The Hillsong Machine
How the world's most popular worship team—including leaders Darlene Zschech and Joel Houston—comes up with their players … and all that great material.
by Andree Farias | posted 10/10/2005
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One look at the lavish concert DVD of Hillsong Australia's latest recording, God He Reigns, is enough to realize Hillsong Church is no ordinary congregation. A rapidly growing community of almost 19,000, it's become internationally known for its prolific worship music department and such anthems as "Shout to the Lord," "Power of Your Love," and "I Give You My Heart." But there's much more to the ministry than what you see on the screen or hear on their albums. Spearheaded by the charismatic Darlene Zschech, the church is all about its people and their connectedness to God and each other. In this conversation, Hillsong principals Zschech and Joel Houston tell us about the church's beginnings, how their worship team works, and how their extravagant live albums have nothing to do with skill or performance.
Joel Houston, Darlene Zschech, and Reuben Morgan are three of the primary worship leaders at the world famous Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia
How did you first get involved with Hillsong Church?
Darlene Zschech We started going to church when it was about 18 months old. There were about 190 people. There was no music department; everybody did what needed to be done. My husband Mark and I have been in the church for 20 years. And it's been pretty exciting to be there from the beginning, watching it change and develop and expand. It's pretty overwhelming.
Joel Houston I started playing when I was 13. We started a youth band—it was the beginnings of United. I started playing the piano, and I was horrible; I couldn't even do chords. Then I moved into guitar. But since there was no bass player, I did that instead because I was probably the least talented guitarist out of the three that we had. I started writing song. When I was 18, I started to see worship as a cool thing, so I started writing worship songs. And our church at that point started building quite a reputation for praise and worship. So I was fortunate enough to be in a place where there was a platform for the songs I was writing.
So I went from the keyboardist that couldn't even play keys, to the guitarist who wasn't good enough to play guitar, to the bass player who was playing bass because he wasn't good enough at guitar, to one of the songwriters, to one of the worship leaders.
So how did Hillsong become synonymous with praise and worship?
Zschech There was just a couple of guys. One of them, Geoff Bullock—who wrote "Power of Your Love"—played the piano. I played the piano. Some days I sang in the choir. Eventually, I started looking after all the vocals. I started writing songs in the early '90s, and in '94 I wrote "Shout to the Lord." It was around that time that Geoff moved on, and Brian [Houston, senior pastor at Hillsong Church] said, "You're the new worship pastor." And I went, "Cool! What does that mean?" (laughs).
How have things changed since?
Zschech Things have changed drastically. In '94, the church had about 4,000 people, and now it's at 18 or 19,000 people. Our worship department is now 1,000 people. So things are very different. We've tried to bring the whole idea of worship and what that means and incorporate it into the whole team, from singers and musicians to soundmen and production guys. It's been fantastic, because we've really built this great team and this great culture of faith and possibility and trust.
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