Thread by @TaylorMatthewD

This piece (in @ConversationEDU) asks whether churches like #Hillsong are unexpectedly shrinking in Australia. It suggests this based on a 2021 census that found “Pentecostal” identfication declined slightly (2%) from 2016 to 2021. I have questions... 1/ theconversation.com/were-told-pent…

1st a caveat that I’m not an expert in Australian #Pentecostalism or on #Hillsong, & I’d welcome comments/thoughts from experts/insiders there. So on to my questioning: Is Hillsong “Pentecostal”? Colloquially, sure, it’s Pentecostal-Charismatic & emerged out of Pentecostalism. 2/

In 2018, Hillsong announced that it was forming it’s own “denomination” in Australia hillsong.com/collected/blog… and officially separating from the Australian Christian Churches (the Australian branch of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship), a global Pentecostal denomination. 3/

Though, “denomination” here seems to be a category error. As @ellehardy notes, #Hillsong is less a set of likeminded & governance-aligned churches (a.k.a. a denomination) & more a “conglomerate” or a global brand aiming to “shed the Pentecostal label” afr.com/life-and-luxur…. 4/

Indeed, the same Australian 2021 census shows a 10% increase since 2016 in “non-denominational Christianity.” abs.gov.au/articles/relig…. Demographically, wouldn’t the average #Hillsong attendee likely categorize her-/himself as a “not further defined” (i.e., nondenom) Christian? 5/

So, query whether #Hillsong is really part of a (mildly) shrinking Australian Pentecostal movement or actually part of a (rapidly) growing Australian post-denom trend? I’m more inclined to locate Hillsong w/in the global growth spurt of “Independent Charismatic” Christianity. 6/

As @drtoddmjohnson at @GordonConwell & various other researchers have shown: globally the Independent Charismatic sector (Type 3 among the Pentecost-Charismatic strands) is now larger than the Pentecostal (Type 1) & denom. Charismatic (Type 2) combined. academia.edu/4158358/Christ… 7/

The Independent Charismatics include apostolic networks, Messianic Judaism (including many non-Jews in Messianic congregs), Oneness Pentecostals, Word of Faith (a.k.a., Prosperity Gospel) groups, house-church networks, Bapticostals, & post-Pentecostal breakoffs like #Hillsong. 8/

On a side note, some have been eager to label #Hillsong as “the point of the spear of the #NewApostolicReformation,”pulpitandpen.org/2018/02/20/hil… but I find the claim that Hillsong is NAR pretty evidence-lite. Many folks seem to want to label anything Independent Charismatic as NAR. 9/

Yes, there was cross-pollination & maybe even influence bw Peter Wagner’s #NAR circles & #Hillsong in the early 2000s churchwatchcentral.com/2022/01/29/did…, but that’s true of a lot of Indep. Charismatic, post-denominational ministries and orgs. 10/

A good rule of thumb when analyzing Independent Charismatics is: Don’t confuse association with alignment. Independent Charismatics are eager to work together w/ fellow revivalists & innovators, but this doesn’t necessarily signal that they’re singing from the same songbook. 11/

If we look at how Hillsong has organized in the past 20 yrs, it’s pretty clearly not following Wagner’s #NAR model (a collaborative spiritual oligarchy of apostles & prophets), which I outlined in my audio-documentary series “Charismatic Revival Fury” icjs.org/charismatic-re…. 12/

As I see it, Hillsong/the Houstons have dabbled in “apostolic” language (fairly common in Indep. Charis. circles), but Hillsong is not an apostolic network à la Wagner’s #NAR. It's more a global version of the multi-campus megachurch w/ centralized, hierarchical leadership. 13/

Right now, #Hillsong has been so plagued by scandals that it’s in the midst of a major leadership shuffle & a need for rebranding, so who knows how this’ll shake out in the next few years. julieroys.com/embattled-hill… Independent Charismatics are good at pivoting, repositioning. 14/

Given the massive scale of #Hillsong, their ongoing scandals and court battles, the others trying to mimic their model, and the political importance of this Independent Charismatic Christianity in many nations’ politics, it’s worth keeping our categories straight. 15/15