Hillsong SF’s Breakaway: A Case Study in Church Reputation Repair

Hillsong San Francisco's breakaway from the larger Hillsong brand highlights the necessity of acknowledging past scandals to rebuild trust in a vulnerable community. The podcast explores key lessons in leadership transitions, the importance of reputation, and the journey of healing toward a fresh vision.

• Acknowledgment of truth as the first step in healing 
• Impact of brand reputation on church mission 
• Clear leadership transitions as crucial during restructuring 
• Focusing on the healing process for individuals rather than just PR 
• Importance of defining a hopeful future with community engagement 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

It wasn't that long ago that Hillsong Church had 16 campuses here in the US, but just in recent years, because of a lot of problems and really some major scandals, they've lost 11 of those 16 campuses, and this past week, hillsong San Francisco became the latest to break away. But what happens when a church wants to separate from its past and start fresh? That's what we're going to talk about today on the Healthy Church Staff podcast. Hi, I'm Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and thanks so much for joining us today. So how do you rebuild trust as a church when your reputation has been damaged? We're going to dig into that. We're going to use this recent news story. They're just actually announcing they were supposed to announce yesterday their new name. They announced that they're breaking away, but they didn't announce their new name yet. We're going to use Hillsong San Francisco's Breakaways a case study today and we're going to uncover, hopefully, five lessons for any church that's facing crisis. Now, if your church has gone through a tough season, stay with me, because this content is for you right now. If your church has not gone through any major conflict, this is going to be just a really good thing to put in your back pocket and because you're going to see churches maybe even your church go through some kind of a crisis. Hopefully not a scandal, okay, but let's talk about, first of all, when crisis hits, acknowledgement matters. Talk about, first of all, when crisis hits acknowledgement matters.

Speaker 1: 1:48

As I look back at all of Hillsong's troubles, they did not start overnight. The church faced a bunch of different things right, leadership failures, there was financial mismanagement. Of course, hillsong was huge and it was global. Right, it still is big and it still is global. But on top of all of that, there were some high-profile moral scandals. You had Carl Lenz's dismissal from Hillsong, new York City back in 2020, not too long after that, the lead pastor had to step down, brian Houston. So a lot of different things happened, but the lesson here should be that churches really have to. You have to acknowledge the truth, or, if you don't, what's going to happen is the damage is only going to get deeper. And Hillsong San Francisco had a choice ultimately Stay tied to a really controversial Hillsong brand or try and rebuild under a fresh vision. And Hillsong San Francisco is just the latest Hillsong congregation to do this to break away and say it's too damaged. We need a new face if we're going to survive and if we're going to have a future. Okay, so here's your takeaway If your church has faced a crisis, don't minimalize it, don't cover it up, because that's going to be the thing that is going to kill you. Right? You need to be honest with your congregation. Healing is going to begin with transparency, and if the transparency is not there, your church will feel like you're hiding something. And guess what? They're going to feel that way, probably because you are Okay.

Speaker 1: 3:31

Point number two A church's reputation does affect its mission and man, we see this at Hillsong. Hillsong's brand took a huge, a massive hit, not just among believers, but in the mainstream culture and not just in Australia, all over, wherever they had a church, and in the whole Christian community. The Brand Hill song took a huge hit. There were even documentaries. There's one I think it's on Netflix called A Mega Church Exposed, and it's an investigative report that those kind of things only added fuel to the fire.

Speaker 1: 4:11

And if you're sitting in leadership at Hillsong, san Francisco, the choice was clear they needed to create some distance in order just to survive and to be able to thrive. The bottom line reality was their mission could not move forward under the weight of the past because it was just almost insurmountable. So the takeaway here is if your church has a reputation problem, chances are almost 100% chance that your church is not Hillsong, so you don't have this huge behemoth of a structure. You may be in small town America, but your church has gone through a scandal or a moral failure or something, and sometimes that can even be worse. In a small town, reputation will precede you. You need to ask the hard question is our church's name, is our brand, if you want to call it that is our church's name helping or hurting our ability to reach people? And sometimes a fresh start is just absolutely necessary if you're going to continue to even exist as a church, especially if you want to have effectiveness for your mission. Okay, so that's point number two.

Speaker 1: 5:21

Here's idea number three Leadership transitions. When they happen, especially when they're coming out of crisis or scandal, those leadership transitions must be absolutely clear and totally honorable. Hillsong, san Francisco's pastors, brendan and Jackie Brown, have served Hillsong for 24 years. So their transition, it didn't come overnight and, by all public accounts anyways, it hasn't been a hostile split, but a decision that had been, according to them, discussed for the last couple of years and in public statements here this past week, hillsong Global Senior Pastor Phil Dooley and Hillsong California Pastor Sam Lopez affirmed and blessed the pastors at Hillsong, san Francisco and this is absolutely crucial and I will give them some credit that this was the right thing to do. It's because it's crucial, because leadership fractures can make things even worse. So it's already bad enough that you have to make this kind of structural change and kind of break away. It's going to make it worse if it's just messy and just absolutely filled with conflict in and of itself.

Speaker 1: 6:33

So here's the takeaway, for this is that if your church is considering restructuring or even separating from a network, you need to make those leadership changes with clarity and transparency and with a spirit of unity. We just saw this. We're seeing this a lot in the United States not with Hillsong. Hillsong it's happening in a handful of churches, but we're seeing this in denominational structures. We're seeing the Reformed Church that is just going through some real splits and a lot of churches breaking off. We've seen this with the United Methodist Church and the Global Methodist Church a lot of times restructuring or separating from a network. You just need to make sure that you do that with clarity and transparency and, as much as possible, with a spirit of unity. There's always going to be some infighting and some behind-the-scenes things, but any of it that goes public is only going to cause more division and more hurt. And then just realize this is point number four realize that you're going to be going into a season of healing.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Okay, and healing is about people, it's not about public relations. Okay, and I think Hillsong got stuck into this early on, which caused their problems just to grow and grow. Hillsong, san Francisco, for example, isn't just changing its name for branding purposes. Okay, I think that's a part of it, absolutely. But in their statement they said this is what they said. They said God's been faithful in every step of our journey and we believe that he's leading us into something fresh and full of purpose.

Speaker 1: 8:10

Now, is that a little bit of massaging the message? Sure, sure, absolutely, but it's something that you know when your church is going through a crisis, you can't only focus on damage control, you must focus on healing the people, and sometimes the language you use really does make a difference. You've got to offer some spaces for healing. Physical spaces, yeah, absolutely, but you have to allow for timing for that healing to take place, and that can be some counseling, some prayer meetings, open conversations, but you really need to rebuild that trust and you can only do that when people feel seen and they feel heard and they feel valued. And for Hillsong San Francisco, they determined that in order for this trust to be rebuilt, they needed to do it, break away from Hillsong and do this in a little bit different way, and sometimes that just needs to happen.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Okay, finally, when you're thinking about your church's future, particularly after coming out of a time of struggle or a time of conflict or a time of just leadership failure, your future has to have hope, a fresh vision. And, as I said, Hillsong San Francisco was supposed to. I haven't seen the news reports yet today, but it's supposed to reveal its new name. You would think that they would have their new name, but they were going to reveal their new name yesterday, over the weekend, and they said that this is truly going to signal a fresh start. It's not just a cosmetic change. They say it's a new mission and that well may be, but it also is a name change and a way to set them apart from what they're leaving. So churches that move forward after a crisis. The name change is going to help, the separation is going to help, but now the real work begins and they have to clarify their new vision. If people don't know what they're rebuilding toward, they won't stick around, and the people that are still at that church are people that have stuck around. They've had opportunities to leave and they haven't left yet. So this is going to be another turning point in the life of that local church as to what they're rebuilding toward. So here's your takeaway If your church has faced a tough season, you can't just move on.

Speaker 1: 10:35

You do need to take some time and redefine your vision and invite your church community to be a part of that renewal process, and people will follow that clarity and that conviction. I'm interested in what you think about all of this. Maybe you think, todd, I don't agree with anything you said. Maybe, todd, I agree with everything you said. I'd love to hear what you think, particularly about how a church like Hillsong, san Francisco should handle crisis. And let's talk specifically about Hillsong, san Francisco. What do you think about that decision to separate? Drop a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if your church is in a transition or going through some conflict or facing any kind of leadership challenges. Man, I'd love to help. You can reach out to me anytime. Just send me an email at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I would love to hear from you.