My thoughts on the Hillsong Docu-Series

by Tim Hunter

I should have been weeping. But I wasn't.

I was almost excited.

I sat in my chair, grabbed my drink, and hit play. Let's see what dirt they pulled up on Hillsong. I should have been weeping at the sight of the name of Christ maligned, brothers and sisters hurt, and countless non-believers' views of the church and Jesus tainted. Yet, I approached the docu-series with almost a giddy expectancy.

That's sin.

"Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing..." 1 Corinthians 13v7a

Many Christian YouTubers and bloggers have reacted to the Hillsong docu-series and ensuing scandals. I am not the first, and I won't be the last. However, I would like to take a different approach. I want to attempt to take a robust Biblical approach to this docu-series - through the lens of love, Scripture, and my failure. Yes, much of the series was tainted by a quite obvious agenda, in my opinion. Some of it, I doubt, was accurate. But much of it likely was. So the question that I want is not how can we critique the docu-series, but how can we critique ourselves?

So, here are a few thoughts that have emerged as I have processed taking in the docu-series and the many other scandals that have hit the news within Christendom within the last couple of years. Admittedly, these thoughts are a bit scattered and disconnected, but I hope they are a help to you.

Here goes:

1. Sin in the church must be exposed, confessed, and repented of.

The ancient fiery apostle and preacher Peter put it this way: "For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" 1 Peter 4v17.

Ouch. This truth flew off the tv screen to me. The church is not a place to cover up sin; it is a place to confess sin. It is not a place to enable abuse but a place to expose abuse. It is not a place to shelter abusers but to comfort the abused. It is not a place to platform power but a place to minister to the lowly. It is not a place to lift ourselves but to pick up our cross, follow Christ, and die. It is not a place to reap the benefits of consumerism and material gain it is a place to repent of our desire to find satisfaction in more stuff and more money.

We often become echo chambers shouting at the world around us: policies, political parties, agendas, tv, the media.

Yet, if evil must be confronted, and it must, it must be first confronted by those who claim the name of Christ. Judgment must begin in the house of God.

There seems to have been much actual sin and abuse within Hillsong church, and the response to this must be confession and repentance to God and those who were hurt and abused.

May we be radically different in how we deal with sin and abuse.

2. Restoration by God's grace and being Cancelled by Culture are not the Same.

Often, I wonder if "cancel culture" has infected the church. When someone is exposed - cancel culture says to remove them, strip them of dignity, and sideline them indefinitely.

Scripture says: "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." Galatians 6v1.

So yes and amen, judgment must start in the house of God. But a gospel-saturated approach to repentance has a restoration of the individual as the end goal, not the individual's cancellation. Yes. If biblical qualifications are broken, removal from positions should happen; if laws have been broken - punishment should be dealt out. But there is a world of difference between restoration and cancellation.

God takes sin deathly seriously. The apostle Paul even went so far as to deliver one of the church members involved in egregious sexual sin in Corinth over to the destruction of the flesh by Satan. Yet, there is an interesting phrase tacked on to the end of that passage in 1 Corinthians 5:5 - "so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." Restoration, even in the middle of intense discipline, was the goal.

Restoration, whether the individual desired it or not, was the goal. Cancellation points at someone else and says, remove them get rid of them. Gospel-saturated restoration says there must be discipline but with a trembling spirit that says, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me lest I also be tempted and fall."

Gospel restoration should not lead us to say, "Wow, look at how bad they are". It leads us to say: "God, look how bad my flesh is - I could do the same - deliver me from myself."

I mean, look at the guy who wrote the verses I just wrote: He persecuted and abused Christians. Cancel culture does not allow that kind of guy to become an apostle of Jesus, church planter, prolific author of the New Testament, epic theologian, and gracious pastor. The gospel of Jesus does.

May we be radically different in how we deal with the fallen.

3. This kind of docu-series exposes me too.

Yeah.

Why am I not more burdened for the name of Christ being drug through the mud through scandal? Why am I not more hurt for the countless of my brothers and sisters who are deeply disillusioned by the failure of leaders that they looked up to? Why is it so easy for me to be entertained by scandal in the church?

There is a real Jesus, a real church, real people hurt by abuse, real church members hurt by the failure of leaders, and real leaders whose lives have crumbled around them due to their sin.

This isn't a microwave more popcorn type of series; this is an on our knees in prayer kind of series.

May I be radically different in how I deal with my own sin.

That's all I got. May God help us.