Hillsong Atlanta Pastor Sam Collier and spouse Toni Collier onstage in the course of the Hillsong Atlanta grand opening on June 6, 2021.
Getty Photographs
A lead pastor for Hillsong megachurch has stepped down — mere hours earlier than the premiere of a docuseries in regards to the establishment’s latest scandals.
“It's with nice disappointment that I inform you of my departure from Hillsong,” Sam Collier, the now-former lead pastor of the Australia-born church’s Atlanta, Ga., department, started a Wednesday Instagram put up saying his departure. “My biggest motive for stepping down as Pastor of Hillsong Atlanta might be not a secret to any of you. With all the documentaries, scandals, articles, accusations and the church’s subsequent administration of those assaults it’s turn out to be too tough to steer and develop a younger Church on this atmosphere.”
Collier, 33, goes on to reassure readers that he believes Hillsong “will get by way of this storm and are available out higher than they have been earlier than,” including in an Instagram Story that “we nonetheless think about [Hillsong] household” and “they don't seem to be our enemies.” The put up concludes with an open invitation to Collier’s ultimate Hillsong service — and an announcement that he's launching a brand new congregation known as Story Church this Easter Sunday.
A consultant of Collier instructed The Put up he was the megachurch’s first African American pastor and that he “will be the first of many” to resign “as a result of present Hillsong atmosphere.”
Shortly forward of the Instagram announcement, Collier alerted congregants to the information in a barely extra candid inside electronic mail, which has been considered by The Put up.
Collier makes barely heavier implications within the electronic mail relating to his private tackle Hillsong’s present state. “Folks have typically requested me over time, ‘What would it not take so that you can ever depart Hillsong?’ I politely all the time replied, ‘I'll by no means depart the Hillsong World till the mission/imaginative and prescient that God has given me turns into hindered by the challenges that come together with the entity.’”
The information got here a day forward of the Thursday premiere of the three-part docuseries “Hillsong: A Megachurch Uncovered,” produced in collaboration with The Put up and Discovery+/TLC.
Following Collier’s resignation, Phil Dooley — who has taken over for former head and founding father of Hillsong Brian Houston, 68 — uploaded a video giving Collier the church’s blessing. Houston — who resigned for a second time Wednesday amid an ongoing court docket trial and a number of misconduct accusations — has beforehand executed the identical for different pastors with whom the church needs to stay on good phrases.
“We simply wish to provide you with guys our absolute blessing for the subsequent season,” mentioned Dooley within the quick clip. “There is no such thing as a doubt that there's a complete lot happening in [Hillsong’s] world, however we simply wish to say that we're persevering with to place our belief and our hope in Jesus.”
Post a Comment