Should Christians Stop Singing Hillsong?

Three reasons why I'm not yet ready to say goodbye

Photo by Edward Cisneros on Unsplash

(A five-minute read.)

I’m currently making my way through Hulu’s documentary The Secrets of Hillsong, which is a four-episode exposé on the skeleton’s in the closet of one of the world’s most influential Christian congregations.

For those who don’t know, Hillsong is a megachurch in Australia—and beyond—that has been the biggest name in contemporary worship music for decades, writing and producing the lion’s share of worship songs Christian congregations around the world sing today.

Hillsong is a behemoth—to put it mildly. It is contemporary worship music, accounting for nearly 40% of contemporary worship songs that congregations sing.

But that popularity has—perhaps not surprisingly—seemingly come at a price. The church has been engulfed in scandal for years, with tales of sexual misconduct, financial impropriety, and coverup running rampant.

All this has naturally led many people to wonder: should congregations stop singing Hillsong?

Many thoughtful people have weighed in—with some saying Christians should absolutely stop singing Hillsong, and others saying that’s not necessary (and may even be caving in to “cancel culture” to do so).

I’ve been wrestling with this question a bit, since I’ve really enjoyed Hillsong’s music, and the congregation I serve features quite a bit of it in our corporate worship. I can see both sides of the argument, and could be convinced either way.

However, at least at this point, I’ve not felt persuaded to “cancel” Hillsong or to stop singing their music.

This may come as a surprise to some people, since I generally tend to be pretty hard on the sort of “pop” and “industrialized” Christianity that is so prevalent today, and am largely open to the idea of “canceling” people and institutions who continuously demonstrate a lack of integrity.

Again, I’m quite sure I could be persuaded otherwise, and I’m very sympathetic to those who feel strongly about the need to bury Hillsong.

But here are three reasons I’m not ready to do so just yet:

1. The writers and artists are not the bad people. At least to my knowledge, much of the scandal surrounding Hillsong revolves around those who are at the “top.” But these people are not the ones who write and perform the music many Christians sing.

That music is ultimately written and performed by seemingly-sincere people who’ve put in a lot of time and effort to create it, which is worth supporting. And such people seem to love Jesus.

Perhaps this argument is akin to buying clothes produced by “sweatshops” in the Global South, because doing so at least puts money in the pockets of the poor workers who are making 30 cents an hour.

I totally get that, and can see how continuing to support Hillsong continues to put money in the pockets of people who are exploiting such “innocent” artists.

But I don’t think that’s necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison—though, again, I’m open to pushback on this.

2. Philippians 1:15-18. My mind keeps turning to Paul’s perspective in his epistle to the Philippians, where he talks about how some people proclaim Christ for good and sincere reasons, with pure motives, while others do so because of “envy and strife” and “selfish ambition.”

Such people promote Christ for personal gain, with an eye toward their own glory and fame.

How should one relate to these latter people? Paul asks rhetorically.

His answer: I’m just glad Christ is being preached either way.

In other words, we can try to judge the motives of others and examine their fruit—which I think is good and important—but, at the end of the day, the gospel is ultimately being magnified no matter who’s proclaiming it and no matter what motivates them.

I do think this idea can be pushed too far, of course—and we should never use it as license to live duplicitous lives nor to excuse hypocrisy (either ours or others’).

But there is a sense in which—taking Hillsong’s music as an example—I don’t ultimately know what propels the creators of a piece of art but I can ultimately glorify God for the finished product.

This reminds me of what the famed British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, who was a man of great integrity and theological depth, wrote in the preface to his hymnbook back in 1866 when explaining how he selected the songs for the book (with a nod to Oliver Nicholson for pointing out this quote):

Whatever may be thought of our taste we have used it without prejudice; and a good hymn has not been rejected because of the character of its author, or the heresies of the church in whose hymnal it first occurred; so long as the language and the spirit commended the hymn to our heart we included it, and believe that we have enriched our collection thereby.

These, I think, are good words to consider.

3. Honestly, I just like Hillsong’s music a lot. Perhaps I could be accused of “burying the lede” here—and I admit that, truly, my thoughts may be entirely based on this single factor. Everything else is perhaps just a way for me to convince myself, using convenient philosophical and theological arguments, that it’s OK for me to keep listening to and singing Hillsong.

I freely admit that.

But, at the end of the day, I openly concede that I just really, really like Hillsong’s music. Somehow, some way, they’ve found the “secret sauce” when it comes to producing compelling, catchy, and inspiring worship music (Bethel Church, which has plenty of its own scandals, is a close second).

Some say it’s perhaps an addiction. That may be true.

But if so, it’s at least an addiction that hasn’t led to any negative side effects—at least for me personally—and has perhaps done the opposite, contributing to a more robust connection to God and, hopefully, a kinder-hearted posture toward others.

Again—to sound like a broken record—I’m open-handed about this, and I’d genuinely love to dialogue with someone who feels strongly that we absolutely should stop supporting Hillsong (or Bethel, or whomever else), but this is where I am right now.

I’m not saying it’s where anyone else should be. And I’d have to prayerfully consider the perspective of someone who attended my congregation’s worship gatherings if they felt triggered—for whatever reason—by our singing of Hillsong’s music.

But, until further notice, here I (very pensively) stand.

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Shawn is a pastor in Maine, whose life, ministry, and writing focus on incarnational expressions of faith. The author of four books and a columnist for Adventist Review, he is also a DPhil (PhD) candidate at the University of Oxford, focusing on nineteenth-century American Christianity. You can follow him on Instagram, and listen to his podcast Mission Lab.