The Hillsong church is so popular among young Brazilians that, according to Professor Cristina Rocha, director of the Religion Research at Western Sydney University, some of the church’s services have a dedicated area exclusively for Brazilians.
“At Hillsong in Sydney CBD, there is even an area with 50 seats reserved for Brazilians,” she says.
Summary
- Young, middle-class Brazilians in Australia say they identify with Hillsong’s music and its "modern approach" to Christianity
- Brazil is the second-largest Protestant country in the world (behind the United States) and the largest Pentecostal one.
- Hillsong Church is plagued by criticism over its finances, ties to controversial organisations and politicians, and its alleged cover-up of sexual abuse perpetrated by Frank Houston, the father of the Church’s founder, Brian Houston.
I was always a Christian and I liked Hillsong before moving to Australia.
Lhays Morais attends Hillsong Brisbane Downtown’s services every Sunday. She says she was always attracted by the church’s "style" of worship and their music.
In Brazil, Ms Morais followed the Brazilian-Japanese Assembly of God. After moving to Australia in 2016, she and her Australian husband decided to seek the service that was closest to her faith in Brazil.
"When I arrived at Hillsong I felt at home. The services called my attention, I like the worship of the word. God’s word is very simplified and we can bring it to our reality and apply to our daily lives. It's not just reading a passage from the bible," Ms Morais told SBS Portuguese.
She, like many Brazilians at Hillsong, is a volunteer at the church. She works alongside translators from Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin and French backgrounds.
For her, Hillsong's strong musical appeal is one of the greatest attractions.
"I see this musical affinity with the Brazilian culture. Brazilians are more outgoing and dance and sing naturally. Australians are a bit more restrained," she says.
Brazilians get together via Facebook Groups such as Brasileiros em Brisbane: “I am arriving next week from Rio and am looking for a church. I’m a Baptist here,” says one comment on a post asking if “anyone is going to Hillsong this Sunday” Source: Facebook
Mr Lima - a carpenter - says Brazilians are attracted to Hillsong because the church "accepts people as they are".
He runs a prayer group in Portuguese and believes it is important for migrants to practice their faith, no matter what faith that is.
Businesswoman Paola Kalaf was one of the first volunteer translators at Hillsong in Brisbane in 2011.
"I discovered Hillsong when I was in Brazil. I already attended the Methodist church and I listened to a lot of Hillsong music. When I moved here I already knew that I wanted to be part of it," she says.
Ms Kalaf witnessed the expansion of Hillsong in the city. In 2009, the church had only one campus (as the larger headquarters are called) in Brisbane. Today there are three.
She says people feel comfortable at Hillsong, "it is a lot of fun", and people donate whatever they feel like donating.
"The chances of newcomers to Australia to feel isolated are enormous, hence the importance of the church's role in the migrant's life," says Ms Kalaf. "That's why hundreds are going to Sydney to study at Hillsong College."
Hillsong College teaches Bible studies, and attracts many Brazilians every year, as pointed out by anthropologist Professor Cristina Rocha, who is writing a book about Hillsong College’s appeal to Brazilians.
Hillsong Church, Baulkham Hills, North-West Sydney (L) and Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a Hillsong service Source: Getty Images/Andrew Merry/YouTube
For years she has been studying the behavior of Brazilians who convert to Pentecostalism in Australia.
"When you visit a Hillsong church you don’t see many crosses. It represents a middle ground between the church and normal day-to-day life.
“Hillsong is a very different church. We call it in anthropology studies a ‘seeker church’, a church for those who are not into church services. It works as the bridge between the secular world of youth culture and the world of the church, that’s where its appeal to Brazilians may reside” she says.
Professor Rocha explains that in Hillsong churches, as well as in Horizon attended by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, "the buildings are more like a corporation, a company or a cinema, theatre or as a club, it doesn’t look like a church.”
Every church has a café, bookstore, clothing store, books by pastors from all over the world, “there are even diaries, CDs, you have everything that sells in these stores,“ she says.
Professor Cristina Rocha, director of the Religion Research at Western Sydney University, is writing a book about Hillsong College and its appeal to Brazilian students Source: Western Sydney University
It is a ‘lighter’ version of a church, its focus is on ‘a message of love’, not money, not judgment.
According to her research millennials dislike some Pentecostal churches in Brazil and feel they focus heavily on donation, tithing and the judgment of others. She says Hillsong goes against that and packages religion in a way that makes sense to young people.
“The first wave of Brazilians who arrived in Australia was more of working-class migrants who started the Brazilian evangelical churches – they speak Portuguese, the music is in Portuguese, focus on the way of dressing, cannot dance, cannot drink.
"This is not the focus for the new waves of middle-class Brazilians who arrive here. They already have great reservations about these types of churches focused on money," Professor Rocha adds.
Hillsong Church is a Christian megachurch established in Sydney in 1983 by Brian Houston and his wife, Bobbie. The church is also known for its worship music with groups that tour various countries, including Brazil.
According to the church, nearly 130,000 people attend services each week at the church or one of its 80 affiliated church branches located worldwide. An estimated 43,000 people attend this church in Australia alone.
However, Hillsong is plagued by criticism over its finances, ties to controversial organisations and politicians, and the alleged cover-up of sexual abuse perpetrated by Frank Huston, the father of the Church’s founder, Brian Houston.
Hillsong and the Australian Christian Churches (ACC) did not respond to SBS Portuguese's requests for an interview.
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