‘An Unstoppable Force for Good’?: How Neoliberal Governance Facilitated the Growth of Australian Suburban-Based Pentecostal Megachurches

Abstract

Hillsong Church has received significant scholarly attention, which has observed the church’s rapid local and global growth. Several other Australian-based Pentecostal churches demonstrate a similar growth trajectory to Hillsong Church, namely: C3 Church, Citipointe Church, Planetshakers, and Influencers Church. To further scholarly understanding of aspects of this rapid growth, this paper discusses the emergence of economic rationalist policies which led to the neoliberal governance context in Australia. The paper argues that the emergence of this policy context, which emphasises marketization and privatisation, provided opportunities for suburban-based Pentecostal churches to expand activities beyond conducting worship services. The paper analyses materials produced by Hillsong Church, C3 Church, Citipointe Church, Planetshakers, and Influencers Church and associated educational, charity, and financial organisations. Through this analysis, the paper finds that the emergence of a neoliberal governance context in Australia provided opportunities for these churches to expand activities beyond traditional worship ceremonies to include additional activities such as running schools, Bible colleges, community care organisations, charity ventures, and financial institutions. The paper shows how economic rationalism and neoliberalism assisted in providing a context within which Australian-based suburban Pentecostal churches were able to take opportunities to grow aspects of church organisation, which helped to develop a global megachurch status. In this way, these churches took up opportunities that changes in political circumstances in Australia provided, developing a theology of growth actualised in expanding church-branded activities around the globe.

Hillsong São Paulo: empoderamento, regulação e materialidade

“…Em primeiro lugar, a força de sua música, destacada pelos meios de comunicação de massa, fez-se confirmar em diversos trabalhos (MCINTYRE, 2007;RICHES, 2010;RICHES;WAGNER 2014;THORNTON, 2016;COWAN, 2017;EVANS, 2017;JAMES, 2017;ABRAHAM, 2018). Além dela, o (2) prestígio simbólico da igreja (WAGNER, 2013;ROCHA, 2016;WIJAYA;LAPIAN;RUMOKOY, 2019); (3) sua organização e funcionamento pautados por lógica empresarial (MADDOX, 2012;2013a;SHANAHAN, 2018;; ( 4) uso exitoso de mídias comunicacionais (KLAVER, 2015;2016a;SIRCAR;ROWLEY, 2019;BOCA, 2019;TAN, 2020); (5) linguagem ambiciosa (INGOLD, 2014;GOH, 2008;2020); (6) caráter transnacional (ROCHA, 2013;2020;KLAVER, 2016b;KLEIVELAND, 2018); e (7) ministérios de e para mulheres (MADDOX, 2013b;MILLER, 2016;RICHES, 2017;BOSHOFF, 2019) foram aspectos que chamaram a atenção e foram abordados por pesquisadores de diferentes partes do mundo.…”

“…De fato, em meu balanceamento bibliográfico, trabalhos como os de Marion Maddox (2012;2013a) e Mairead Shanahan (2018; sugeriram que esse tipo específico de mundivisão eletivamente afeita ao neoliberalismo fundamentara a própria lógica institucional da igreja. Comprometida com o ideal de crescimento, a Hillsong é administrada como uma multinacional, cuja expansão parece seguir planos de negócios das grandes corporações 101 capitalistas globais 175 .…”