Yesterday I went to Hillsong and heard about Jesus

Yesterday morning a mate and I went to Hillsong's main service at Mt Gravatt. To shamelessly pinch ideas. We wanted to 'plunder the Egyptians' by seeing what good ideas they have to connect newcomers to church.

It wasn't what I expected.

We went in expecting to hear prosperity gospel. We heard nothing of it. Instead, we found ourselves listening to the great news about Jesus. The service went for 90 minutes exactly. 47 minutes of that was the sermon. Dodgy 'health and wealth' talk was totally absent. Giving wasn't mentioned once by the preacher.

We expected a classic 'You need more money' sermon. We heard nothing of it. Instead, the preacher spoke from the story of John the Baptist in John 1. He taught from the Bible!  It was engaging. Interesting. Applicable. Exciting. Not boring. Not too long. Not heresy. We listened to every word. Words. Lots of them. Meandering structurally, theologically a little blunt, but never boring. The only visuals he used were different bible verses he was opening up for us.

He used all these concepts without losing the audience: Trinity, predestination, creation, sin, the incarnation, forgiveness of sin, regeneration and adoption. The only terms avoided were incarnation and regeneration - but he was workmanlike in connecting these complex ideas to the 1500-odd adults there. Trinity was where he began and ended. It was all quite orthodox (although I would definitely want to and have to be much more nuanced on the Trinity). He went from John 1 to Genesis 1 to Ephesians 1.

We expected poor application. Given the main idea of his sermon was that the Godhead is relational in his very identity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit in relational unity), his application seemed appropriate: we shouldn't be surprised that God invites us to be part of his story of saving others from the deadly consequences of sin, by inviting them to church, to hear about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Instead, he said, we should be AMAZED that the Triune God chooses, of his own will, to use frail and sinful human beings, adopted as his children, to bring other people to know him. I was encouraged and fed reasonably well from God's Word.

We expected way too much repetitive singing of generally poorly written songs with inane lyrics. Fluffy stuff. Hit and giggle. But although most were theologically shallow, some actually spoke of the Lordship of Jesus, the cross of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins that comes by trusting in Jesus. Parts were gospel gold. There weren't too many. Instead, there were only 2 brackets of songs - one set at the beginning (20 minutes) and a single song at the end, to close off the sermon and service. We were stunned.

We expected to be uncomfortable. We weren't (not much, anyway). Perhaps the most uncomfortable thing was his story about some guru English preacher prophesying his whole life in a car on the way to Manchester. That makes me uncomfortable, and left me glad to have heard Hebrews 1 last week (Jesus is the ultimate, complete and final revelation, so don't get distracted by any other stuff). There were no nutters working themselves into a lather. No crazy rolling around on the floor. No tongues. No stupid dancer wannabes invading your personal space. No shameless emotional manipulation. Even the altar call was reasonably respectful of the audience.

Of course, we learnt a lot about connecting newcomers. We pinched heaps of good ideas. At the welcome lounge we made good to look like we had no idea what we were doing (surprisingly easy). A lady came and welcomed us really well. I told her directly who we were and why we were there, gauging her response. Looking for any hint of defensivess. But she was entirely gracious. No question was too intrusive. Not a whiff of pride. She went the extra mile. She told us stuff we hadn't even asked about. All she wanted to do was help her fellow followers of Jesus.

Some reflections:

1. Once again I've been rebuked for my incipient judgementalism.
2. We are powered by grace. Grace really is the fuel of the gospel that should stoke our lives as Christians every day. And grace must especially be the driving force in the ministry of pastors like me.
3. People can change for the better; so it makes sense that churches can too. I am left wondering who has graciously and winsomely helped Hillsong to recapture a focus on teaching the Bible. Maybe my sample size is too small?
4. Kids dropped off to a separate 'kids church' from the get go makes me uncomfortable. I don't think it reflects a healthy idea of church being a gathering across all age groups. Having said that, the service leader explained that over 90 different ethnicities were present in the church, and looking around this rang true.
5. Not a single mention of the brand 'Hillsong' during the service; yet the visual branding was exceptionally clear and unambigious.
6. I didn't expect a small choir of 12 people on stage for the first bracket of songs. It worked well.
7. No one else was singing when the band were performing. It wasn't so much an issue of volume, but the visually communicated expectations (culture?). It was strange and heart warming to be back at Creek Road at night church to hear the whole congregation (much smaller) singing with the band, and even for our band to go silent for a verse or two once we were pumping it out.
8. They have a massive focus on services as THE main event. Their connect/ushering team would have been at least 60 people.
9. Starting the service with an instrumental version of 'Simply the Best' was just weird.
10. 'Next steps' language was everywhere; sometimes clear and sometimes confusing. Too many were mentioned; but this reflected their 'opt-in' philosophy of ministry rather than the pathway thinking I am used to.
11. The preacher was a pommie. But he seemed like an OK bloke.
12. He began with an underpants story which had nothing to do with the talk and everything to do with humanising the preacher by connecting with his audience (getting us 'on the train').
13. They really believe God is at work. They actually expect people will come to church, hear about Jesus and be saved.
14. They have an energy and enthusiasm which on one level puts me to shame. On another though, it was inspiring. They reminded me just how good the gospel is, and how much we pastors need to keep being reminded of that ourselves, particularly if we're supposed to be sharing it with others.
15. Lengthy talks doesn't equal boredom. The guy preached for 47 minutes. Even my fidgety mate with the short attention span listened to the lot. Whether people are engaged depends on whether the speaker is engaging. If people are bored, it's not because the sermon's too long. It's because we're boring.
16. They were unashamedly generous. Why aren't I? Don't we serve the same Lord?
17. The preacher bled enthusiasm for the Bible. He modelled love for God's word. I think this is one thing we do have sorted - we just need to let it show more.
18. Simplicity, excellence and organisation are not the enemies of love, sincerity and care.
19. Doing ministry on a big scale in a big team in a big church does seem to be connecting somehow with our culture in a way that our small-church-planting obsessions don't. (Westfields vs corner stores?)
20. It may be that we are moving to become more like them, but it seems they may be moving to become more like us. What is it that God is doing here in Brisbane? I'm excited.