A Note From Brian
Sent from our Hillsong contact:
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Dear Friends,
It has already been a few weeks since Bobbie and I left for our overseas trip, and as always, we are missing home!
We have had a busy, and yet refreshing time (as I described in my last email to you). This time as I write, we are on the Eurostar - the train from Paris to London. It is a sunny day as I look across the countryside of Northern France…now remember, envy is a sin!
On Thursday night we had the joy of taking part in the wedding of our Hillsong Paris pastor, Brendan White, to his beautiful French wife, Camille. Gary Clarke conducted the wedding in an old church beside the Seine River and I also had the chance to speak and pray. This was followed by a reception which was held on a boat on the river. It was so very romantic as we launched off from beneath the Eiffel Tower. Even though it rained a little, it was a fantastic experience and mix of cultures. The French definitely know how to celebrate!
On Friday night I preached at Hillsong Paris and then tonight (Saturday) at Hillsong London’s Surrey service and in the Dominion Theatre on Sunday. It is always a blessing to see what God is doing in this part of the world through our very own, Hillsong Church.
I am very aware that there has been some media activity in the past week aimed at Bobbie and I, and our church. It is never pleasant to be misrepresented, and I know you all share with us in the frustration of knowing that the thousands of true voices for Hillsong are often totally ignored by the media.
The reality is, the idea of a Christ exalting church flourishing in 21st century Sydney will always threaten the agendas of some. But Bobbie and I, and all the leadership team, simply refuse to be intimidated or distracted from what God has called us to do. That is, to build a healthy church that is bringing people hope through Jesus Christ and to be an encouragement to churches everywhere about just what God can do.
The best way you can support Bobbie and I is to do what we will be doing - getting on with fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.
As always, should any member of our church have questions on any matter, please feel free to contact our church leadership anytime for further clarification.
Be assured of our prayers for you. We will be back with you in just a couple of weeks after what will have been a combination of both hard work and a much-needed holiday. In the meantime, all reports I have received are that the Amazing Grace series has been wonderful and that the worship and teaching in church has been great. People are being saved and good things are happening. Don’t miss out on any of it.
God is so good.
Much love as always, your pastors and friends,
Brian (and Bobbie)
Philippians 1:6
August 8th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Who cares what Jensen thinks about Hillsong? - i’d be more interested in who will call Jensen to account?
hear hear. or is it Here here? No use finding out how te pot is calling te kettle a different shade of black…straight to te pool room with that one reve. Pure Gold.
I found myself warming to Jensen when he started talking about prison reform a little while back and then I remembered - he’s a Sydney Anglican - the uncaused cause of all other Sydney Anglicans what’s more!
August 8th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Who cares what Jensen thinks about Hillsong? - i’d be more interested in who will call Jensen to account?
But which Jensen are you talking about, Reve?
Regardless, I’m more than happy to play that role. You might like to check out http://ministryofincompetence.blogspot.com/2007/06/blessed-are-middle-class.html and offer some support to the cause. I’d be more than willing to take submissions, just as Emblazoned has done?
August 8th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Big Brother , not little brother.
He who aligns with Right-Wing African Anglicans.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Ok I have taken a few breaths and regained sanity, I thought BH had a picture of himself as standard letterhead, nearly had a fit…..
August 8th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
I put Brian’s note into Altavista’s Hill$ong To English translator….and this is what came out.
Brian: Dear Friends,
English translation: Dear Suckers,
Brian: It has already been a few weeks since Bobbie and I left for our overseas trip, and as always, we are missing home!”
Translation: Australia, that’s near Papua New Guinea isn’t it?
Brian: We have had a busy, and yet refreshing time (as I described in my last email to you). This time as I write, we are on the Eurostar - the train from Paris to London. It is a sunny day as I look across the countryside of Northern France…now remember, envy is a sin!
Translation: Got the feet up thanks to all the money you’ve pumped into LMI. We are on the Eurostar - the train from Paris to London. It is a sunny day as I look across the countryside of Northern France. Suck eggs.
Brian: On Thursday night we had the joy of taking part in the wedding of our Hillsong Paris pastor, Brendan White, to his beautiful French wife, Camille. Gary Clarke conducted the wedding in an old church beside the Seine River and I also had the chance to speak and pray. This was followed by a reception which was held on a boat on the river. It was so very romantic as we launched off from beneath the Eiffel Tower. Even though it rained a little, it was a fantastic experience and mix of cultures. The French definitely know how to celebrate!
Translation: Got pissed at a wedding in Paris and apparently we went on a river cruise according to someone who was there, but shit I don’t remember a thing apart from the headache on Friday morning.
Brian: On Friday night I preached at Hillsong Paris and then tonight (Saturday) at Hillsong London’s Surrey service and in the Dominion Theatre on Sunday. It is always a blessing to see what God is doing in this part of the world through our very own, Hillsong Church.
Translation: Someone asked me to talk bullshit for an hour at church, so hey, since they’re plying me with all this grog and free food and allowed me to take Bobbie the Squeaky Duck Toy along for the ride..then it’s the least I can do.
Brian: I am very aware that there has been some media activity in the past week aimed at Bobbie and I, and our church. It is never pleasant to be misrepresented, and I know you all share with us in the frustration of knowing that the thousands of true voices for Hillsong are often totally ignored by the media.
Translation: That cow Tanya Levin finally spilled the beans, but because the media coverage was tamer than I thought, and only David Marr got anywhere near the truth about Dad in his SMH article, I’m going to keep stalling.
Brian: The reality is, the idea of a Christ exalting church flourishing in 21st century Sydney will always threaten the agendas of some. But Bobbie and I, and all the leadership team, simply refuse to be intimidated or distracted from what God has called us to do. That is, to build a healthy church that is bringing people hope through Jesus Christ and to be an encouragement to churches everywhere about just what God can do.
Translation: I’m going to remain a cult leader. Do as I say, not as I do.
Brian:The best way you can support Bobbie and I is to do what we will be doing - getting on with fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.
Translation: Keep running yourselves into the ground to build our family business because there ain’t nothing else to do in the non-descript north-western suburbs of ..umm…that place near PNG.
Brian: As always, should any member of our church have questions on any matter, please feel free to contact our church leadership anytime for further clarification.
Translation: Should any member of our church have questions on any matter (except finances, pastoral issues, church oversight, workplace bullying, Dad, Dad’s toyboys, LMI, anything reported in the media) please feel free to contact our church leadership anytime for further clarification…followed by psychological torment.
Brian: Be assured of our prayers for you. We will be back with you in just a couple of weeks after what will have been a combination of both hard work and a much-needed holiday. In the meantime, all reports I have received are that the Amazing Grace series has been wonderful and that the worship and teaching in church has been great. People are being saved and good things are happening. Don’t miss out on any of it.
Translation: So all you’ve done while I was away was you played church and went to the pictures? Woo-bloody-hoo. Looks like I’ve got to get back on the Euro-star and show you how to REALLY live it up on other people’s money and then come back and hold your hand through the get-rich business seminars. Although, when I think about it….I can’t expect much from a church full of supermarket trolley-pushers and bloody real estate agents who’ll have their arse hanging out of their pants again when the housing boom ends.
Brian: God is so good.
Translation: I am so good.
Brian: Much love as always, your pastors and friends,
Translation: So long ..suckers!
Brian:Brian (and Bobbie)
Translation: A signature-signing machine.
Brian:Philippians 1:6
Translation:Being in chains for Christ? Oh, chained to the footrest on the Euro-star, I get it. Sweet.
August 9th, 2007 at 12:43 am
LOL!
August 9th, 2007 at 11:24 am
It is always sad when a conversation amongst followers of Jesus turns into generalised slander. I recognise that this is a post about Hillsong and Brian Houston’s letter from Paris and fail to see how this results in a generalised slander from people like ‘Reve’ against all Sydney Anglicans and even now Baptists. Stick to the point or don’t muddy the debate ‘Reve’. If ‘Reve’ is short for ‘reverend’ you ain’t.
And by the way… I can introduce you to lovely Christ oriented Sydney Anglicans, Hillsong members and even Baptists. Perhaps a subtle look in the mirror for any planks in your eye might be a good starting place.
August 9th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
“Generalised slander”? From what I can see it is pretty specific! The good part of me wants to say we should stray away from mimicking others.
Then the evil side of me beats up the good side, throws him in a moat with a chain around his neck, puts the orphans in a home and laughs evilly, all the while pondering the audacity of the Houston’s to mention envy is a sin…I’ve been to a few Hillsong services, and the message (when it regards money) seems to stray on to a holy version of envy. Ah, France…
BTW, if anyone can track down contact details for Tanya Levin…I’m trying to grab an interview with her.
August 9th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
The audacity??? You really can’t see the tongue in cheek when he says that? I don’t really give a rip about HS but even I can tell the guy is saying “envy is a sin” with a smirk on his face and his tongue in his cheek.
August 9th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Andrew, easy there pal,
All i was trying to say is that Sydney Anglicans are a breed of their own with a conservatism that marks it as distinctly different to the way the rest of the country (& other parts of the world) are deveoping. “Jensenites” or those who follow Jensens teaching are the same Sydney Anglicans we speak of. Also, as a gay person i have commented that i have noted more opposition to my sexuality from Sydney Anglicans & Baptists than other denominations.
I too have known some “lovely” Anglicans - until they knew i wasn’t straight - then the room turned rather cold.
Perhaps you could view my prior comment in this particular light.
Plank? Yep - a massive one.
my arguments presumptuous, generalistic & one-sided - yep - tends to be the case when you’re on the outside because of something you can’t help
Reve short for Reverend? Nope, - it’s for “Revelatory”
Are you a Sydney Anglican, Andrew? How have you shadowed or emulated Christ by direct & non-judgemental contact with gay people, or prostitutes or anybody outside your comfortable social orbit? Tell us how you have accepted such people precisely where they are with no agenda but love? Please advise of other “lovely” Sydney Anglicans (who identify specifically this way) you personally know who are successful at doing what i have just described (with no agenda but love).
Did you come upon this site by accident Andrew? Perhaps by Googling keywords “Jensen” or “Sydney Anglican?” - do you actually have anything to offer us here other than telling us how ungodly we are & what we can & can’t say?
August 9th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Anyway, it wasn’t “generalised slander” it was just social commentary that is totally up for debate - that’s what we do here.
August 9th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I don’t really agree with much of Sydney Anglicanism or Hillsong (but we know that already).
But despite this, I do think we should be steering away from slamming for slamming’s sake, so i support Andrew’s call but I put it in different terms.
August 9th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Yeah, i can be a bit acidic - gotta learn to tone that down. I don’t really know as much as i should about Syd Anglicans to profess anything.
Enblazoned - just confirming you’re still good for both Sunday & next thursday night in Glebe?
August 9th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Reve,
Firstly, and I think importantly, I had no idea about your sexuality as you have no idea about mine. But I fail to see how that determines that “all” Sydney Anglicans, Baptist, Hillsongers or whoever are bad or un-loving or whatever. Until you’ve met them all you can’t say that. You can say that “in your experience…” but I can also say, “in my experience I have met plenty of Christlike, loving Christians who are from these specific denominations”. Your generalisation I suggest ruins whatever point it is that you want to make. Note how in Tania Levin’s book she is careful to make this distinction.
Secondly, I am not a Sydney Anglican. I am a Victorian and belong to a Baptist church.
Thirdly, I have been on this site for a few years so didn’t come upon it through some sort of search looking for some some specific topics. Why do you personalise your attack and suggest this? You have no idea about my ’social orbit’ but I’ll bet good money that I spend time with a more diverse range range of humanity then you do (economically, medically, socially, in terms of country of origin, age, homelessness, and mental illness, etc). So why such a severe attack against someone you don;t know?
Fourthly, I have several gay friends and so I can understand the pain that you feel against certain judgemental standpoints of certain denominational leaders and members but I fail to see what it has to do with a discussion about Hillsong from this letter from France? This is my point. And to say that there is not one single Sydney Anglican who is anything, is silly because I’ll bet (as you will I feel sure) that there are one of two closet gays in their own ranks!
If you knew me you (which you don’t, but seem to feel comfortable making vitriolic generalisations that make you just as bad as those who try to stone you) would know that I am not into either Sydney Anglicanism or Hillsong for certain reasons but I don’t say the generalisations that you do.
So to quote you, ‘Easy there pal’.
August 9th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
My bad on several counts,
Will try to remember in future to take a breath before furiously stabbing at the keyboard.
Time for a bex & a lie down.
Apolz again!
August 9th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Well, maybe not “audacity”, but certainly “delicious irony” may be more appropriate? I do realize that BH joking, but come on…Hillsong and envy in the same e-mail was just too hard to resist.
August 9th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Secondly, I am not a Sydney Anglican. I am a Victorian and belong to a Baptist church.
Lock up your children, proect your families - one of them has got loose and is among us
August 9th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Hi Phil and Dan,
Is there any way to crop out the picture of BH? Seeing him when I visit SP’s…..well, it’s freaking me out quite frankly…….
August 10th, 2007 at 7:54 am
Yeh get rid of the bloody picture. The note is a classic. Come now little children…It’s the old colonial thing of capitalising on the cache of an exotic destination. Hey look we’re in london. we’re in kiev, we’re in paris, all we need now is new york and munich and we can sing pop music. The normal aussie battler who has never been to paris or london doesn’t realise that they are bloody huge places where there are thousands of foreign churches with a little toehold and a big missions hook back home. Little places like london clc and paris clc are insignificant and are nothing in the scheme of things in those cities. I’ve met those people who got married, to the normal hser they sound exotic but they are normal hsers, they jump, they tithe, they worship B & B. There are hundreds of boats on the seine, it’s not special…’french people know how to celebrate…duuhhh..really.
london clc has church in a show house because it’s a show, hello ! I’ve been to much more dynamic churches in london and other places where they have been around for ever and are actually even local focussed, yes, I know that sounds unlikely but it’s true, there are actually huge churches which care more about their own country and people than having a world face based on insecurity. Also it’s typical how the houstons are out of town when media may be, could be difficult, it’s like when anyone who had any kind of profile left when I was there, there would be no one from leadership in the building just in case there were complications. Only the toecutter would be around. The night i left not one leader was in the house or onstage, an insignificant preacher talked. I had a friend who left, on their last night their so called best friend, a leader, totally blanked them and there was no goodbye. When you’ve gone, you are really gone. It reminds me of when you are made redundant and the manager escorts you from the building on your last day just in case you pinch a biro or start an insurrection. Arseholes.
Perfect hs antidote…Hyperdrive. Cross between the office and red dwarf.
August 10th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Get over it Daisy. Don’t be such a wuss. It’s just a picture.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:46 am
It’s not just a picture - look closely - it is actually BH himself, watching our every move…it’s his eyes man, his eyes, can’t you see them, they’re watching us, closely waiting for su to make a mistake and BAM - 10% forever and we’ve sold our souls for a cd and a couple of books.
Have you noticed that while the rest of us are getting older by the day that picyure hasn’t aged o minute - what’s with that - it’s like the picture of Dorain Gray, except different.
Take him down Dan, rip our his heart Phil, protect us from the piucture of Brian Houston
August 10th, 2007 at 11:13 am
ifiknewthen at 49 - with all respect, dear brother, but I have to say this is an essay in bitter envy! Not the jokey envy BH mentioned, but the real deal, bro!
Come on, folks, have your grizzle, BUT, it was only an email, a friendly note to church members, which was lifted and (oooh scoop of all scoops) released here, but it’s not a media release, or public declaration.
August 10th, 2007 at 11:21 am
I’m inclined to think that the comment about envy by Brian was merely meant to be good humoured, but surely he understood the way in which these comments could and would be interpreted? Either that, or he is simply very naive. Or out of touch. I mean, if I were in his position, I wouldn’t give my critics any more material to work with.
August 10th, 2007 at 11:27 am
I imagine he had in mind the people he pastors, not the people who treat him with such disregard as to deliberately miss the point of the quip, don’t you?
August 10th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Probably - but surely he knew that such correspondence would find its way into the public domain? I’m not suggesting any malevolence - I’m just questioning the wisdom of such a quip when the integrity of Hillsong has come under direct attack.
August 10th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Well, a weak man might cow-tow to the critics, but, anyone who misses the sentiment of the email is really in la-la land.
August 10th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Daisy it freaked me out too. I have been away for weeks and come back to a picture of BH! Not fair everyone, there should have been a warning
August 10th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Daisy,
I completely understand how you feel.
For those who may not quite understand, there are still some here who are shocked and disturbed by the sight and sound of BCH.
I know it might seem strange, but he still can have that affect on some of us former Hills/Hillsong people.
A few years ago, my local TV station used to play one of those Christian TV ads you see now and then during the evening news, featuring BCH. I found the sight of a very close close-up of his talking head on my telly revolting to the point of having to leave the lounge room. Thankfully, they don’t play that one any more.
It’s especially confronting when you are not prepared for it.
Diasy, I wasn’t as confronted by Brian’s image on this thread as you, but I understand the freak-out factor.
August 10th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
What happens if he ends up in heaven on the same street as you?
August 10th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Or, more currently, in Christ in the same Body as you?