Hillsong Church's popularity in Christian praise and worship music stems from the inauguration of the Hillsong Conference in the late 1980s and the first publication of choruses written by Hills CLC members, especially Darlene Zschech. Their first live worship CD The Power of Your Love was released in 1992. Since then, live praise and worship albums have been produced each year. Other music series include the Worship series, United, Youth Alive, Hillsong Kids and Instrumental series. They have also released two Christmas albums and several compilation albums.

Geoff Bullock's departure ::
Geoff Bullock, the worship pastor before Zschech, resigned from Hillsong partly because of their phenomenal success. He states:

People have said that Hillsong (conference) 95 was my highest moment - the heights from which I fell. Yet if someone asked me what was the worst experience of my whole ministry career it would be Hillsong (conference) 95, because I felt so out of my depth.

I kept thinking, 'I don't know what I'm doing here, I'm unable to be the person that I need to be'. I just can't be Mr Charisma and Mr Excited. That's not me. I'm a quiet, introspective, melancholic type of guy. I struggled throughout the week trying to lead the worship, but feeling very much that I was failing. I really fell apart emotionally within a month of the conference ending.
My face was on all the posters, I was writing songs which everyone was singing, but inside I was asking myself 'Why am I always struggling? Why can't I just rise up in faith and be the man of God that everybody else says I should be, that this movement says I should be?
—Geoff Bullock, reality.org.nz

Geoff Bullock has released a recent album with new songs and a few of his old songs re-written. He spoke with David Adams and Lloyd Harkness at Sight Magazine in an interview on the 13th of August, 2004 "I feel tremendously responsible that I led them [Hillsong Church] along the garden path of being so incredibly enthusiastic and incredibly faithful that eventually I sentenced them to disappointment because I was trying to fulfill something that I could never achieve..."

Popularity ::
Hillsong music is accepted and sung in many Christian churches worldwide. Some Hillsong songs have distinct gospel influences (see Gospel music and Urban contemporary gospel) and this has probably contributed to its acceptance. Hillsong Music titles regularly feature in the top 25 of most songs sung in all reporting countries recorded through CCLI.

People Just Like Us was the first ever Christian album to go Gold in Australia as well as the first to go Platinum. To date, all Hillsong live worship albums have achieved Gold status in Australia. In 1996, Hillsong Music reached international prominence with the release of Shout to the Lord produced by Integrity Music. This was Integrity Music's first live worship album featuring a female worship leader - Darlene Zschech.

The 2004 Hillsong live worship album For All You've Done, debuted at #1 on the Australian Record Industry Association album charts. This is the first time an album of Contemporary Christian music has topped the album charts in Australia. There was some controversy about this outcome as almost all of the albums were sold at Hillsong's annual conference held in early July. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) have defended the outcome noting that the album sold more copies than any other record on sale in Australia that week.

Awards ::
Hillsong Music Australia has been accredited with over 50 gold and platinum sales awards achieved worldwide. Hillsong Music has also achieved many international awards;

* The album Shout to the Lord was nominated for the 1997 Dove Awards 'Praise & Worship Album of the Year' at the Gospel Music Awards in Nashville, USA.
* The song Shout to the Lord written by Darlene Zschech was nominated for the 1998 Dove Awards 'Song of the Year' category at the Gospel Music Awards in Nashville, USA.
* By Your Side received a nomination for the 2001 Dove Awards 'Praise & Worship Album of the Year' at the Gospel Music Awards in Nashville, USA.
* In 1999, Darlene received the International Impact of the Year Award from the American Gospel Music Association in Nashville, USA.
* You Are My World received a nomination for the 2002 Dove Awards 'Praise & Worship Album of the Year' at the Gospel Music Awards in Nashville, USA.
* Blessed also received a nomination for the Dove Awards 'Praise & Worship Album of the Year' at the Gospel Music Awards in Nashville, USA.
* The song My Hope written by Darlene Zschech was nominated for the 2004 Dove Awards 'Inspirational Song of the Year' at the Gospel Music Awards in Nashville, USA.
* The song Mighty to Save written by Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan received the 2009 Dove Awards 'Worship Song of the Year' at the Gospel Music Awards in Nashville, USA.

Worship leaders ::
Former worship pastor Darlene Zschech (1995-2007) is perhaps the most well-known worship leader in Hillsong. She is the composer of the famous worship song "Shout to the Lord". Zschech became worship pastor after Geoff Bullock resigned. Bullock had composed most of Hillsong's early songs in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Russell Fragar, former music director, played a large part in producing early Hillsong albums until leaving Hillsong Church for Virginia, USA in 2001. Other prominent worship leaders include Reuben Morgan, who rose to fame for his song I Give You My Heart and Marty Sampson who was integral in the success of early Hillsong United albums. Recently Joel Houston, son of Brian and Bobbie Houston, has become one of the Hillsong worship leaders and song writers and has also initiated Hillsong's I-Heart Revolution.

Hillsong Live - Born is the King 2011 musical instruments used by hillsong music
Currently the worship pastor of Hillsong is Reuben Morgan and Joel Houston serves as Creative Director, while Darlene Zschech is a Senior Worship Leader at Hillsong Church and tours throughout the globe with the Hillsong team, whilst still hosting the Creative Stream at Hillsong Conference. The Hillsong UNITED team also tours the globe reaching others with the music that comes from the very heart of Hillsong Church.

Darlene Zschech explained Hillsong's stance in her book Extravagant Worship. She wrote the Hillsong team prayer "Father, let them quickly get their eyes off of us. We just want to point them to you, God, because you are the Author of truth. You are the only One who is to be praised."

Albums ::
Early albums were released solely on cassette and CD. Video recordings of the live albums have also been made for VHS since the second album in 1993, and additionally for DVD since 2000, with increasing additional content such as documentaries and extra songs. The Hillsong United series CDs have included an additional free part-length DVD since 2004. Several music books have also been published. Including all the series (LIVE, UNITED, Kids, Kids Pre-School, Chapel, Español, Youth Term, Youth Alive, Worship, Compilation, Instrumental, Christmas, Preview, KIEV, LONDON) and other special releases (Like The 1st Album, Or Other special recordings) they have more than 125 albums, in 15 series......................

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