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ABSTRACT
Testimony is significant in Pentecostal liturgical worship and life. Historically, narratives that emphasize God’s role in the life of the believer have been used for spiritual formation. This article adopts feminist scholar Sara Ahmed’s work on complaint in the church context and proposes a constructive rewriting of the theological discourse to include women’s complaints as testimony. Women’s experiences at Hillsong Church as outlined in the media are included here and juxtaposed against the church’s official responses (noted as refutation and suppression). It is argued that, given the importance of women to Pentecostalism, examining and including narratives about women’s experiences in the church is vital; this includes acknowledging their testimonies of violence, sexual harassment and spiritual abuse.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge and thank Rosie Shorter and Tracy McEwan for showing us the links between Ahmed’s work on complaint and women’s experiences within the church.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare the following which may be considered as potentially relevant: both are former employees of Hillsong College (a third-party campus of Alphacrucis University College). Neither attend Hillsong Church or maintain any current affiliation. Tanya Riches receives residual song royalties from Hillsong Music Australia. All sources in this paper are in the public record and independently reported.
Notes
1 Lowercase ‘pentecostal’ has been adopted in this article in line with key scholars in the field. See: Yong, The Spirit Poured Out On All Flesh, 18–22.
2 Chesnut, Born Again in Brazil; Martin, “The Pentecostal Gender Paradox,” 58; Qualls, God Forgive Us For Being Women.
3 Chesnut, Born Again in Brazil; Aune, “Evangelical Christianity and Women’s Changing Lives”; Chaván de Matviuk, “Latin American Pentecostal Growth”.
4 Shorter and Riches, “We're Told Pentecostal Churches”.
5 Klaver, “Media Technology Creating 'Sermonic Events'”.
6 Piot, “Pentecostal and Development Imaginaries in West Africa”.
7 Robbins, “The Globalization of Pentecostal”.
8 Wagner, “The 'Powerful' Hillsong Brand”.
9 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Report of Case Study No. 18.
10 Ahmed, Complaint!, 20.
11 McEwan et al., International Survey of Catholic Women; Shorter, “Complementarianism, Heteronormativity and the Future of the Anglican Church”; McEwan et al., “Doing Doorway Work”.
12 Cowan, “When a Brand is Tainted”; Jordan Morehouse and Laura L. Lemon, “Beyond Reputational and Financial Damage”.
13 Mendez et al., “The Power of Everyday Spiritualities”, 172.
14 Mendez et al., “The Power of Everyday Spiritualities”.
15 Spencer, The Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles, 219.
16 Marcela Chaván de Matviuk, Latin American Pentecostal Growth, 218.
17 Cartledge, Testimony in the Spirit, 17.
18 Johns, Pentecostal Formation, 126–7; Marcela A. Chaván de Matviuk, Latin American Pentecostal Growth, 219; Drury, Saying Is Believing, 15; Plüss, “Testimony”, 879.
19 Cartledge, Encountering the Spirit, 32, 58, 69, and 119.
20 Cartledge, Testimony in the Spirit, 150.
21 Yong, “The Spirit Bears Witness”, 33–34.
22 See note 20 above.
23 Ibid.
24 Ellington, “‘Can I Get a Witness’”.
25 Ibid., 62.
26 Martin, “The Pentecostal Gender Paradox,” 66.
27 Qualls, God Forgive Us for Being Women.
28 Maddox, ““Rise Up Warrior Princess Daughters””.
29 Ambrose and Alexander, “Pentecostal Studies Face the #MeToo Movement”.
30 Ibid.
31 Gaddini, “A Large Number of Single Women”.
32 Gaddini, “Single Women”.
33 Marsden, “The Church’s Contribution to Domestic Violence”.
34 Ibid., 77.
35 Nason-Clark, “Shattered Silence or Holy Hush”.
36 Houston, “Has Hillsong Really Become Its Own Denomination?”, Hillsong Collected, October 4, 2018, https://hillsong.com/collected/blog/2018/10/has-hillsong-really-become-its-own-denomination/.
37 Hillsong Church, “About Hillsong”, Hillsong, https://hillsong.com/about/.
38 Reagan, ““The Music That Just About Everyone Sings””.
39 See note 5 above.
40 Goh, “The Experience Megachurch”, 33–58.
41 Wagner, “The 'Powerful' Hillsong Brand”, 255.
42 Austin, “Flowing Together”.
43 Maddox, ““Rise Up Warrior Princess Daughters””.
44 See note 5 above.
45 Thiessen, “Boy’s Club”, 65–89.
46 Cameron et al., Talking About God in Practice, 54.
47 Reagan, “The Music That Just About Everyone Sings”, 154.
48 Ibid., 151.
49 Ibid., 157.
50 Hutchinson, “Up the Windsor Road”, 40.
51 Morehouse and Lemon, “Beyond Reputational and Financial Damage”, 1.
52 Cowan, “When a Brand is Tainted”, 39-48.
53 Morehouse and Lemon, “Beyond Reputational and Financial Damage”.
54 Ibid., 6.
55 Cowan, “When a Brand is Tainted”, 39.
56 Ibid., 42.
57 Ibid., 46.
58 Grey, “Torn Stockings and Enculturation”.
59 Ahmed, Complaint!, 4.
60 Ibid., 3.
61 Austin and Grey, “The ‘Outback Spirit’ of Pentecostal Women”.
62 Ahmed, Complaint!, 20.
63 McEwan et al., International Survey of Catholic Women; McEwan et al., “Doing Doorway Work”.
64 Nicola Slee, Fragments for Fractured Times.
65 Ahmed, Complaint!, 13.
66 Ibid., 4.
67 Ibid., 1.
68 Ibid., 13.
69 Ibid., 13.
70 Ibid., 13.
71 Ibid., 13.
72 Ibid., 21.
73 Ibid., 7.
74 Ibid., 44. Emphasis added.
75 Ibid., 31. Emphasis added.
76 Ibid., 276.
77 Ibid., 257.
78 Ibid., 258.
79 Ibid., 309–10.
80 Austin and Clifton, "Australian Pentecostalism"; Austin and Grey, "The 'Outback Spirit'"; Clifton, Pentecostal Churches in Transition, chap. 2.
81 Clifton, Pentecostal Churches in Transition, 58.
82 Mark Hutchinson, “Second Founder’”.
83 Hutchinson, “Second Founder”.
84 Clifton, "Empowering Pentecostal Women".
85 Whether intentionally or not.
86 Clifton, “Empowering Pentecostal Women”, 171–2.
87 Mark Hutchinson, "The Contribution of Women to Pentecostalism", chap 10. See also: Denise A. Austin, "Flowing Together", 31–32.
88 That is, who were 18+ and chose to identify their marital status.
89 Powell et al., "Senior Leaders in Local Churches".
Please note: These are the most updated statistics available at time of publishing.
90 Powell et al., “Senior Leaders”, 7. Unfortunately, statistics specifically for single female senior leaders in Australian Pentecostal church leadership are not available.
91 The Australian Christian Churches’ United Constitution states: “Article 10.2: Accepting that the Call of God, Ministry Gifts and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit have been bestowed on men and women without respect of gender, the Movement acknowledges the right and privilege of men and women to have their ministries recognised.” (Australian Christian Churches, “United Constitution”, April 2023, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6493958b3a6f2d1b2dc30a4d/t/64f54b5f5e1cc43c053f766f/1693797216423/ACC±UNITED±CONSTITUTION.pdf).
Hillsong has modernized this article for its belief statement, “We believe that God has individually equipped us so that we can successfully achieve His purpose for our lives which is to worship God, fulfil our role in the Church and serve the community in which we live”. (Hillsong Church, “What We Believe”, Hillsong, https://hillsong.com/what-we-believe/.)
92 Reverend Dr. Phillip Hughes, as quoted in Rosie Shorter and Tanya Riches, “Is there a gender problem?,” stated, “The decline in Pentecostals has been greater among females than males, with the female proportion dropping from 56% in 2011 to 54% in 2021.”
93 Leonardo Blair, “How She Fought Back After Assault By Hillsong Church Administrator”, The Christian Post, April 6, 2021, https://www.christianpost.com/news/after-assault-by-hillsong-church-administrator-she-fought-back.html.
94 Hillsong Newsroom, “Response to 60 Minutes”, Hillsong, September 20, 2021, https://hillsong.com/newsroom/blog/2021/09/response-to-60-minutes/.
Hillsong Newsroom, “Hillsong College Response to The Christian Post Enquiry”, Hillsong, March 12, 2021, https://hillsong.com/newsroom/blog/2021/03/hillsong-college-response-to-the-christian-post-enquiry/.
95 Hillsong Newsroom, “Hillsong College Response to The Christian Post Enquiry”, Hillsong, March 12, 2021, https://hillsong.com/newsroom/blog/2021/03/hillsong-college-response-to-the-christian-post-enquiry/.
96 Jackson Elliott, “Hillsong Survivor Fights Back After Pastor Brian Houston Reveals Her Past Abuse”, The Roys Report, April 16, 2021, https://julieroys.com/hillsong-survivor-fights-back-houston-past-abuse/.
97 Mitchell Van Homrigh, “Hillsong Students Blast Church Over Anna Crenshaw’s Assault”, news.com.au, August 12, 2021, https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/hillsong-students-blast-church-over-anna-crenshaws-assault/news-story/cbe1a0f370988640b8439331e56e33b2.
98 Homrigh, “Hillsong Students Blast Church”.
99 The complainants included Yolandi Bosch who spoke to Business Insider and Laura Hamilton who was featured in Tanya Levin’s blog “Leaving Hillsong”. (Tory Shepherd, “Hillsong College Allegedly Taught Some Students Women Should ‘Submit’ Sexually to Husbands”, The Guardian, February 27, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/27/hillsong-college-allegedly-taught-some-students-women-should-to-submit-sexually-to-husbands.)
100 Derrick Bryson Taylor, “Carl Lentz, Pastor to Celebrities, Is Fired From Church”, The New York Times, November 5, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/us/hillsong-carl-lentz-fired.html.
101 Leona Kimes, “Writing My Voice Back”, Medium, May 31, 2021, https://leonakimes.medium.com/writing-my-voice-back-69febd4f3e5e.
102 Josh Kimes’ reason quoted was “perpetuating a culture that at times valued the building of the church at the expense of those building it.” (Roxanne Stone, “Leaked Hillsong NYC report says sexual misconduct, abuse went beyond Carl Lentz”, Religion News Service, April 11, 2022, https://religionnews.com/2022/04/11/leaked-hillsong-nyc-report-says-sexual-misconduct-abuse-went-beyond-carl-lentz/.)
103 Natasha Frost, “Hillsong’s Brian Houston Resigns Amid Scandals”, The New York Times, March 23, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/world/australia/brian-houston-hillsong-resign.html.
104 Hillsong Newsroom, “An Important Message From the Hillsong Global Board”, Hillsong, March 23, 2022, https://hillsong.com/ukraine/es/blog/2022/03/news-room2/.
105 Lorna Knowles and Kevin Nguyen, “Hillsong Church Founder Brian Houston Breached Code of Conduct With Inappropriate Behaviour Towards Two Women, Leaked Letter Says”, ABC News, March 18, 2022, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-18/hillsong-church-details-complaints-against-brian-houston/100921060.
106 Ahmed, Complaint!, 27.
107 Hontz Drury, Saying is Believing, 15.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Tanya Riches
Tanya Riches is the Director of the Master of Transformational Development at Eastern College Australia. Her 2019 PhD monograph was on Australian Aboriginal-led pentecostal churches' contribution to community development. Her MPhil research was on the business, theological and musical contributions of the band Hillsong United. She co-edited a book on the church, and has published two special journal editions, eight book chapters and fourteen articles. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, University of Birmingham and a Research Fellow at the Christian Research Association (CRA).
Larney Peerenboom
Larney Peerenboom is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University, Australia. Her doctoral research explores women's spiritualities after experiencing “church hurt” within the context of megachurches. Her MA (Christian Studies) research project conceptualised single women's leadership journeys within Australian Pentecostalism. Passionate about amplifying women's voices and advocating for women's spiritual well-being, Larney's work seeks to shed light on their nuanced experiences and challenges within contexts of religion and spirituality. This article marks her debut as a co-author in academic publishing.