{"id":291,"date":"2011-07-17T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/?p=291"},"modified":"2011-07-18T03:41:34","modified_gmt":"2011-07-18T07:41:34","slug":"a-conversation-with-hillsong-united-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-hillsong-united-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with Hillsong United (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Born out of a youth ministry in Sydney, Australia\u2019s dynamic Hillsong church, Hillsong United has steadily become one of the modern worship movement\u2019s most influential worldwide voices. The band has collectively produced such iconic anthems as \u201cOne Way,\u201d \u201cTell The World,\u201d \u201cThe Stand,\u201d \u201cMighty To Save,\u201d \u201cCame To My Rescue\u201d and \u201cFrom The Inside Out.\u201d United\u2019s latest project Aftermath<\/em>, released in February, looks to be no different having already scored rave reviews thanks to future classics like \u201cGo,\u201d \u201cTake Heart\u201d and \u201cAwakening.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with Beliefnet, core band members Joel Houston, Jad Gillies and Jonathan \u201cJ.D.\u201d Douglass talk about the band\u2019s rise to prominence, what they\u2019re seeing take place in the global Christian church, how the new album came together and what they hope to accomplish as they tour the United States and beyond:<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: What has been the genesis of the band having gone from local youth ministry to international touring phenomenon?<\/p>\n

Joel Houston: We grew up in the youth ministry and started doing music and writing songs. Out of that, we recorded the songs. The songs traveled. Then three or four years later, having done that, there was the option to travel and our church people were gracious enough to let us go. Essentially we\u2019ve been doing the same thing ever since. These days, we\u2019re not as involved in the youth ministry nearly as much. Some of the guys still are. The genesis, as you said, still carries through to what we\u2019re doing now but these days we\u2019re just getting older.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Knowing what had happened (with the successful worship ministries of your Hillsong mentors) Darlene (Zscech) and Reuben (Morgan), it\u2019s not like you were clueless that this might eventually have an international impact, or did you really even think in those terms?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Houston: Not at all. I think we included ourselves in what was happening with what was happening with Darls and Reubs. We were a little bit younger and kind of looking up to them and what not, but\u2026we weren\u2019t even thinking that way. So we weren\u2019t clueless to the thought of it, but were still a long way away. I don\u2019t think any of us looked at ourselves and felt like we had what it takes. We were growing and looking at people like Darlene and thinking, \u201cWell, they\u2019re anointed and they\u2019re talented. God has graced them to do this thing.\u201d We were just involved in church and loving life and loving youth ministry and loving music. When we started doing it, we wanted to write songs that we liked. That might sound a little bit arrogant but there certainly was a sort of na\u00efvet\u00e9 to it in the sense that we just wanted to do songs for the youth that we liked that were about God.<\/p>\n

Bonham: So there was no assumption on your part that (the band) was going to turn into this phenomenon?<\/p>\n

Houston: Um, honestly no. (Laughs) There actually wasn\u2019t. We probably started to realize that about 2003, 2004 when people started\u2026I remember when people started to sing our songs somewhere else. There\u2019s another movement in Australia called Planetshakers. They have a festival and somebody told me they sang one of our songs there. I was like, \u201cYou\u2019re joking.\u201d That was like, \u201cAre you kidding me?\u201d\u00a0 I was genuinely shocked. These days, we create the albums knowing that they\u2019re gonna go out and we\u2019re writing songs not just for our church or for our young people, but we\u2019re writing songs for people everywhere. In those beginning stages, everything was a bit of a surprise.<\/p>\n

Bonham: You guys get a unique perspective of what\u2019s going on in the church across the world. What exciting things are you guys seeing that we as Americans don\u2019t always get to experience?<\/p>\n

Jonathan Douglass: This might sound funny, but all the world there are pockets of people that are so passionate about Jesus and they\u2019re giving their lives for Him and the way they\u2019re called to do so is one of the most encouraging things. We go a lot of places, but to be honest, sometimes we\u2019re only in a city for 12 hours. So it is hard for us to make a judgment call on what is happening in the church worldwide. But the thing that I do know and the thing that is the most encouraging is that there are people everywhere that are doing their thing for God. That\u2019s kind of what we picked up in the early stages of being able to travel. That\u2019s all we\u2019ve got to do. That\u2019s all God asks of us. For me, I love being able to see that going on.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What\u2019s one of the most exciting things you\u2019ve seen happen in one of these places that we as Westerners might not expect to see?<\/p>\n

Jad Gillies: Well, we started this tour going around Asia. We actually did a worship night in Jakarta, which is one of the most heavily populated Muslim nations. We did a worship night there and it was crazy. People were so passionate and so willing to express their love and gratitude to God and get involved. I was so encouraged by that because largely it\u2019s a Muslim nation.<\/p>\n

Houston: There\u2019s an element of fervor and passion that you can\u2019t describe when it comes to people who, their faith literally might cost them their life. Even the event, we were told by the Australian government and others that we shouldn\u2019t do the event because there were credible reports that there would be a terrorist attack. We were arguing about it a little bit. I was like, \u201cThere\u2019s 10,000 Asians, Christians, who are prepared to be there and aren\u2019t thinking twice about that. So if they\u2019re going to be there, we\u2019re going to be there.\u201d Of course it was fine. It was an amazing night, but it\u2019s just interesting the passion that you experience in a place like that when their faith comes with a cost automatically.<\/p>\n

Gillies: For us, in Australia and perhaps here in the United States too, in school, to say you\u2019re a Christian, maybe you got teased a bit or maybe you people made fun of you. But in some of these countries, professing your faith in Christ has higher implications. But like Joel said, basically, that\u2019s it for them. That\u2019s what their life is about and it\u2019s all or nothing. I reckon that actually brings in another dimension to worship. There\u2019s a real desperation to it and a real trust in God, which is such an amazing atmosphere to be in.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How do you feel about the fact that the band has become such a lightning rod for youth worship music across the world and in particular here in the United States?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Houston: In some respects it feels somewhat like a burden. With this last project we went into, Aftermath<\/em>, it was weighty. It was like there\u2019s a responsibility here with what we\u2019re saying, with how we\u2019re saying it. We\u2019ve always been real serious about not just going through the motions with anything we do, but carrying the responsibility of it and making sure that the spirit of it is pure and right. Every time we go into a project, we ask ourselves hard questions. So definitely now, it\u2019s easy to get consumed with that\u2014if you can call it burden or not. But the best way for us to deal with it is to keep it simple. The beautiful thing is we\u2019re still very involved at the local level of church life and discipleship and evangelism and all the things that make the church a church and our passion is still to see people connect with God at the local level. This is great to go and fill an arena with people and sing songs to the glory of God and to see the church unified. We love that and we see that as an incredible opportunity, but the main thing is still the main thing and that is the root of all we\u2019re all about and that\u2019s the church as long as our attention shifts back to that. So for me, when we were doing this project, even though there\u2019s an understanding that we are providing a service or wanting to empower churches and youth ministries and people that worship around the world, for us to get the songs we had to come back to me thinking about my friend who\u2019s just encountered Christ and he\u2019s trying to work it out and doesn\u2019t understand the Holy Spirit and doesn\u2019t some of these things. He\u2019s getting his head around the concept of grace. I want to write a song that he can put on in his car when he\u2019s coming home from work and it will him unpackage that. Or it\u2019s thinking about young people engaged in a moment of worship. That\u2019s always been the fuel and I think it will continue to be.<\/p>\n

Click HERE<\/a> for part 2 of this interview with Hillsong United.<\/p>\n

Check out a the video version of this interview HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can also keep up with the band’s latest news by visiting the official website HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born out of a youth ministry in Sydney, Australia\u2019s dynamic Hillsong church, Hillsong United has steadily become one of the modern worship movement\u2019s most influential worldwide voices. The band has collectively produced such iconic anthems as \u201cOne Way,\u201d \u201cTell The World,\u201d \u201cThe Stand,\u201d \u201cMighty To Save,\u201d \u201cCame To My Rescue\u201d and \u201cFrom The Inside Out.\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,70,120],"tags":[204,203,170,82,166,168,165,167,22,172],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music","category-music-feature","category-qa","tag-aftermath","tag-darlene-zscech","tag-hillsong-church","tag-hillsong-united","tag-jad-gillies","tag-jakarta-indonesia","tag-joel-houston","tag-jonathan-douglass","tag-planetshakers","tag-reuben-morgan"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with Hillsong United (Part 1) - Whole Notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-hillsong-united-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with Hillsong United (Part 1) - Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Born out of a youth ministry in Sydney, Australia\u2019s dynamic Hillsong church, Hillsong United has steadily become one of the modern worship movement\u2019s most influential worldwide voices. The band has collectively produced such iconic anthems as \u201cOne Way,\u201d \u201cTell The World,\u201d \u201cThe Stand,\u201d \u201cMighty To Save,\u201d \u201cCame To My Rescue\u201d and \u201cFrom The Inside Out.\u201d…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-hillsong-united-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-18T03:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-18T07:41:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/files\/2011\/07\/Hillsong-UNITED-1-300x224.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chad Bonham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A conversation with Hillsong United (Part 1) - Whole Notes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-hillsong-united-part-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A conversation with Hillsong United (Part 1) - Whole Notes","og_description":"Born out of a youth ministry in Sydney, Australia\u2019s dynamic Hillsong church, Hillsong United has steadily become one of the modern worship movement\u2019s most influential worldwide voices. 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}