PERSPECTIVES
t’s 7 p.m. on a Friday, and across New
York City, happy hours are winding
down and group chats are lighting
up. Outside the Kings Theatre in
Flatbush, Brooklyn, hundreds of
young women are standing in line.
They look like the women you’d see on any Brooklyn-
bound subway: white, black, Asian, and Latinx, wear-
ing boilersuits with Vans, cropped wide-leg pants with
pointy-toe mules, tracksuits emblazoned with logos. A
few are dressed festively, or festival-y, in flower crowns
and colorful wigs. Some have been standing here for
hours, sacrificing the entire day for a seat close to the
stage, spirits undampened by the cold April drizzle.
They’ve come for Colour, a two-day conference
dedicated to placing value upon “everyday women
of all ages, backgrounds, and cultures,” put on by the
evangelical megachurch Hillsong. Inside, the ornate
French Renaissance theater has been transformed into
a 2019 vision of feminine self-love. A sculpture of old
TVs and faux flowers serves as a backdrop for selfies; a
pamper booth offers makeup touch-ups and dry sham-
poo samples. There’s a shop selling spiritual self-help
books, Bibles, and T-shirts that say, “Choose Empathy.”
Filing into their seats, two young women are talking
about someone in gushy, breathless tones.
“I’m just so in love with him,” one says. She’s wear-
ing a tiara.
“I know, me too,” her friend replies. “I’m obsessed.”
I don’t even have to ask whom they’re talking
about. I’ve been attending Hillsong services for the
past few months, so I already know. They’re talking
about Jesus Christ.
As far as icons of female empowerment go, you
could do worse. In his day, Jesus preached a profound-
ly egalitarian worldview; the New Testament says that
everyone—male, female, slave, master, rich, poor—is
equal under God. But Christianity’s interpretation of
the Bible over nearly two millennia of patriarchy has
not, by and large, kept pace with women’s changing
roles in society, and many American feminists fin-
ger conservative religious activism for our country’s
current state of diminishing reproductive rights and
oppression of the LGTBQ community. While manyliberals consider Christianity to be a byword for misogyny, there’s an issue with that
perception. Actually, there are more than 3,000 of them, and they’re sitting under the
gilded ceiling of the Kings Theatre.
Through many conversations over several weeks, I’ve come to understand that what
these women are seeking is a sense of belonging and purpose that secular feminism
doesn’t readily provide. Their theologies are individual and personal—some disagree
with Hillsong’s stance that the Bible is “clear” on marriage being between a man and
a woman—but each of them believes that Jesus Christ and his teachings can make the
world kinder and more equitable for women. They are, for the most part, young, cre-
ative, and independent. They’re still in college, or embarking on cool careers. Many
admit a fondness for drinking and looking cute on social media—but they also believe
in God, marriage, and community. Hillsong doesn’t ask them to align their lifestyle with
their faith. And, at Colour, they’re presented with something rare: a space to think about
how to be both a good Christian woman and an empowered one.
Alana Frazier, 33, describes herself as a fan of Hillsong, and she founded her faith-
based apparel line, God Thinks I Am, with these women in mind. Her most recent
lookbook features diverse models with Instagram-ready brows wearing tees that say,
“Then, God Made Woman,” styled with high-waisted pants and minimalist sandals.
“In 2019,” Frazier says, the Christian woman is “multifaceted and doesn’t subscribe to
groupthink. She wants to be like her [favorite] celebrities and influencers. But at the
same time, [she’s] saying, ‘Hey, I’m a real woman, I’m not perfect, but the one thing you
need to know about me is I believe in God and I’m ready to tell the world.’”
Few organizations are more visibly updating Christianity for the twenty-first centu-
ry than Hillsong. Founded in Sydney in 1983, the church has ties to Australia’s conser-
vative Pentecostal tradition, but has become influential around the world thanks to its
deep coffers and chart-topping worship rock. Last year, the church announced it had
“outgrown” denomination, and today it serves up broad-brush, feel-good Christianity
while minimizing its more dated beliefs. Hillsong fills ballrooms in Los Angeles, New
York, and London with the help of aspirational churchgoers such as Justin and Hailey
Bieber, Kevin Durant, and Kylie and Kendall Jenner. Services are live-streamed; dona-
tions are collected via the church’s proprietary, Venmo-style app; and, unlike in some
conservative Christian denominations, women can serve as pastors.
Hillsong’s most visible female ambassador is Bobbie Houston, who cofounded
the church along with her husband, Brian Houston; together, they are the church’s
global senior pastors. According to Bobbie’s 2016 book, The Sisterhood, the idea
for Colour came directly from God, during a coed Hillsong conference in 1996.
She heard God’s voice speaking to her: “Bobbie...Create a conference for wom-
en...a conference and environment for young women, but girded about with older
women...and tell them...tell them that there is a God in heaven and a company of
others who believe in them,” she wrote. Hillsong held its first women’s conference
in a western suburb of Sydney in 1997, under the name Colour Your World. Today,
Colour has expanded to London, Cape Town, New York, Los Angeles, and Kiev
and is attended by nearly 50,000 women per year.
A pamphlet promoting Colour 2019 (this year’s ticket price is $159) features womenI
Young women have embraced the millennial-friendly
gospel of HILLSONG CHURCH, knowing
Jesus loves them and Instagram. By Hayley PhelanGOD IS LOVE, AND
A SORORITY, TOO
OPPOSITE PAGE: NEON SIGN: TINA FINEBERG/AP; AUDIENCE CLOSE-UP: ANDREW WHITE/REDUX; “ALL OF HEAVEN IS BEHIND YOU”: NICOLETTE KAPP; REMAINING IMAGES: ANTHONY DEVER.