According to reports, Hillsong has been doing damage control for disturbing claims of member mistreatment, some of which were found to be true.
“In February of 2018, Hillsong Church received a letter with serious allegations regarding specific members of the Hillsong NYC volunteer and staff teams,” a representative of Hillsong told The Post.
“We were very concerned to learn that any church member, volunteer or staff member would feel unsafe. Immediately, we launched a comprehensive three-month inquiry into the claims made in the letter.” He added.
The internal investigation which was launched in November after pastor Carl Lentz was fired determined that there was indeed merit to some complaints, while others “were found to be inaccurate,” although the representative insisted that the church “realized that those situations required care and concern as well.”
“Sadly, we learned that some of the allegations were true,” the statement continued. In response, Hillsong’s “team took immediate action to address those allegations” by implementing an ethical standard code for all East Coast volunteers and creating a department to enforce and “examine” all future alleged violations of it.
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“Finally, we enlisted the services of an experienced and respected HR consultant,” the statement concluded.
“The consultant worked alongside Hillsong’s existing global human resources team to audit existing “organization practices” and “develop tools and systems” to help “maintain a safe environment” and equip staff to “minister more effectively.”