Hillsong's schools recruitment drive

Parents send their children to public schools in the anticipation that they will not be indoctrinated," Mr Kaye said.

A NETWORK of Christian youth ministries with links to the Hillsong Church is attempting to recruit members in public schools through free lunchtime concerts and barbecues called "Exo days", church manuals reveal.

Exo or Excellent days are free events run by Christian students under the direction of Youth Alive, an arm of the Australian Christian Churches - formerly the Assemblies of God - of which Hillsong is the largest member.

Youth Alive describes the events as "a free lunchtime festival … put on by the Christian students as a gift to the school", but a leaders' manual prepared by the body reveals that Exo days are aimed at recruiting students to their local youth ministry.

A teacher at one public school said students had returned to class after an Exo day concert complaining about attempts to convert them, while the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations says it is an attempt to sneak evangelism into schools and reveals the need for new laws.

The Exo day instruction manuals include numerous references to recruitment and evangelism.

"The whole goal for Exo week and Exo day is to see your youth ministry grow," it states.

"The vision is to see evangelism and growth come from the students themselves in your youth ministry."

The manual includes "testimony" from a youth minister working outside Newcastle who states: "Exo day started a rapid increase in the number of salvations within our youth ministry.

"But, most importantly, Exo day has given our young people the belief that they can take their schools for Jesus."

The Youth Alive website indicates that about 30 NSW public schools have registered to hold Exo days.

Manuals given to the Christian students refer to Exo days as an opportunity to "show our peers that God wants us to have an excellent life" and encourage them to promote the event at school. Youth Alive declined to comment.

The revelations follow recent reports that Hillsong was running its Shine program - aimed at young women - in at least 20 NSW public schools.

The NSW Education Act says that "instruction" at public schools must be non-sectarian and secular except in designated religious education classes.

The NSW upper house Greens MP, John Kaye, said Exo days went against the spirit of the act, but that there was a need for new laws specifying "clearly and precisely who is allowed on school campuses and who is not".

Parents send their children to public schools in the anticipation that they will not be indoctrinated," Mr Kaye said.

"What these ministries are doing is seeking to rip off that legitimacy and authority and use it for their own purposes. We need a protocol that makes it clear that these kinds of things should not be happening."

A spokesman for the Department of Education said the events were not a cause for concern as they were not compulsory. He denied they breached departmental guidelines.

Neil Simpson, the principal of Batemans Bay High School, where Exo days have run for several years, agreed they were within guidelines. "It's 40 minutes at lunchtime … there's no hard-core message or evangelising," he said.

Mr Simpson said he was happy for students to be exposed to different cultural experiences, likening Exo days to the indigenous event NAIDOC.

However, a number of public school teachers said students had complained about evangelism.

A spokeswoman for the Federation of Parents and Citizens' Association said religious recruitment in schools was inappropriate. "We need to ensure that children when they go to school aren't exposed to discreet evangelism," she said.

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