Joel Houston is the Creative Director of Hillsong Church and a world renowned songwriter and worship leader. As well as overseeing the creative team, Joel also travels the globe with Hillsong United bringing a message of worship and justice to an emerging generation. Through this, he has birthed ‘I heart’; a movement that inspires this generation to rise up and change the world around them.
- We need to see the best minds go towards building the Kingdom of God, and the Church
- There’s been a misconception that if you work in the church that you are either a pastor, evangelist or worship pastor… mainly in forms of leadership.
- Joel had no desire to be under any “church ministry” categories… and began to think what is ministry, what is church and what does it mean to be a follower of Christ.
- Instead of going the route of ministry he started a band and hoped that they would make an impact in the “pubs and clubs” … outside of the church.
- The wanted to be famous, have money and then do positive things for the Church through their efforts.
- The band fell apart and Joel thought his world was over… but decided to do whatever was in front of him… which at the time was United.
- At the time he was only playing bass and writing songs… volunteering in youth, etc.
- United was still new and forming… and Phil Dooley asked him to lead worship.
- Over the course of time he became an established worship leader.
- He began to study what worship was and went to Romans 12… a living sacrifice.
- Worship is removal of our own agenda and dying to ourselves to pursue God.
- Mark 12 … “the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.”
- Worship is as simple as loving God and loving other people.
- Joel moved from the safety and security of the suburbs to the middle of the city… and was exposed to the true needs of the world around him.
- We can get so isolated in our church world where we’re oblivious to the real world that’s around us.
- At what point do you start taking God’s grace for granted that you think you can do it on your own?
- You need to truly encounter grace and who Jesus really is.
- It’s pointless to talk about worship and justice without a true revelation of who Jesus really is.
- We’ve traveled around the world and had some of the most incredible experiences… it never grows old because every night we’re seeing the church and seeing people coming together, singing God’s song.
- He was concerned about the fact that worship ended at the end of the night and being contained inside the church walls.
- Generationally, God does something different in each generation. As the world changes, the church needs to adapt.
- In his parent’s generation, evangelism was all the church was about… massive crusades and appeals.
- In recent years, there’s been an awakening to worship in the Church.
- It’s no surprise that God is opening our eyes to see the other part of what worship is… loving our neighbors as our selves.
- There’s an awakening to pursue justice.
- There’s an inseparable union between worship and justice.
- Hebrews 13:15 – Everything we do needs to point to Jesus and His redemptive work on the cross.
- Everything we do needs to have an intersection with the cross.
- Hebrews 13:16; Isaiah 42:1-12 … worship and justice… loving God, loving others.
- Isaiah 58
- We put so much into our worship experiences… to do it with excellence and put our all into it… and sometimes it can feel like God is absent… but when we try to do it in our own strength it will fail.
- We’ve got to have a revelation of the grace and love of Jesus.
- Amos 5:21-24 in The Message… WOAH!
- There is something sacred about bringing our best to God (John 12).
- There’s balance.
- Read John 12 in the context of Matthew 25… when you do anything for the least of these, you do it unto God.
- In the same way we give our best in our expression of worship… the sacrifice of our lips confessing His name is costly … but when we use what God’s put in our hands for the benefit of others… as we outwork what love is… placing value on humanity, from the famous to the faceless… when we value humanity as Jesus valued us… we are breaking our perfume over the feet of Jesus.
- We have a responsibility to direct people to God with everything we’ve got.
- It’s about noticing the world and the people around you.
- We can focus on justice as much as we want, but a revelation of the love of Jesus Christ and an understanding of His grace is what will move us to action.
- We’ve got to tear down the walls within our ourselves first and then tear down the walls that surround our churches.
- The Church is God’s plan to bring justice.
- We can spend so much time critiquing each other and being self-righteous, being critical about anything and anyone… criticizing the church, theology, etc. It’s a vicious lie to bring disunity within the church.
- The Church was never built to be isolated… it was meant to build community to reach our communities.
- We are called… and how we are supposed to live out justice and worship is within the context of the local church.
- When local churches begin to work together, as the Church, we can transform our cities, our nations and the world.
- Wherever there is life… humanity… and community… there should be the Church.
- We get so focused on justice and think of Africa, Central and South America… but there’s injustice all around us if we’re willing to open our eyes and hearts to see it.
- There are people who live next door to us that have everything but are inwardly in need.
- We are where we are for a reason and wherever we are is where we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
- I Heart is their endeavor to show the Church and the world we are called to reach.
- They are going to work to get the movie into theaters around the world.
- The film will be focused on justice but is a great apologetic for the Gospel… showing the God of love, compassion and grace.
- It will wrestle people of their comfort zones.
- Developing a website to launch in August that will help educate people on issues of justice and let people know ways and areas they can get involved.
- Whatever your passion is, you need to find an area to get involved.
- Our goal is to help people help more people.
- If we can get a Kingdom mindset and not think about what we are doing… but get under the bigger banner of the Kingdom and what God is doing through the Church, there’s no limit to what God can do.
- Worship and justice has far less to do with songs we sing or justice projects we are doing, it’s all about understanding the Kingdom and where we fit in God’s story.
- As leaders we have a responsibility to see worship as a Romans 12 lifestyle but not limit it to evangelists, pastors, etc… but whatever it is that we are called to do in life, that we do it with the best we’ve got to the glory of Jesus.
- Creativity is a whole lot more than visual, writing, music etc… it’s an incredible opportunity to use what’s in our hand to create things to help people who have nothing in theirs.
- Find your something…
