Hillsong United: Building Upside Down Kingdoms

TS: In the secular world, you have people that are incredible with in-ear monitors, incredible lighting technicians, incredible singers and incredible  musicians. They’re out there giving their best. Why can’t we do that in the house of God? We don’t do it for our own glory, we do it so that through those meetings there wouldn’t be anything distracting so people would see Jesus.

JDD: Most people see the tiniest snapshot of what we do, which can seem so incredible and glamorous. But the majority of our time is spent serving the church and building God’s kingdom. That helps keep us focused. Just knowing in ourselves that we’re not doing this because anyone is the most talented or amazing. God has just literally put His hand on what we’re doing. We don’t really know why. But we’re grateful and we’ll keep running hard as long as His hand is in and on this.

CCM: So what is the goal? What is the purpose of the songs, the recordings, the world tours? For what purpose does Hillsong United thrive and exist?

JH: There’s so much in the understanding of how God works, that He chooses to use us and work through us to achieve His plan. He desperately wants us to participate in what He is building so that we can trust Him more, grow more, and learn more. The beautiful thing about the whole story, and our prayer with these songs going forward, is for people to understand the concept of an upside down kingdom. The world is not going to take notice of the church, of us, as followers of Christ, because of our good works or how good our songs are. What the world is going to take notice of is a heart and life that is truly humble and living a selfless way. Not from a place of passivism or trying to remove our selves from the world. But from a place of doing it with more boldness, more courage, more faith, and more desire to create the best things we can—to do the best things we can, to take themusic and the message, and this story of Jesus to places it has never been before. If we can connect those two dots, there is no end to what we can achieve for the kingdom in our lifetime. That’s what I want to be a part of.