What do hillsong own

She was given access to a card, for the purpose of buying food for the children she baby-sat. She was never told to reconcile anything, she said. And as a church, Hillsong is exempt from paying income tax in the US. Hillsong did not return repeated requests for comment on the many instances of excessive spending that former members claim they witnessed throughout years of administrative work at the beleaguered church.

During her time in New York, Babbitt watched the cards get used on decadent purchases , from luxury presents to Manhattan hotel stays. Before every single Sunday service at Hillsong NYC, volunteers would buy huge quantities of food for the pastors, from sushi spreads to Chipotle.

Often, staffers such as Babbitt were also asked to roll out the red carpet for visitors. Babbitt and the other former members interviewed for this story were not aware of any procedure for or expectation that pastors reimburse the church for personal purchases made with PEX cards. Herman confirmed there was no such reimbursement expectation for personal use of the cards, which, she adds, were phased out from Hillsong LA in after the Bogards — who worked there following their Hillsong NYC stint — were found to be overusing them.

Herman could not confirm whether the cards had been discontinued by the other Hillsong chapters. Babbitt recalls tithing thousands of dollars to Hillsong over her years there — even when she was far too poor to be doing so. She left the church in and today is a director at a faith space Dallas nonprofit. From the start of her membership, tithing was a very important part of church, she told The Post, with calls to give made twice a service and a proprietary app created to make digital offering easier.

Eventually Kane had Phalon start doing light personal assistance work for him. She was also given access to a PEX card, but was explicitly told to use it only for his kids — never on herself. Except Kane could never remember what the receipts were for. Up above, a band of angels playing harps and flutes on the hand-painted ceiling seems to look down with approval. In the foyer, uniformed security guards dig through bags as their owners are eyed going through a metal detector.

The venue and the numbers are indicative of the unprecedented international success Hillsong has had overseas, not only as a church but as a Christian music brand. While Hillsong — which counts celebrities like Justin Bieber and Kyrie Irving among its followers — is well known for its music within the Christian scene, the true scope of its international success may not be fully understood by those on the outside.

Her organisation helps represent the Australian music industry at international events. The Hillsong Conferences have become massive affairs, with their Sydney edition bringing in close to 40, people.

Photo by Hillsong. At home, Hillsong has won ARIAs for album sales though some in the music industry complained the albums were flogged to a captive audience in church conferences. One of its groups, Hillsong United, is in the top 10 Australian artists streamed on Spotify globally — but not among the top 10 Aussie artists streamed on Spotify locally. Australia is more secular than other music markets where Hillsong is shipped — for example the United States, says worship scholar Wen Reagen.

Since , Hillsong United has had one 1 song, three in the Top 10, and 41 songs total in the Billboard Hot These are charts for all genres! Plus, in Australia, Hillsong is a physical church first and foremost. Millgate has been working with Hillsong for almost a decade now, and admits when she first started working with the brand, she did not quite realise the scope and savvy of its music arm.

Then through that I started to see the scope of their reach and the amount of product they were releasing and how they were doing it. Hillsong congregants had a habit of undergoing more than one baptism, and Jones proposed addressing the issue with a six-stage course for new congregants that could morph into a connect group at the end.

A church spokesperson said the church did not encourage multiple baptisms but said it was not uncommon for some Christians as a means of recommitting themselves.

According to Jones, Keatinge brought the proposal to Lentz and returned with news that the idea had been approved. One Sunday, Lentz informed the congregation of the new course.

Watching from her seat, Jones filled with anticipation. Then Lentz told the assembly, This idea came to us from our one and only Kane Keatinge. If a hole opened up on the stage, he would have jumped through it. In September , Jones emailed Lentz asking that Hillsong address some of the things that bothered her about the church: its racial disparity, cliques, cronyism, overworked volunteers.

While the reply upset Jones, she backed down before nodding to Lentz that she recognized his tactics. A few months later, Jones decided to leave Hillsong. Lentz implored her to stay. When she declined, he appeared at her Brooklyn apartment. The church has made Brian Houston wealthy and well-connected. Scott Morrison, prime minister of Australia, has described Houston as a mentor and suffered a minor scandal in after the White House denied his attempt to bring Houston to a state dinner.

In the months after the Lentz affair broke, the church came under new media scrutiny. In December the board of Hillsong Church Australia wrote an email to congregants dismissing the stories, some of which included allegations of exploitation and discrimination, primarily as gossip.

The message denied only one scandal specifically. In Frank Houston, who died in , confessed that he committed child sex abuse. He was ultimately accused of abusing nine young boys at his ministries. A royal commission in Australia found in that Brian Houston failed to notify authorities about the allegations upon learning of them. The case has continued to plague Hillsong. You tempted my father. Omar Abreu was in high school when they found Hillsong.

Wracked with guilt and confusion, Abreu opened up to a youth pastor and social worker. After a few conversations where she outlined some preliminary steps—including leaving their role working with children—she proposed a longer-term path.

Abreu left Sydney 11 months after arriving. Back in New York, they tried going to services again; their best friends were and still are part of the church. But the wounds from Sydney remained. Logging onto Grindr backstage, Abreu saw a screen dotted with fellow volunteers. Bri Austen, a single mother in Los Angeles, attended services with her three kids. Sometimes, exhausted from her weekend volunteer work, Austen had to move her day off at her paying job.

After her year-old daughter said on social media in that she identifies as bisexual, Austen and her family, including her two younger sons, found themselves excluded from events.

Church officials de-rostered her daughter from her weekly volunteer commitments. Austen texted, searching for answers, but received little response. She tracked down a pastor. After graduating from high school in , Anna Crenshaw moved from Philadelphia to Australia to study at Hillsong College. One night, a friend invited her to hang out at the home of another Hillsong congregant.

She froze. It took some time, but one of the men at the house caught on; he said he needed to take the girls home. As they were leaving, the man who tried to intervene asked her not to tell anyone what had happened. Nobody from the gathering acknowledged the assault afterward. Crenshaw learned Mays had a wife, and she felt overwhelmed by guilt and traumatic memories. As a child she was abused by a youth leader, and after the assault in Sydney, she went to a counselor to work through it all. She kept quiet for two and a half years.

Aghajanian said she believed Crenshaw but expressed shock that Mays could do such a thing. Crenshaw says the church notified Mays three months after her first report and took no action for two months after that. Aghajanian asked Crenshaw to repeat her statement twice more. When questioned, Mays denied the incident. In January , Mays pleaded guilty to indecent assault and received two years probation and mandatory counseling.

A church spokesperson said Mays served a month ban from any ministry, was reinstated in his administration role, and occasionally volunteers as a singer. Crenshaw left Hillsong College and the church, enrolling at a different Australian Bible college. In , a New York connect group leader caught word of some troubling claims.

Eventually William a pseudonym emailed a pastor with a list of concerns, including leaders sending nude photos to female volunteers. The email was provided to V. Brian Houston was not informed of these claims prior to the events of late The email summed up what he had heard over weeks and months. He phrased it carefully.