I look back on my life and realise just how much time I wasted trying to become an “expert” in spiritual knowledge. I could have learned to speak another language or I could have read some really good secular novels with the time I spent studying. We often assume that people will be more influenced by us and will delight in us, as Christians, if we know as much as possible about Christianity – that is not the case in my experience. I find that it is often the people who hardly have any spiritual knowledge, who seem to excel in this “living loved” lifestyle. To be honest, I don’t think people in the world are impressed with serious looking Christians who spout off a load of spiritual concepts. Such Christians tend to be rather proud and highly opinionated – which is a huge turn-off for anybody. People tend to be more attracted to those who humble themselves, not abase themselves, but people who don’t assume to have all the answers: people who put others first and accept other people as they are.
I find that the Christians at Hillsong London tend to get the balance right when it comes to having fun and not being too serious. Studying Theology is not at the top of the list for these Christians, neither is the need to prove they are right and everybody else is wrong. The most important things for these Christians tend to be making people feel welcome, socialising and having fun. I used to think that they went overboard with having fun and being sociable – but now I realise that they have it right. If you are a “serious” Christian, you too would probably arrive at the same conclusion that I used to arrive at. But what does bother me about the Hillsong crowd is that they are hooked on excitement, moreover, anticipation.
There’s always something going on at Hillsong London church that gets these people excitedly anticipating something: a new worship CD is coming out next month, or a charismatic speaker is visiting next week or there is a charity football match on tomorrow or the annual conference is coming up in a few months. I suppose it has to be exciting to get people interested enough to keep on coming, otherwise, it would get rather boring. But it does bother me somewhat that a Christian can get serious about a certain speaker or concept, just because they are exciting. I’ve noticed that the Hillsong crowd will get just as excited about hearing someone like Joyce Meyer, than they will about grace preacher Joseph Prince. Nowadays, I tend to not get so bothered about such things: if a Christian is humble, laid-back, fun and good to get on with – that’s just fine in my book.
I don’t think that there is anything “right” or “wrong” about Hillsong, as such. In fact, I’d say it’s my favourite church at the moment, although I don’t attend as much as I used to. I think it is just like any other church experience in that it’s a phase that you go through and hopefully enjoy and learn from, to some extent. Those who move on from Hillsong usually do so because of their circumstances, such as their visa expiring. There are those people who leave because they get ticked-off about something. Whatever the case, I think it is fine to experience something for a season and then to move on at the right time.
Photo: Laughing on the Bus courtesy of Peter Smithy.
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