Recent Hillsong whistleblower documents show that Hillsong’s alleged “celebrity preacher’s scam” didn’t just enrich Brian Houston, founder of the global megachurch, with hefty speaking honorariums. It also enriched other preachers participating in the “scam,” including many belonging to the leadership of a U.S.-based church planting group, called the Association of Related Churches or ARC.
ARC is one of the largest church planting organizations in North America, with over 1,000 churches in its network. Like Hillsong, ARC is charismatic in its theology and has a similar emphasis on growing megachurches with slick programming, youth-oriented worship, and charismatic pastors.
ARC also requires its member churches to give 2% of their tithes and offerings to ARC. (Hillsong requires its Hillsong Family churches to give 3%, according to the whistleblower documents.) Also like Hillsong, ARC has been embroiled in a steady stream of scandals involving pastoral financial and sexual misconduct.
Yet, unlike Hillsong, ARC operates mainly behind the scenes, funding church plants and training pastors to “launch large.” To find an ARC church, one needs to use the ARC church finder tool on ARC’s website because most churches don’t announce their affiliation.
So, it would be easy to miss how closely aligned these two organizations have been over the past two decades—and how this alignment has enriched the leaders of both organizations.
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