Hillsong

Formed at the Hillside Conference in Brisbane, Australia in the late 1980s, Hillside music has become something of a phenomenon of Christian worship and praise songs ever since, with numerous big-selling CDs and branches in different parts of the world. The originator was Geoff Bullock, a former ABC TV cameraman, who went on to join the ministry, pioneering Hills Christian Life Centre in 1983 before being appointed Worship Pastor for Sydney's Hillsong Church. As convenor of the annual Hillsongs conference in 1987, he wrote a series of songs of worship which, over the next decade, produced six successful live albums recorded at the conference under the Hillsong banner, including his best-known works The Power Of Your Love, You Rescued Me and The Heavens Shall Declare. Bullock quit as pastor after the 1995 Hillsong conference because he felt he had become a victim of his own success, but Darlene Zsech, his replacement as pastor, continued his work as Hillsong continued to provide Christian worshippers with a new flood of popular material, merging gospel styles with pop and providing a quarter of the music now sung in Australian churches. It brought unprecedented success for Christian music; the 2004 album For All You've Done debuted at Number 1 on the Australian Record Industry album charts and Hillsong have sold over 12 million albums around the world. Other prominent Hillside worship leaders, singers and songwriters include Reuben Morgan and Joel Houston.