Megachurch Hillsong has recently been attracting a growing number of worshippers, and Christine Caine has emerged as a rising star among America’s evangelical circuit, selling out theaters and megachurches across the country. The Monthly asked CRCC’s Senior Director of Research and Evaluation Richard Flory on how Hillsong became so popular in the United States.
Here is an excerpt:
“The main reason they have been so successful is because of their music,” says Flory. “Whether it was marketing genius or just having good bands, the majority of evangelical, charismatic and Pentecostal churches in the United States play Hillsong.”
Flory believes that Hillsong’s – and Caine’s – style of entertainment has broken through to become the next incarnation of a megachurch, which came to prominence in the Bible Belt during the 1970s and ’80s.
“If megachurches were a low bar to entry into the Christian scene, then Hillsong has lowered it even further,” he adds. “This is what capitalism does to religion, it becomes just one other thing vying for your time. They’re all about the experience and the show that is put on – you feel good when you leave, and that’s about it.”
