Hillsong: Let Hope Rise

Director: Michael John Warren
Starring: Brian Houston, Bobbie Houston, Joel Houston, Michael Guy Chislet, Matt Crocker, Jonathan Douglass, Jad Gillies, Taya Smith
Distributor: Other
Runtime: 103 mins. Reviewed in Oct 2016

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Rating notes: Mild Themes

This is an enthusiastic documentary about the Hillsong church and its movement, its origins in Australia, its international spread, especially in the United States. This film is an American production, principally for an American audience, but also geared towards Australia.

At the beginning of the film, there is an invitation on screen for those in the cinema to participate in the experience of worship.

Hillsong, as the name suggests, is a film of music, religious music, in something of the traditional manner, but adapted to the 20th and 21st centuries and their rock style. While the experience might be called religious and worship, it is very much a spectacular rock concert. and there are many talking heads, from the founder, Brian Houston and his wife Bobbie, to their son Joel who is prominent in leadership, composition of hymns, writing of lyrics, performance at the concerts, to various leaders of prayer, musicians and the lead singer, Taya Smith. (Nothing to do with religion, but the trendiness of the leaders and performers, long hair, piercings, and Joel Houston wearing the same trousers throughout the film, even at the Los Angeles concert, with more than a huge trendy tear across the knee and down to the shin is more than a little distracting!)

Important as well of the huge crowds who attend the concerts – with a performance at the Los Angeles Forum as a framework for the documentary, but concerts in Australia, and in different parts of the world, especially with fervent thousands in the Philippines. The crowds respond as they usually do to a rock concert, caught up in the music, the beat, identifying with the singers in the band, but also caught up in a spirit of interior recollection, religious fervour, some spiritual experiences. To enable cinema audiences to participate, the lyrics of many of the songs appear on the screen.

Hillsong began in 1983 in western Sydney, there are video clips of early performance as well as a visit to the old site of the concert, now a library, giving Brian Houston and his wife the opportunity to reflect and be amazed at the success of the church. (In recent years there were media exposures of Brian Houston’s father and his sexual abuse – with the film appropriately acknowledging this, Brian Houston talking about confronting his father, and this acknowledged, the film moves on.)

The prayer leaders who speak to camera are young, earnest, comfortable with using God-language, very fervent. The film takes on a more humane tone as back stories of some of the leaders are told, scenes of family and the men having to be away from home, the repercussions for the children, and a pregnancy and birth sequence.

Particularly impressive, both on stage and in her interviews, is the lead singer, Taya Smith, religiously committed, with a powerful voice and an intensity in her performances.

Interestingly, the worship is focused on the songs, performance, the beat, the lyrics – there is no preaching. Which means that the church is one of enthusiasm, but spiritual highs through the concerts, with the hope that people will leave the concert with some kind of faith and further in their daily lives. There is no follow-up with participants, the film relying on the effect of Hillsong experience in the lives of the leaders and their families.

There is a certain sameness in the songs, the melodies, the rhythms, the beat, but this does not seem to matter at all to the congregations. The lyrics are important, relying on a range of metaphors, some rather poetic, some rather puzzling and not easily understood – “Love bends the sky to heal…”. The leaders in the film quote some Old Testament passages, refer to the cross as well as to the resurrection but there is no reference to the historical Jesus, his life and words from the gospel, a reliance on a Jesus of faith in the present. One of the speakers refers to theology and faith being based on Scriptures but there is no further development of this thinking.

Hillsong is a church which certainly favours and fosters a sense of community, using music and song to bind people together, evoking responses of faith. To that extent, it is a church of the Word, but fairly minimal on the Word of Scripture. It is a church which does not draw at all on the sacramental traditions of the centuries. It encourages spiritual experiences with the hope that these are experiences of faith to take people through life.

It is interesting to note that Brian Houston exhorts the audience at the end to find a local church where they might be able to worship.

This is a documentary which preaches to the converted, hopes to encourage the audience to participate in the worship concerts, but which will not hook those who come upon it unprepared – they might have some sympathy with the songs but may find the religiosity more alienating than attractive.