Ann Voskamp, perhaps best known for her bizarre writing where she declared that she “made love to God” in Paris one night, and whose mystical descriptions of her encounters with the Lord come across as some sort of spiritual sexytime with Jesus where he’s always trying to cop a feel. We last wrote about her after she claimed the cross symbolizes ‘hospitality’ because Jesus has ‘his arms open wide’
Voskamp and her ministry are part of Hillsong Family which is a group of “like-spirited, forward-thinking, kingdom-building visionaries and ministries working TOGETHER for a greater cause. This group of churches and ministries are joining our ‘FAMILY’ in an effort to develop and strengthen one another – a family relationship in which to find wisdom and encouragement, spiritual accountability and support as they continue to build the church and ministry that God has uniquely called them to do.” Some members include:
Organizations typically pay 3% of their earnings, capped at $100,00, in order to join Hillsong Family. By joining Hillsong Family, organizations can show that they are in a “relationship” with Hillsong and reap the benefits, which include access to the conference circuit and an invitation to the Hillsong Family Gatherings (retreats) held twice yearly in luxurious international locations. It’s here where pastors can network with other celebrity pastors within the Hillsong Family and make arrangements to travel first-class to speak at each other’s churches and conferences and collect massive “honorariums” in the process. See more here.
Being part of the family, Anne Voskamp was invited to speak at Hillsong’s Colour Conference in May 2020. Her flight was costly; she flew business class to the tune of $25,832.12, which Hillsong picked up the tab for.
As far as her honorarium, she was paid $107,443.70 AUD for giving four messages over the course of two days. Not a bad weekend at all.
If you’re wondering how Hillsong conferences make a profit or at least break even, they don’t. Some of their conferences cost over $500,000, the lion’s share of costs paid in honorariums. To pay for the conferences, Hillsong takes money from their Hillsong Foundation, a “charitable foundation that exists to finance the outworking of Hillsong Church’s vision.”
Through the Hillsong Foundation, “Hillsong is able to partner with like-minded non-profit organizations across the globe in an effort to bring care and justice to vulnerable groups in the name of Jesus.” While they heavily promote giving to this as a means to help starving children and the poorest of the poor, in actuality, they only give about 4% of the $20M they bring in to their charities, with each charity only receiving about 1%. They rest they spend on Colour Conferences and other endevors.
To put things in perspective, In 2020, Hillsong donated $117.618 to the Hillsong Africa Foundation. That same year, they spent $133,275.82 to cover the costs of one speaker to come to one conference.
