Scandal or Crime? Media Narratives and Survivor Complaint Testimonies in Australian Megachurches

Vor­trag von Tanya Rich­es im Rah­men der Mon­day Lec­tures

Hill­song Church, an Aus­tralian con­tem­po­rary Pen­te­costal megachurch, is glob­al­ly rec­og­nized for its wor­ship music, large-scale gath­er­ings, and influ­en­tial charis­mat­ic lead­er­ship. As an icon­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the glob­al Pen­te­costal move­ment, Hill­song ini­tial­ly posi­tioned itself as a youth­ful, demo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly struc­tured con­gre­ga­tion, empha­siz­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty and broad appeal. How­ev­er, over time, this focus shift­ed toward cen­tral­ized author­i­ty, aspi­ra­tional lifestyles, and the promi­nence of its founders and celebri­ty pas­tors – rein­forced by Pen­te­costal the­o­log­i­cal under­stand­ings of divine author­i­ty, loy­al­ty, and spir­i­tu­al dis­cern­ment.
Through ethno­graph­ic obser­va­tion and the­o­log­i­cal reflec­tion, this pre­sen­ta­tion exam­ines the ten­sions between charis­mat­ic lead­er­ship, insti­tu­tion­al nar­ra­tives, and con­gre­ga­tion­al voice. The scan­dals of 2022, which sur­faced through media out­lets such as Van­i­ty Fair, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Chris­tian­i­ty Today, and Crikey, high­light the var­ied ways sur­vivor tes­ti­monies and com­plaint col­lec­tives have been ampli­fied. This pre­sen­ta­tion explores how large Pen­te­costal insti­tu­tions nav­i­gate inter­nal com­plaint-rais­ing, where infor­mal pas­toral chan­nels and for­mal legal process­es inter­sect with jour­nal­is­tic nar­ra­tives.
As lead­er­ship crises con­tin­ue to unfold across denom­i­na­tions and glob­al con­texts, this pre­sen­ta­tion con­tributes to broad­er dis­cus­sions on insti­tu­tion­al account­abil­i­ty, resilience, and the role of sur­vivor tes­ti­monies in shap­ing the future of eccle­sial prac­tice.