Welcome to Crikey subscribers
Well signposts copped a mention in today’s crikey subscriber’s email for some of our recent discussions about the articles published by the Australian newspaper about Hillsongs, featuring one of our commenters Geoff Bullock. If you have come here via there, welcome. Have a look around.
[PS how cool are we?]
May 4th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
OH DAMN!! I put it in the wrong thread!!
May 4th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
Impressive effort though Bec!
May 4th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
yeah, like i said…it’s a ‘lance-post’!
(actually, it’s just a cut and paste job, but anyway…)
May 4th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Hey, Thanks for all your wonderful supportive comments guys.
Jane i would love to make contact with you but as i am new here i have no idea how to contact Dan.
Geoff, i will write to you shortly but writing all that about my experience at Hillsong, while just touching the edge of everything that went and goes on, has actually physically taken quite a lot out of me.
But guys please don’t get me wrong, i am not bitter towards Hillsong. There are some great christian people there. There are some immature (both in years and spiritually) people there with too much power and too many agendas. I struggled the whole time i was there with what my heart and possibly the Holy Spirit were saying to me and what i was being taught. Somethings were good but a lot of things were not.
Brian Hooooooouston (as it is now pronounced) once said, a man of integrity has nothing to hide.” I agree with that but i wonder why so many things are hidden in Hillsong.
Unfortunately, i find Hillsong has much more in common with my local RSL Club than what i thought the church should be. It is more about having a good time with coloured flashing lights while loosing your money then actually being a place of prayer and community. If a church has no community i really can’t see the point of it being a church. Community is the heart of the church.
In regard to my ex fiance, we broke up over a year ago now and i endured the toxic atmosphere of Hillsong until February this year. It was hard as i tried to be faithfull to God and Hillsong all that time. While i found God more than faithful, i found Hillsong much less trustworthy.
My Ex fiance has some severe problems with uncontrollable rage and tantrums. As far as i know she has not sought any help to sort these things out because she can’t be seen to have a problem. It is very sad! It is something that needs more than counselling or a few coffees….perhaps a chemical solution. It is so bad that i suspect she has some kind of borderline personality disorder. But this is the kind of thing that is hard at Hillsong. Life is supposed to be blessed! It is really oh so superficial.
The culture of Hillsong is all about works but of course they preach about stiving and living in the power of the spirit. If you think it is works, as far as Hillsong is concerned, you are the one who is confused…You just don’t get it!
oh, the brainwashing and manipulation!
Although dissapointed that i am dead with out a funeral i really did expect it…I had seen it so many times.
Anyway, i have written too much again and worn myself out again.
Have a great day!
PS. I actually believe in the concept of the church and beleive we are supposed to be part of one. Although i had a nice two month break to “de-tox/de-lice” myself of Hillsong i am attending another church now. It is a local church and it is an AOG church. It also has a couple of old Hillosngers there like Tanya Riches. They have no plans to be come a Hillsong clone! There plans are to love the community more! Sounds like home to me.
May 5th, 2006 at 6:16 am
Dan - could you please pass my hotmail address to Neil?
Thanks,
Jane
May 5th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Hi Neil, “de-tox/de-lice”
…
May 5th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Emails exchanged.
May 7th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
I actually got here via Wikipedia. I noticed that the Pat Mesiti article at Wikipedia had disappeared, yes: disappeared.
So after checking out the Hillsong entry at Wikipedia I clicked through to Geoff Bullock’s entry. And then ended up here.
I’ve now been enlightened and re-educated. I’m no fan of Hillsong The Corporation, for my own reasons. I read this post when it became apparent to me what really happened to Geoff Bullock.
My heart goes out to you Geoff.
Personally I have been through similar, but it’s only a drop in a bucket compared to the ocean of crap that you had to go through.
I hope you don’t mind but I posted the aforementioned post here. I put in the URL here as the source.
May 7th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
Hi Homestar, trust you find some cyber fellowship and encouragement rom fellow travelers hereat.
May 10th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Thanks James. I’m really liking this place.
May 11th, 2006 at 1:20 am
Me too
May 11th, 2006 at 1:22 am
TABY, havent heard from you for a while - miss your interaction.
May 11th, 2006 at 1:58 am
I just needed a break from the debate. Needed to pull back and reflect on things others have said and those things that I have said.
I continue to carry around inside of me a great deal of anger, disappointment and bitterness, so I run the risk of doing a lot of damage when I get going. I really don’t want that to happen.
I’m still around…..just trying to be more mindful of my actions.
I think we are all ultimately on the same journey toward Truth and Understanding. We just have to be careful not to kill each other trying to get there.
May 11th, 2006 at 9:53 am
TABY, can identify with you on this
May 11th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
TABY, what i was really wanting to say is, great to hear youre hanging in there, hope youre OK and i 4 1 would be pleased to pray the Lord’s blessing upon you and would welcome your prayer for this wandering sheep and his wife as well. May the Lord grant us all His grace and may He guide us out of this dark and into His light! And may the Lord minister to us in those areas where we have been sinned against that we might not sin against others!
Sorry if this sounds preachy, its not intended that way.
May 11th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Thanks James,
I am in agreement with you.
May 20th, 2006 at 3:11 am
Great site, Not sure I agree with it all.
May 20th, 2006 at 4:59 am
Who asked you for your opinion, wedding site? Fuck off. Don’t spread your American shit on this site, fuckface.
May 20th, 2006 at 5:03 am
And if you’re reading this, Brian Fucking Houstin, you can take your American style church shit back to yankie land and shove it up Allen’s arse. It’s “arse”, Allen, not “ass” (fuckwit Americans can’t even spell 4 letter words correctly).
All you pseudo-Americans who attend Hillsong, you can fuck off too. You betray Australian values, with your selfish hope and greed.
May 20th, 2006 at 5:57 am
Abraham in hope against hope, believed God. When he looked at himself, at his situation and at his prospects he knew with certainty that all was totally hopeless. He’d left everything he knew, extended family, culture, the works to wander through a fairly sparce land on nothing more than the say-so of a voice in a vision. Now the one thing he had been promised by that voice that made it all worthwhile was clearly impossible; that he would become the father and his descendants would inherit every where he walked and looked.
But Abraham, in hope when all things seemed hopeless, chose to trust himself to God ANYWAY!
August 22nd, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Hey Jane…another buzz word being bandied about the church nowadays is “Visionary”, which supposedly is an “Office” of a “Man of God” who has progressed from being a mere “Apostle”.