Britain clapping up Aussie Hillsong message of aspiration

Australian Hillsong pastor Gary Clarke is spreading his message of aspiration in Britain.

Hillsong UK’s Australian pastor, Gary Clarke.

Every Sunday, the 2069-seat Dominion Theatre in London’s West End abandons all performances of its big-budget musical adaptation of the classic Tom Hanks film Big for four packed 90-minute Hillsong services.

The crowd at last Sunday’s 3pm service — very close to London icons like Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square — was almost exclusively millennial; young, trendy, ethnically diverse, with a large number of London’s black and Eastern European communities attending services.

At 69, Hillsong UK’s Australian pastor, Gary Clarke, is a lot older than most of his flock. But they whooped and cheered for his classic Hillsong message — backing aspiration and backing them to make money, go into politics, and spread the word of God.

“We’re trying to encourage them to be aspirational,” he told the Dominion congregation.

“A dirty word three or four years ago but it’s still a positive word. Aspiring. Aspiring to be something, aspiring to do something.

“Be aspirational. Dream, work hard, dream, work hard … when you’re tired of dreaming, work hard. When you’re tired of working hard, start dreaming of what life you can build.

“You have the potential to be someone of influence. Somewhere. Whether it’s emerging in politics, or emerging in business … you can be the people making the decisions, you’ll be the people of money.”

Clarke has been with Hillsong UK since it started in 1999 and attributed his decision to leave Australia to preach in London as part of a calling from God. His big dreams for the young members of Hillsong UK reflect how far the church itself in London has come. After originally attracting only 100 people to its first sermons in the early 2000s, Hillsong’s uniquely Australian brand of Christianity is now expanding across the country and Europe.

Hillsong has congregations in Central and North London, New Bermondsey in the city’s east, and Tonbridge, Guildford and Reading in the Greater London area. Further afield, the church is now in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Newcastle, Liverpool and Oxford, and opened a new service in Croydon last month.

While it does not boast the celebrities the US Hillsong has attracted, like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, it counts among its flock Arsenal soccer star David Luiz. Clarke’s message was also moulded towards his more progressive, diverse audience. While his message of “aspiration” may be considered conservative, he also blasted individualism and “white privilege”.

“How can we bring privilege to those who cannot afford privilege?” Clarke said. “Great people serve … if you’re going to aspire to greatness, that’s okay. But great people serve.”