Hillsong Conference 2006

Hillsong Conference 2006 was a Christian conference hosted by Hillsong church from 3-7 July 2006 in Sydney, Australia. The year marked the 20th anniversary of the annual Hillsong Conference, which began in 1986. It is the largest annual conference in Australia.cite press release |publisher=Hillsong Church |date=2006-07-04 |accessdate=2006-07-28 |title=Hillsong Conference: A call to action |url=http://www2.hillsong.com/media/default.asp?pid=1025 ]

The conference featured internationally prominent speakers and music worship leaders from the U.S., Canada, England, Australia and other countries, and featured a contemporary worship style. The venue was Sydney Olympic Park in Homebush Bay, originally built for the 2000 Olympics. Main meetings were held in the Acer Arena, formerly known as the Sydney SuperDome, with smaller meetings being held in nearby buildings. Youth meetings were held at the Hillsong Baulkham Hills Convention Centre.

According to Hillsong senior pastor Brian Houston, the "Conference exists to 'champion the cause of the local church' and make God's name known around the earth".

Key Speakers and Musicians

Speakers

In order of the night programs:

* Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church.
* Matthew Barnett, pastor of the Dream Center.
* Frank Damazio, senior pastor of City Bible Church.
* Rick Godwin, pastor of Eagle's Nest Christian Fellowship.
* Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church.
* Jentezen Franklin, senior pastor of Free Chapel.
* Charlotte Scanlon, senior associate pastor of Abundant Life Church.
* Reinhard Bonnke, evangelist and leader of [http://www.cfan.org/ CfaN Christ for all Nations] .

Also Brian Houston, senior pastor of Hillsong church. There was also a considerable number of other speakers for specific strands/electives.

Worship Leaders and Christian Bands

* Hillsong team
* Alvin Slaughter
* Delirious?
* Israel Houghton and New Breed
* Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff

There were also a number of other Christian musicians and worship leaders for specific strands.

Children's and Youth Programs

* Kidsong World Playgroup (12 months to 3 years old)
* Kidsong World (3 years old to Grade 5)
* Jam 68 (Grade 6-8)
* Jam Wildlife (Grade 9-12)

Over 4,000 young people attended the Jam program (Jam 68 and Jam Wildlife) [cite press release |publisher=Hillsong Church |date=2006-07-06 |accessdate=2006-07-28 |title=Jam united impacting the generations |url=http://www2.hillsong.com/media/default.asp?pid=1026 ] , which contained the following electives:
* Evangelism
* Leadership
* Dance
* Programming
* Multimedia
* Worship
* Girlife
* The Brotherhood

Adult Strands/Electives

There were three main strands, each containing a number of electives:

*"Pastors & Church Leadership:"
** Pastors & Leaders
** Moving in the Spirit
** Biblical studies
** Key Business
** Children's Pastors & Leaders
** Youth Pastors & Leaders
*"Worship & Creative Arts:"
** Worship Leadership
** The Musician
** The Vocalist
** Production Team
** Media
** The Dance
** Dramatic Arts
** Creative Design
*"Evangelism & Community Action:"
** Evangelism
** Community Impact
** Transformation

Adult delegates nominated one of the three main strands on their application form. In practice the system was very flexible, as any delegate could attend any elective.

Registration and Finance

Registration was required to attend the day program, with a single adult registration costing either $AUD149^(?), $189^(?), or $259^(?) depending on the date registered. Group booking were cheaper. Delegates wore a plastic wristband as proof of purchase, and automatically received a weekly ticket to one of the night programs. Separate tickets could be bought by anyone for $AUD5 per night program. After a time, seating was opened up to the general public for free entrance. 2006 was the first year that ticketed seating was implemented, with the intent to guarantee seats and reduce queue lengths.

Offerings were also received during the conference. Pastor Brian Houston declared that the registration money did not cover the costs of the conference, and that it was a big burden for a single church to bear. Some offerings were taken up for independent causes, such as for the evangelistic work of Reinhard Bonnke and his team. Also, over 1200^(?) children were sponsored through Compassion.

Daily Program

The main rallies consisted of the morning rallies together with the two night programs. There were also other informal meetings held outside the above listed times, such as lunchtime interviews of key speakers. Also, there was no day program on Monday.

Over 100 different talks from the conference are available for purchase on DVD, CD, or as an online MP3 download.

Another Pentecostal speaker in this elective also mentioned that he had dialogued with evangelical Christians about tongues and grown in his understandingFact|date=February 2007.

Criticism of Hillsong Conference

# Many believe that the large sums of money spent on Hillsong Conference, the facilities, marketing, Christian resources, etc. could be put to better use. There has also been criticism of the offerings collected on top of the registration fee.fact|date=April 2007
# Many Christians outside of the charismatic/Pentecostal movement view speaking in tongues, which was common amongst the attendees and was practised by some of the speakers, feel uncomfortable with this expression and doubt its biblical basis.fact|date=April 2007

Response to Criticism

# Pastor Rick Warren says in his book "The Purpose Driven Church" that many business people in Western society are used to a highly professional workplace and conferences, so they expect a highly professional church worship serviceFact|date=February 2007. Many Christian leaders believe that it is important for a church to fit in with (neutral or positive aspects of) the local culture, while rejecting negative aspectsFact|date=February 2007. They point to the healthy variety of styles exhibited throughout the worldwide Christian church.
# Pentecostals see speaking in tongues as biblical. At the conference, Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University said in a "Moving in the Spirit" elective that Pentecostals had hurt evangelical Christians through their teaching on tongues. He announced to a mostly "tongues"-speaking audience (in this stream) that most of them did not actually speak in tongues in the revelatory sense of 1 Corinthians 14. He suggested that there is a distinction between a "personal prayer language" as practised by the majority of the audience (what critics might refer to as "babble") and the prophetic type of speaking in tongues he claimed was exhibited in 1 Corinthians 14. Another Pentecostal speaker in this elective also mentioned that he had dialogued with evangelical Christians about tongues and grown in his understanding.

See also

* Hillsong Church
* Hillsong Conference
* Charismatic movement
* Pentecostalism

References

External links

* [http://www.hillsong.com/ Hillsong Church website]
* [http://www2.hillsong.com/conferences/hillsong/default.asp?pid=1013&hidetitle=yes Hillsong Conference webpage]