Evangelical churches have long been early media
adopters, using radio and television sermons to
spread the word. In his Vision 2019 video, which
outlines Hillsong’s goals and predictions for the
year, founder Brian Houston proclaimed the power
of social media: “I believe that we’re going to see a
gathering of influencers like never before! Influenc-
ers are gathering!” In Houston’s terms, people with
great lives on social media are “kingdom builders”:
“These are groups of people who believe that God
blessed them so that they can bless the house of God
mightily,” he has said.
The belief that God wants you to glow up—and
that praying to Him will help you do so—is known
as the prosperity gospel, says Marion Maddox, an
Australian academic who has been studying (and
critiquing) Hillsong for the past 15 years. Maddox
sees Hillsong’s social media success as evidence of
what she calls “envy evangelism.” As she describes
it, “Basically, it’s ‘Make yourself into a walking billboard for Jesus.’” Maddox says that
at Hillsong and similar churches, the image of the pastor and the “perfectly groomed
wife” replaces the more conventional iconography of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
If Instagram is to be believed, these wives are living the 2019 dream: They have
health, wealth, and enough time to play with their cherub-faced children and still make
it to wine o’clock with their best girlfriends. “Having a perfect sex life is another element
to it,” Maddox says. “Bobbie has even said [in her audio series Kingdom Women Love
and Value Their Sexuality], ‘Hey, we need to make sure we, as Christian women, are
having hot sex.’ So that you can say, ‘Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, I have a great sex life,
and the reason is Jesus.’” These women are seen as religious leaders but seem to exist
above the fray of the culture wars that occasionally demand statements from Hillsong’s
male pastors (Lentz, for example, has been criticized by more conservative Christians
for being too soft on abortion, and has used social media to clarify the church’s position:
Abortion is a sin, but sinners are welcome at Hillsong).
According to Maddox, envy evangelism and the prosperity gospel teach that “peo-
ple’s difficulties are generated by the individual rather than the social structure.” Wealth
is available to everyone, the thinking goes, so if you’re not wealthy, you’re doing some-
thing wrong. Likewise, if you’re one of the privileged, there’s no need to feel guilty about
the country’s growing inequality. “On the contrary, you’re doing right by putting your-
self in a position of influence, which is exactly what you’re meant to be doing,” Maddox
says. Lea Ceasrine, a former Hillsonger who left, in part, over the church’s stance on
LGBTQ rights, says the church’s social media stars left a bad taste in her mouth. “You
have these young people who are supposed to be role models exhibiting more of the
status symbols that come with influence, and that’s just really bad messaging,” she says.
“That doesn’t exist if you go to a normal church. It’s a totally opposite thing.”
But Hillsong congregants say that Christian influencers are a source of inspiration,
proof that Christian women can be cool, too. “I definitely think Hillsong has made me
be even more open about my faith,” says Nicole, a 21-year-old I meet through Hillsong’s
L.A. campus. “In life and also on Instagram.” She is studying to be a set designer; her
Instagram bio includes a cross emoji alongside the words “Be obsessively grateful” and
a link to her side hustle, a hair-care consultation service. Kinsey and a friend talked
recently about how they could use their own Instagrams to spread the word. “[We
were] looking at our posts and going, ‘How can we make this to glorify God and maybe
actually get more people to come?’” she says.
Frazier, the Christian T-shirt designer, believes the end game of Christianity, unlike
other lifestyles sold on Instagram, at least offers relief from society’s moving goalposts
and the roller coaster of self-esteem. “One day you’re beautiful; the next day you’re not.
One day you’re doing a great job at work, and one day you’re not.” God, on the other
hand, doesn’t change. “That’s why [I call my brand] God Thinks I Am.... God thinks I
am a masterpiece; God thinks I am intelligent and capable of doing anything. I didn’t
make this up. It says that in the Bible. We are God’s masterpiece. And that never wavers.”
Wilkerson uses her Colour sermon to draw back the curtain on her picture-perfect
lifestyle. Kind of. She talks about her “weaknesses”: the time she was unable to finishthe East Coast churches (which include New York City;
Montclair, New Jersey; and Boston) brought in more than
$8.8 million in tithes and offerings.
The church’s charitable arm includes a long-standing
relationship with Compassion, a global humanitarian
organization dedicated to raising children out of poverty
while giving them the “opportunity to hear the Gospel
of Jesus.” During Colour, Ugandan women tell us via
promotional videos that they’re doing great, thanks to
Hillsong. Later, everyone in the audience is given a bar
of soap that Houston says has been made by refugee
women in Iraq. The crowd goes wild; the soap is all-
natural and smells like chamomile.The male pastors of Hillsong and its American off-
shoots might appear in paparazzi photos with Christian
celebrities, but to the women at Colour, their wives are
the real stars. There is Esther Houston, the glamorous
wife of Bobbie’s son Joel, who lives in New York City but
Instagrams from Cabo San Lucas; Montauk, New York;
and the White House. In Southern California, there is
Mikaela Simila, a model and the wife of Hillsong campus
pastor Diego Simila; and Courtney Lopez (née Barry), a
friend of Selena Gomez’s and the wife of Hillsong pastor
Sam Lopez. In New York, one of the Colour headliners
is DawnCheré Wilkerson, who, along with her husband,
Rich, is cofounder of Miami’s Vous Church, which owes a
lot to Hillsong’s youth-driven, trendy take on Christianity.
Wilkerson has celebrity pals (her husband married Kim
and Kanye) and a short-lived Oxygen reality show, Rich
in Faith, to her credit, but like most of the women in Hill-
song, she is mainly known through her Instagram. “I love
following all of them,” Claire tells me. “It’s such a good
reminder when I’m just scrolling through my phone.
Like, Oh yeah, right, God. That’s what’s important.” She
adds, “A lot of them are really good at Insta.”“MY WORK
FRIENDS THINK
HILLSONG IS
WEIRD. THEY’RE
LIKE, ‘WHAT IS
IT YOU DO—GO
TO A CONCERT
IN A CHURCH?’
I TELL THEM
I’M NOT
RELIGIOUS. I’M
A CHRISTIAN.”JUSTIN BIEBER VANESSA HUDGENSKENDALL AND KYLIE JENNER: GOTHAM/GETTY IMAGES; HAILEY BIEBER: JAMES DEVANEY/GETTY IMAGES; JUSTIN BIEBER: PIERRE SUU/GETTY IMAGES; HUDGENS: JOSIAH KAMAU/GETTY IMAGES.
267