Unpacking The Hillsong Doc That's Rocking The Church

Author

Jacob Schmelzer
July 07, 2023

Hope your 4th of July holiday was great!

Don’t underestimate the power of rest and relaxation to recharge your battery as a leader.

That’s been a BIG lesson for me this year.

Rest.

Relax.

Trust God and let Him carry the weight of the world on His shoulders.

Alright, let’s jump in!

First off, here’s some great FREE resources I’ve come across in the past few months…

Free Resources

1) The Pour Over: Politically neutral, Christ-first, news source.

The biggest news of the day, summarized in a way you'll actually understand and enjoy, paired with brief Christian perspectives.

2) Eat God’s Way: FREE Newsletter

Daily encouragement to ditch the Standard American Diet, get healthier & happier, and save money on groceries... without giving up the foods you love or spending all day in the kitchen!

Click here to get it. (page might take a few seconds to load)

Telling better stories means being a better communicator and inspiring people to change and grow!

Recommended Tools:

Here are some of the best tools I use for business and ministry!

1) Email Newsletter Software - Beehiiv

Want to start your own newsletter? For church communication, leadership development, discipleship, or something else? Beehiiv is my go-to tool. I use it everyday and it works great. Totally FREE up to 2500 subscribers!

2) Group Software - Skool

Skool is hands down the simplest, easiest, and BEST group software available right now. I use it for UpLevel Leader coaching and it’s fantastic. Community. Classroom. Calendar.

Now down to it.

Unpacking The Hillsong Doc That's Rocking The Nation

One of my staff recently asked for my takeaways from the new documentary on HULU about Hillsong.

If you’re not familiar with it here’s the gist:

The documentary first shines a light on the meteoric rise of Hillsong church in Australia and subsequently in the USA. With a focus on Hillsong NYC and pastor Carl Lentz. The church grew rapidly and was known as a “cool” church which especially appealed to hip, young, New Yorkers. But scandal after scandal rocked the church…ultimately resulting in Carl being removed from ministry. I’ll leave out the sordid details.

Then the documentary shifts focus to the mother church in Australia and the child-abuse scandal that impacted it. Ultimately resulting in a fallout between founder Brian Houston and the Hillsong church leadership. Again, I’ll leave out the sordid details.

My wife and I debated if we should even watch it because we aren’t interested in slander, gossip, or watching leaders fall.

After all, we’re in the business of helping leaders get healthy and win!

But in the end we decided that there could be some helpful lessons so we gave it a watch.

I felt like throwing up after each episode so I can’t say I recommend it but I definitely had some strong takeaways from the show…

Here’s my unfiltered thoughts…

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