The Pentecostal faithful are flocking to sermons by pastors in ripped jeans and tearing up at rock concerts. It’s a far cry from empty pews in many Anglican and Catholic churches.
he smoke machines are in full flight as hundreds of bodies bathed in coloured lights sway in unison to the music inside the vast, dark auditorium.
“We are in God’s house today,” shouts the band’s lead singer, a lithe figure in skinny jeans, gliding across the stage. The congregation roars. Others call them “seeker churches”: places of worship for the curious, the spiritually hungry, or those yearning for connection and community. The movement is attracting migrants, and a growing cohort of young people.“They make a bridge between the secular world, the progressive world, and churches,” says Rocha, director of the Religion and Society Research Cluster.It is a religious movement, not a particular denomination, and adherents do not ascribe to one shared set of beliefs.
Jakwot, who goes by the name EJ, arrived in Melbourne as a nine-year-old boy in 2004 after fleeing a refugee camp with his family. “One of the pastors said none of us were made by coincidence. There’s an intention and purpose behind our lives,” he recalls. “At that moment, it all clicked for me.”The power and dark side of Hillsong
In 2015, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found the megachurch’s founder, Brian Houston, had failed to alert police about allegations his father, Frank, had sexually assaulted children.and even described it as a cult. Pentecostal or charismatic churches have also been criticised for making members pay regular tithes .
To many, the 33-year-old might seem like an anomaly in an increasingly secular Australia. But Morrill, who works for a global cosmetic company, says faith anchors her life. “It’s a bit like falling in love,” she says. “Sometimes it’s a feeling, but it’s also a decision.”“Sometimes these conversations can be difficult, but I think they can also be really healthy,” Morrill says. “Because it really makes me dig deep and reflect on what I really believe.
He started Glow Church Melbourne with his wife, Emma, after moving to Melbourne from the Gold Coast with his young family in 2020. The church is an offshoot of the Glow megachurch in Queensland, which draws in thousands of worshippers each week.
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