There’s something pretty unique about Thursday nights at Hillsong Church. It’s the night that our creative community gathers, first in Australia and then slowly as the clock moves, right across the globe. It’s one of our favourite nights of the week, and we look forward to it with great anticipation and excitement.

Our creative team has an incredible responsibility within our church to help create a picture of who God is through using the gifts and talents that we have been given. Within our church, the creative department encompasses many areas, not only worship music and singers, but spans production, TV, filmmakers, artists, writers, costume designers, youth and kids worship teams, stage managers, designers – all regular everyday people who choose to belong to this beautiful melting pot of people.

We often get emails from people outside our church, asking about why our team gathers weekly, so we thought that we’d share just a few of these reasons with you!

1. We gather to rehearse and prepare for the weekends.
It is our firm belief that God deserves our very best. We have a responsibility to lead the church in worship as best as we are able. As a result, there is a need to practice, to hone our crafts, to steward our gifts and to learn how to better work together in a team. Rehearsals allow us that opportunity. We make mistakes, modifications and continue to rehearse until we know that what we will bring on Sunday, as people gather to seek God, is the best we are able to. Our aim is that we want to play a small part in helping people to encounter God, and by getting better hopefully people are helped by what we bring, not hindered or distracted by it. That’s what excellence is — a commitment to bringing our personal best to the table and a commitment to ongoing improvement.

2. We gather because we love hanging out.
The truth is that our creative community actually likes each other. We find a sense of commonality in our quest to worship God with our gifts and talents. We find a commonality in our love for The Church, in our love for Jesus and in our love for the people of God. On Thursday nights we are seeking to build a community that makes a big church seem smaller – that places value on each person who calls Hillsong Church their home, and that allows everyone to find a place to belong.

3. We gather to inspire each other and instil courage.
On Thursday nights, we “have a go”. We try new things! Sometimes we bring new songs, sometimes we try new ways of worshipping, we watch our dancers let loose, or hear from artists endeavouring to capture beauty on canvas… We are inspired by pieces our writers craft, or moved by photos or music that our team is creating. Team Nights create a place where we can try things and fail, or try things and succeed, whatever way, we watch each other take steps toward becoming more and more creative. We find each other looking for words and ways to describe God differently to inspire worship and adoration from others. We want to find more and new ways to help people see that God is working amongst us and on the earth.

4. Gathering together shapes our culture.
At Team Night, we come together to worship. We are not performers on a platform, but people transformed by the love of God and living in response to this love, and we constantly remind ourselves of that! We listen to people within our team encourage us from the Bible and their own lives, which is causing leaders to rise up from within the ranks of our own team. We give to see the Kingdom of God advance, which is creating generous people. We serve so that others may encounter Jesus, which is allowing people to realise that life is bigger than themselves and one of the greatest blessings in life is to give our lives away for the sake of others.

We attend masterclasses to equip ourselves, coaching groups to refine our talents, we unearth new gifts in people, and we practice in preparation for what may be required of us. We laugh, we cry (some more than others), we share life and hopefully little by little become more Christ-like. When we gather together we find ourselves united around a common goal, we are able to articulate why we do what we do and Who we do it for.

If you ever find yourself at Hillsong Church, our creative community is open to you! Join us for Team Night in our Australian campuses on a Thursday Night. You’d be so welcome!