the smaller matters themselves. They will help you carry the load, making the load a lot easier for you and if you follow this advice, and if God commands you to do so, you will endure the pressures and all of these people will go home in peace.

1:03:17 – I’ve seen marble statues of Moses, all over the world. I’ve seen them in the US Capitol building. And I’ve seen them in the Vatican in Rome. But I have never seen a marble statue of Moses standing with anyone else. I’ve never seen Moses standing with his wife. I’ve never seen Moses standing with his team. I’ve never seen Moses standing with Joshua. I’ve never seen him standing with the eldership. Why is that? Is it because we have a global marble shortage? I don’t think so. I think it’s because we idolize solitary leadership. It’s baked into the American system. And the American system has influenced the world for good and bad. The church in America has influenced the world for good and for bad. It is baked into the American system but it didn’t originate with America.

1:04:20 – In fact, the history of humanity in Israel is an empowering a leader and in elevating him or her above the people in erecting a golden calf in seeking to venerate and to worship things of our own making. And it’s not just true in Israel. It’s not just true in America. It is true of humanity in general. And I believe that through this moment we are in, prophetically, that God is doing many things in the heart of the church, not just our church, but in the global church and he is purifying the church and shaking the church so that at the end of all things, those things that cannot be shaken will remain.  

1:05:00 – At the end of it all, there will be a faithful church, there will be a holy church. There will be an honest church. There will be a transparent church and there will be a church that does not promote idolatry. But promotes Jesus above everything.

I want to just say that’s one of the reasons why we are here today. And I also want to be very quick to add none of that is by design.

There’s no one that seeks to do what I’ve just described, not anyone that I know. I’m sure there are people that every pastor I know every leader I know everyone I’ve served and laboured within the gospel have set out to be faithful to the Gospel. And then over time, this culture of celebrity just often happens.

1:06:00 – And it’s one of the reasons why we’re in this moment today. 

It’s not the only reason. We’re in this moment because of sin. And I have to be really clear about that. Because if we don’t maintain clarity on that anything less than clarity is going to lead to an outcome that is not faithful to God’s word. We’re going to try to fix things that aren’t the things to fix. And we’re going to miss fixing the sort of things within us. This guy included right here, that we need to fix in this moment.

1:06:27 – And then there’s crisis that we’re in, there are several levels to the crisis of the moment, on one level. It’s a crisis of morality. On another level, it’s a crisis of integrity. On another level, it’s a crisis of biblical governance and of leadership, and on another level it’s a crisis of leadership in general. And I’ll speak into those things without referencing this situation in the days and years which are to come.

But today, we focus our pain in our disappointment and our hope for a better future along with our resolve to be a part of building a healthier wiser, holier more faithful to the gospel and gracious church. And I also want to say for a moment that for those who may feel in this moment, why do you feel compelled to be this transparent? Is this sort of transparency in opposition to grace? It’s not.

1:07:25 – For those who’ve been a part of our church, you will know that for the first decade. I lead our church with painful transparency. I lead our church consistently and faithfully with transparency, but somewhere along the lines I quit doing that. And I can’t even point out to you when it was there was some point in the line along the line where we just got big and had so many people and it just seemed hard to maintain that. And I repent for that today, along with other things.

1:08:00 – We have to find a way to build a hopeful community. We have to find a way to not sit in our pain and in our brokenness, but we also have to find a way to be transparent with where we are because in our transparency, our transparency is not something to to idolize, we shouldn’t transition any allegiance in any form of idolatry from humanity to transparency or from humanity to accountability, because again, we’re then worshipping at the wrong shrines.

1:08:29 – We’ve got to put our eyes on Jesus and in following Jesus allow these other important issues to support what it means to follow Jesus. The statement I’m going to make is not easy because if I’m transparent, there will be many who are understandably disappointed in that. And if I’m not transparent, there will be others who are disquieted within their souls. So I’m going to do my best.

1:09:07 – This past week. We’re all saddened to hear of Pastor Brian’s resignation. I know you feel the weight of that. As do I. His continuation as our senior pastor, was not tenable. And unfortunately, there’s been a lot of disagreement around that, across the world, including as some of you will have read by now, within our own board, and within our own eldership and I’m not breaking that news. It’s out there. I’m just trying to summon the courage to face it. And sadly, as a result of that, it has become clear that we cannot continue in our global family as much as we love it. And so we have chosen this week to withdraw from being Hillsong Church.

1:09:57 – I want to say very clearly that I believe our interim global senior pastor Phil Dooley is a man of integrity, a man of wisdom, a man of capacity, and he’s doing everything that he can to lead our church during an incredibly difficult situation. He needs our love and our prayers and our support and our compassion. And he has returned that back to us and I also want to quickly say that I believe that Hillsong Church globally is filled with 10s of 1000s of good, godly people who love Jesus and are people of high integrity. They’re all across Australia, and in every one of our locations around the world. Including the location that I’m speaking to here in Mesa and out across all that are associated with Hillsong Phoenix. Many of my dearest friends will continue to be pastors in Hillsong Church, including pastor Gary Clark, that I count among my dearest circle of friends.

1:11:00 – And there are many reasons why we can’t continue and I’ll unpack them for a few moments. Chief among them, is our loss of confidence in the global board, to continue, leading us as a congregation and I understand there are a lot of questions. My inbox has been full over the last couple of days with both support and questions and as I look through the questions, most of them fall into two categories. Category number one, why are we taking this action? Category number two, why is this so urgent? Why couldn’t we just wait and see what happens?

First, why are we taking this action? Over the past year following the sin that was exposed and Hillsong Church, New York City and the subsequent investigation that was conducted into sexual misconduct and into financial misappropriation? I encouraged the results of that report to be made in some general form. I understand the sensitivity of that. I asked that the report be redacted so names could be protected. I asked that the report be synopsize so that we could embrace accountability and transparency. And for whatever reason, that request was denied.

1:12:24 – As information begin to leak out as to what was in the report, and as the global board made the decision to increase financial controls within the churches, lead pastors were suddenly asked to sign in the A’s and non-competes. Some of us couldn’t do that in good conscience. And this has played out in recent weeks. It came down in recent weeks to the demand that we sign non-disclosure agreements and no-competes, meaning that if we were removed from our positions, we could not plant churches again, within our community for at least one year.

1:13:00 – Last Saturday, after months of trying to gain approval to receive our local board, we formally requested the release of our church back to us. Specifically, that simply meant the release of our church to be governed by a local board and also to include a couple of non Hillsong pastors, who are wise and credible and have proven ministries to also be seated on our local board for the sake of accountability by non vested pastors, who have nothing to lose by speaking truth to power.

1:13:37 – Further, we also ask for our governance to be reseated, and we asked to continue under the label and banner of Hillsong Phoenix, which is exactly how we operated in 2016 and 17, in which we had our own board our own governance and we had outside pastors speaking into us.

But in 2017, there was a global restructuring. We spoke about it at the time. We had concerns about it at the time. We were clear with it in our financial annual disclosure meetings at the time. And in the course of the global restructuring, our governance was reassigned along with our Corporation, along with our church. We wanted to continue by returning governance and accountability, but even continuing with the banner Hillsong Phoenix for many reasons, including our love our deep love for Hillsong College.

1:14:37 – Sadly, the board refused our request. And I was told this past week: It is quote all or nothing. Close quote. We either had to allow the global board to govern our church and to own our properties, or we had to leave. So with great sadness, I chose to leave. I’ve spent the week in counsel with pastors. I’ve run this sermon that I’m sharing with you today through a multitude of pastors asking for their input for their wisdom, for their accountability. And even with that, I want to say today I am heartbroken.

1:15:19 – When we began this journey, in many many years ago as a Hillsong, network church and then in 2012 and 13, we were invited to become Hillsong family and, and me leaning in me saying make us Hillsong Church and in 2016 when that was announced, and my dream was realized. I never thought I would be standing here today. I do want to mention three things to you. It’s prescient at the time, I didn’t know it and it just seemed natural. You know how there’s things in your life. You just do things and you don’t even know in the moment what they mean.

But when we were in the conversation about becoming Hillsong Church, I start with Pastor Brian and Pastor Gary Clark, in California. And we had the conversation and I’ve reminded both of them in recent days. And in the conversation, there were three things that Judith and I put on the table. We said we’re not signing a prenuptial agreement. We’re just simply saying these are three commitments, qualifications restrictions, that we need back from you. Number one, Judith and I are called to Phoenix. And we understand how things change in the world. We understand that if we sin, if we if we fail in our leadership, we should be removed from leading but that’s one thing.

1:16:38 – On the other hand, we also understand how it is that pastors get reassigned. And we’re not open to being reassigned under any conditions, because Jesus called us to Phoenix. And Jesus has to call us away from Phoenix because we will stand before Jesus one day and we will give an account to Jesus one day as to whether we stayed faithful to the calling.

1:17:03 –  Second, qualification was.. we were invited to come under Hillsong, California, it did become an extension campus. We said as much as we love the youthful leadership in California, that isn’t what we’re called to do. We are called to be lead pastors in Phoenix. And number three, I said what is our plan for succession? Pastor Brian says well, we don’t have one, we have a catastrophic plan if something goes horribly wrong, then Gary Clark is to become my successor in the interim. But as a matter of planning, we’re not there. I have years of leadership ahead of me. And so I said, Pastor Brian, based on that, because I’m here to follow you, you’re my friend, I’ve looked at you. Based on that, when you step aside, you retire, you move into another position, we want to re-evaluate our continuation as Hillsong Phoenix. Now with that in place what I said a moment ago remains true.

1:18:12 – Even during the course of events, we want it to continue. But I do think that bears putting some of this in context, the bigger context and the bigger narrative in the attempt to be transparent with you. And we have now reached this moment of his resignation most unexpectedly.

Why is this matter so urgent? I want to be clear, it’s not because of the documentary that has been released this week, however horrible that may be. I haven’t seen, I am not here to comment on it. But we knew that was coming and this is not because of that. It’s not because we don’t believe in extending grace to those who sin. I didn’t expose what has been exposed before the world. I didn’t expose what has been exposed before the world. I have given details to help you understand my state of mind and leadership . But I didn’t expose any of that.

1:19.10 – Our heart is not to expose. Our heart’s are to lead with clarity and we believe in extending grace to those who sin. And it’s not because we love those who are involved in the less than we have always loved those who are involved. This conversation simply started with a return to governance back at the local level, and to establish some extra local pastors who are credible resources to protect our church from scandals from lawsuits and from the potential loss of what we have built together. I have been committed to protecting us spiritually and legally, from everything that has taken place, everything that is taking place and everything that may be discovered in the future. That is the bottom line.

1:20:08 – When the global board made its decision on Thursday, and Pastor Phil graciously shared the news with me. We began to work on when the announcement should be made public. Their request is that we hold the announcement to this coming week, that the announcement come out sometime this week. You understand the difficulty in coordinating between church and college and communicating first of all to our pastors that are sort of our elders, biblically they are. We have to do much training to equip them to hold those positions and will. But the coordination was incredibly difficult. And the board asked Pastor Phil, specifically that we would consider holding the announcement to this coming week.

My response was simply this – I can’t hold this announcement to a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and then have 3,4,5 days lapse before I stand here before you. Just in the announcement being released over the last couple of days, information has filled the gap and faith has been shipwrecked and people are hurting and they’re confused and they don’t know the facts behind it. And that’s only in the span of about 48 hours. I couldn’t risk a week or five days to elapse. And so, based upon that, I insisted that the announcement be made immediately.

I want to simply say, I gotta come back to this again. I’ve done everything within my ability to find a resolution that would allow for the continuation of what we love and value. But as I’ve reflected on this over the past 24 hours, as painful as it is, as unwanted as it is, I have to believe God is working in it. And because I love Hillsong Church, and because I love the 10s of 1000s of people who have found a home within it, I want to make a very clear and prophetic and parting statement.

1:22:18 – I love the global church and will continue to. But I also believe it is in the best interest of Hillsong Church to conduct an internal investigation as it relates to board conduct to immediately restore the Sydney eldership to make the findings of that public and to dismiss the board members who have protected the institution and not the people.

1:22:44 – And I realize how strong that sounds. And I cannot even tell you what I feel within me in the moment just making that statement. But I am not just a pastor who loves Hillsong Church and have been has invested into it. For the past decade and more of my life. I am a global apostolic leader. And I am not going to shrink back from that mandate on my life-  to lead not just our church, but the church in general in our generation. We have to get it right.

There is so much riding on the Church of Jesus Christ in getting it right. And when secular corporations are more transparent than the church, and when secular boards hold their employees and directors to a higher standard of accountability, we have failed the injunction.

That judgment must begin at the house of God so that the people of God stand as a prophetic Kingdom witness to the nations of the earth. It is vital that we get it right. I also want to offer a couple of other important statements.

1:24:00 – Our hearts are broken for anyone who has been victimized by anyone, anywhere for any reason, in Hillsong Church or college. And I also want to repent for those times in my own leadership. When I have put our mission, our church and our brand above the well being of people.

1:24:27 – I repent from my own ambition to do something great for God at the expense of people who are the mission. Not easy to be a pastor and to be an employer, not easy to care for people and require work performance. And I’ve gotten it wrong at times. And I repent for that. And I’m committed as a leader to doing a lot of soul work in this season. I’m committed as a leader to looking back over the past decade, and asking God and counsellors and pastors in my life to help me become what God expects of me as a leader in the church. My heart is broken, for everyone who has left our church, who’s walked away from our staff for various reasons, and those of your hurting today.

1:25:28 – And I want to ask us to hold space for one another. Let’s love one another well. Let’s grieve together, let’s heal together, let’s hope together. And I want to appeal to you – don’t let a root of bitterness spring up on the inside of you.  If you are angry at me, it’s OK, that hurts, but it might be justified. That’s OK. But don’t be angry with God, don’t be angry with the church. The church is what Jesus loves. The church is what He gave His life for. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… but Jesus gave His life for the church. I’m a church kid. I love the church to the core of my being. And if I have done anything, or in the future if I do anything to case dispersion on the church, can you separate that out. Can you just say Terry is .. whatever. But don’t reject the church. Don’t run from the church. Don’t be the people that feel they need to walk away from what God’s dream is. We can all be a part of a better church. All be part of healthier church, a community of family.

1:27:00 –  Let’s hold space for each other. So where do we go from here? I’ve gone long but I need to quickly learn this. There are so many things about our global church that are a beautiful gift from God. Things that I love, and that are a gift to this generation. And we will not change those things about our church – those things that are right about who we are. Let’s not abandon what we love about being a church that loves God and loves people and loves to life. A church that is [excuse me]..Let’s not neglect what it means to be a church that loves God and loves people and loves life. A church that, as Ps Brian has so beautifully put it, a church that is youthful in spirit, and generous at heart and faith filled in confession and loving in nature and inclusive in expression. I had the change the prefix on both of those. Those are values worth building the future on.

1:28:04 – We do not have to destroy the past to build the future. I don’t plan to the process on the platform each week. I plan to exalt Jesus, I plan to preach the gospel. I plan to lead you into spiritual formation and discipleship. I plan along with you to reach our generation but the love and grace and compassion and forgiveness that is offered to the redemption that is only found in the one who is perfect and sinless in all of his ways. That’s what I plan to do. We’ll learn lessons and we’ll speak to lessons but I’m not here to rehash this, to litigate this, to get caught up in this, to get stuck by this moment of time. And I’m not here to be the kind of church that, that, that gets stuck in a moment in the past. I want to be the kind of church that keeps our eyes on Jesus.

1:28:58 – Here’s what you can expect in the coming weeks. And months.

• • We are working to finalize the actual legal transfer of our church and our governments
  • We are working to finalize the transfer of our governance back to our local congregation.
  • We will seat a transition board to guide us through the season.
  • We’re committed to investing and empowering our pastor eldership which I believe by biblical conviction that eldership in the New Testament, our pastoral leaders. Not wealthy people who sit on the board. We love wealthy people in our church. As we love everyone, but not people who run corporations effectively. They are people who have pastoral gifting and calling and responsibility and courage and boldness to that function.
  • We will continue to host Hillsong College until the end of the semester,.
  • We’ll choose another church name, maintaining the best of our church culture while building a church that is wiser and healthier, for this experience. Maybe we’ll go back to our former name? I don’t even know – this has happened so suddenly (applause) Is that because you want us to go back to our former name? (greater applause)
  • In addition, we are fully supportive of making this conclusion of the semester all that it can be. … we’ve got students from all over the world, all over the country here. Some of them are children of my dear friends, pastors across the country. And I know this is incredibly awkward for them this morning. And I feel for that as I said last week. But we are going to get beyond this for their sake – over the remainder of this semester. And we are going to get on with building church. We’ll reassess this Fall, Hillsong College is going to relocate. Ps Phil, being incredibly gracious, suggested that we may want to start a bible school here ourselves, which hasn’t been our intention. But we may start an intern program. I’ve had on my heart a school of church planting for some time because I’m called to raise up church planters. Not just people who serve in churches elsewhere but people who plant churches across America. Life giving churches. And so we’ll condense that – all that is premature. In addition, in continuing the build on the values we love and appreciate, there are lessons we want to take away from this.

I’ll land with this today:

(1:31:40) Our commitment

• • Let’s build a church that values people in every way.
  • Let’s build a church where truth can be told without fear of repercussions.
    (Without NDAs and Non-competes, and covering things that should be transparently reported on.)
  • Let’s build a culture of honour without idolatry.
  • Let’s build a culture where victims are seen, and validated and healed.
  • Let’s build a culture of pastoral servant-hood and not corporate leadership.
  • Let’s build a culture that values righteousness, truth and justice.
  • Let’s build a culture that looks like heaven, not like the systems of this world.

I’ll speak more to this over coming weeks, but in conclusion:

1:34:40 Fundamentally the core of our vision remains the same. 

• • We’re here to engage in our communities,
  • To faithfully live out the gospel.
  • To love people and serve them,
  • And reach people with the hope that is found in Jesus.
  • Let’s build our lives on the person of Jesus, the beauty and power of His gospel and the hope that He has for His church, pure and holy, spotless and undefiled before Him, in the world.

CWC NOTES:

In his address to his congregation, Ps Terry Crist:

1. Exposes issues with Hillsong global governance
2. Highlights the need to return to the biblical local church/pastoral model vs a corporate-global style of governance;
3. Informs his church he is navigating a path forward.
4. Addresses lessons learned and repents.

Culture of Celebrity:

Prior to the topic of withdrawing from Hillsong, Crist takes aim at sin brought into church from celebrity culture, the focus on an individual to the extent of idolatry.

• (47:40) He looks at lessons to be learned from the story of Moses, Exodus.
• Notes (1:00:20) the tendency to focus on Moses the individual, the great leader, and not see others important and who partnered in his ministry. God wanted Moses to teach the people God’s decrees/instructions, so Moses was to select from all the people some capable honest men who fear God and hate bribes / advance transparency / can cover sin, but can’t be a part of cover ups.
• (1:05:40) Crist notes that every pastor/leader he knows or served with, set out to be faithful to the Gospel. And then over time, this culture of celebrity just often happens. And it’s one of the reasons why we’re in this moment today, because of sin. Anything less than clarity here, is going to lead to an outcome that is not faithful to God’s word. Else we’ll end up trying to fix things that aren’t the things to fix.

Ps. Crist identifies several levels of the current church crisis:  (1:06:25)

1. Morality
2. Integrity
3. Biblical governance, and leadership
4. Leadership in general

Ps. Crist outlines recent events:

• (1:08:45) Crist advocates that transparency is not in opposition to grace. There are times clarity is needed.
  

“Brian Houston’s continuation as our Senior Pastor was not tenable” (Crist)

• All have felt the weight of Ps Brian Houston’s resignation, however, his continuation as our Senior Pastor was not tenable. Unfortunately there’s been al lot of disagreement about that across the world and even within our eldership.
• Crist affirms the leadership and integrity of Acting Senior Pastor, Phil Dooley in dealing with the matter, and notes the integrity of so many people in Hillsong who love of Jesus.
  

The chief reason to withdraw from Hillsong is:
“a loss of confidence in the global board to continue leading us as a congregation.” (Crist)

• Crist noted people most commonly wanted to know WHY his church was taking this action, and WHY is this so urgent?
• 1:11:00 – Firstly, there was the Hillsong New York scandal and subsequent investigation into sexual misconduct and financial misappropriation.
• Crist wanted to see the investigation results – as a redacted/general form report. His request was denied.
• Some information from the report was leaked and so the Hillsong Global Board increased financial controls over churches and suddenly asked lead pastors to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) and Non-Compete Agreements (NCA). Some of us couldn’t do that in good conscience.
  (NCA:if we were removed from our positions, we could not plant churches again in our community for at least 1 year.)
• Last Sat (19/3/2022), after months trying to gain approval for us to reseat our local board, we formally requested the release of our church back to us. We wanted release to return to being governed by a local board, including a couple of non-HS pastors, for the sake of accountability by non-vested pastors who have nothing to lose by speaking truth to power. We asked to continue under the Hillsong Pheonix banner, like we we had it back in 2016/17 before the HS global restructuring which in 2017, our governance was reassigned along with our church and corporation. We had issues with that at the time.
• This last week the request was refused by the HSGB and Crist was told “all, or nothing”. We either had to let the HSGB to govern our church and own our properties, or we had to leave.
• So with great sadness, HS Pheonix chose to leave.
  (2012/13 invited to become HS family, then in 2016 became a HS church. )

I have given you details so you can understand my state of mind and leadership. Our heart is not to expose but give clarity…..

• 1:19:00 We wanted to return governance back to local level to protect our church from scandals and lawsuits and the potential loss of what we have built together. When the global board made its decision on Thursday,
• Ps Phil graciously shared the news with me and looked at when to made the announcement
• When global made decision on Thurs, Ps Phil shared news, and Trist shared the withdrawal of HS Phoenix from HS announcement immediately.
• 1:21:20 Tried everything to make it work. I love the global and will continue to.
  

  I also believe it is in best interest of HS church to conduct an internal investigation as it relates to board conduct, to immediately restore the Sydney eldership, to make the findings of that public, and to dismiss the board members who have protected the institution and not the people. 

• (1:23:00) I am a global apostolic leader, and I am not going to shrink back from that mandate on my life, to lead not just our church, but the church in general in our generation. 
• We have to get it right. There is so much riding on the church of Jesus Christ in getting it right. 
• And when secular corporations are more transparent than the church and when secular boards hold their employees and directors to a higher standard of accountability, we have failed the injunction.
• That judgment must begin at the House of God so that the people of God stand as a prophetic kingdom witness to the nations of the earth.
• (1:24:00) Our hearts are broken for anyone who has been victimised by anyone, anywhere, for any reason in Hillsong church or college.

Ps. Crist repents:

• “And I also want to repent for the times in my own leadership, when I have put our mission, our church, and our brand above the well being of people. 
• (1:24:25) I repent for my own ambition to do something great for God at the expense of people, who are the mission.
• It’s not easy to be a pastor and to be an employer, not easy to care for people and require work performance, and I’ve gotten it wrong at times. And I repent for that.   
• And I am committed as a leader to do a lot of soul work in this season. I am committed as a leader to look back over the past decade and asking God, and counselors and pastors and looking back over my life, to help me become what God expects of me as a leader in the church. My heart is broken for everyone who has left our church, …. walked away from our staff … for those of you hurting today.
• And I want to ask us to hold space for one another. … let’s love, heal, hope together, … if you are angry at me, that’s OK, it may be justified. Don’t be angry at God.
• Don’t be angry with the church. The church is what Jesus loves. The church is what He gave His life for. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… “

Where do we go from here?

• 1:28:00 We do not have to destroy the past to build the future….
• 1:29:00 Here’s what to expect in the coming weeks and months: 

a. We are working to finalise the actual transfer of our church and our governments. 

b. We are working to finalise the transfer of our governance back to our local congregation,

c. We will seat a transition board to guide us through the season. 

d. We are committed to investing and empowering our pastoral eldership which I believe by biblical conviction, that eldership, in the new testament, are pastoral leaders. Not wealthy people who sit on a board.  We love weal in our church as we love everyone. But not ppl who love corporations effectively. They are people who have pastoral gifting and callings and responsibility and courage and boldness, to that function. 

e. We will continue to host Hillsong College until the end of this semester. We’ll choose another church name, maintaining the best of our church culture, while building a church that is wiser and healthier for this experience. … 

(1:31:40) Commitments

• Let’s build a church that values people in every way.
• Let’s build a church where truth can be told without fear of repercussions. (Without NDAs and Non-competes, and covering things that should be transparently reported on.)
• Let’s build a culture of honor without idolatry.
• Let’s build a culture where victims are seen, and validated and healed.
• Let’s build a culture of pastoral servant-hood and not corporate leadership. 

• Let’s build a culture that values righteousness, truth and justice.
• Let’s build a culture that looks like heaven and not like the systems of this world. 

1:34:40 In conclusion:

Fundamentally the core of our vision remains the same. 

• We’re here to engage in our communities, 
• To faithfully live out the gospel.
• To love people and serve them,  
• And reach people with the hope that is found in Jesus.
• Let’s build our lives on the person of Jesus, the beauty and power of His gospel and the hope that He has for His church, pure and holy, spotless and undefiled before Him, in the world.

Email all comments and questions to c3churchwatch@hotmail.com

“Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Galatians 4:16

Categories: Hillsong

Tags: celebrity culture, corporate governance, culture of idolatry, eldership, governance, Hillsong, Hillsong corruption, Moses, Phoenix, Terry Crist