Posted on 07/07/2023 10:05:39 AM PDT by Morgana
Global Hillsong leader Phil Dooley raised a few eyebrows during a worship session at the 2023 Hillsong Conference this past week, after he jumped off the stage and into the crowd. Dooley floated around for a bit before being brought back to the front, in a video posted to the embattled church’s Instagram page.
The scandal-riddled, embattled church has been running on steam over the last year, with attendance and tithes plummeting to the point that their main campus had to section off parts of the auditorium and reduce services from two to one to appear fuller and less sparse. The day before the conference, Dooley acknowledged in an interview.
“I understand that public perception is not always the greatest. We need to rebuild trust, and that’s earned, Lucinda and I, stepping into the role of leading our church. … We feel the weight of that. We believe we are stepping into a new era. … We’ve got a really clear vision. We’ve got a focus when it comes to our mission, and we’ve been doing a whole lot even with our governance, you know, refreshing our board and making changes there.”
It’s difficult to see how Dooley can rebuild trust when he was one of the ones abusing the system. Member of the Australian Parliament Andrew Wilkie, who used parliamentary privilege to unearth a vast trove of Hillsong expenses, said this about Dooley:
The new head of Hillsong, Phil Dooley, has told church followers he only flies economy, but these documents show him clocking up $58,000 in business-class flights for him and his daughter to Guatemala, $42,000 in business-class flights to Mexico and $32,000 in business-class flights from Cape Town to Sydney via the U.S Hillsong followers believe that the money they put in the poor box goes to the poor, but these documents show how that money is actually used to do the kind of shopping that would embarrass a Kardashian.”
The whistleblower report extrapolated further:
“As a long-term board member, the current Hillsong Global Senior Pastor, and Brian Houston’s replacement, Phil Dooley has been party to all of this misconduct. He has also been involved in this self-indulgent spending and private benefit — and still is. Not only does Lucinda Dooley also fly around the world business class but Hillsong additionally pays to fly Phil and Lucinda’s children around the world — and not in economy class.
Phil Dooley is flying to Guatemala at an airfare cost of $44k, to speak at the church (Casa De Dios) of his good friend and spiritual mentor Cash Luna. Considering that Hillsong does not have a church in Guatemala, and spiritual mentoring can be performed over Zoom, it would be surprising if these $44k flights were not being used solely for Phil to earn a personal benefit honorarium for preaching at two church services — likely to be around at least $20-30k. It is unfathomable why Hillsong is also paying an additional $23k for Phil’s daughter Bella and his best mate ‘Sanga’ Scott Samways to accompany him to Guatemala.”
Sorry, not sorry but this is not my idea of "Church"
“Hey, it’s all about me.”
“Being relevant”. /s
I don’t recall Jesus going crowdsurfing. It seems somewhat of an ego or vanity boost. I’m gonna pass on this Hellsong Church.
“I don’t recall Jesus going crowdsurfing.”
Jesus
The 12 apostles
Any of the women who followed him around.
None of the people who were there that day when He was able to feed all those people with just a 5 loaves of bread and two fish.
the list goes on.
I don’t have a problem with him bringing his buddy along. Many pastors travel with another guy to keep them accountable. Similar to the Pence rule.
At a certain level I also understand flying private or charter. $60,000 for airplane tickets seems awfully excessive though.
Used to be a great bunch, remember Darlene Zschech,” shout to the lord”, the top all time Christian song? She got cancer, have t heard much lately.
More ridiculousness.
Dooley needs to show up in the next edition of Farting Preacher. The idea being that what comes out of his butt is going to be more truthful than what comes out of his mouth.
He didn’t jump into the crowd like Superman being passed overhead by people holding Him up. Or do you have a different definition for crowdsurfing?
You don’t remember the Sermon on the Mount ending with a guitar solo and Christ jumping into the crowd as the band played “Rock and Roll All Nite”?
“$60,000 for airplane tickets seems awfully excessive though”
It IS excessive. But it is between him and his church I suppose. It is being publicized which is good. It is this sort of extravagance that hurts Christianity.
Hellsong is a Satanic cult that steals its members’ money to enrich its greedy leadership.
A generation of vipers.
I heard of Hillsong maybe 15 years ago and something about what I saw and heard seemed insincere, so I haven’t given them much attention since.
God will use even those off track to bring people to HIM.
It just makes it a little harder for new believers to learn to discern and find their way to sincere believers and teachers, etc. Even more difficult since none of them, or us, are ALWAYS in line with God.
Long ago the idea that a vow of poverty accompanied those doing God’s work was lost. Look at almost every church and notice each one is a Corporation unto itself, and that (what I find as excessive) “expenses” are appropraite for pastors - as much as I find it problematic. I see the excessive expenses of this church as the simple worldly corruption to prevalent in most churches today. At least he isn’t accused of boffing the women of the church.
My pastor and associate pastor flew to that big island off the southern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. They asked people for offerings for gifts to the people; the two flying over paid their own way from the money the make in the day jobs.
Darlene Zschech was connected with Hillsong?
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