Worship Without Truth Is Just Noise

Scrolling through social media recently, an advert stopped me in my tracks. Two of the biggest names in contemporary Christian music, Matt Redman and Tim Hughes, are set to headline a major worship event in Dubai this September. On the surface, it looks glossy and familiar: well-known worship leaders, guitars in hand, leading thousands in song. Business as usual.

But for anyone who has lived through, been hurt by, or still bears scars from the Soul Survivor scandal, this is not business as usual. It is profoundly unsettling. It is, if we’re being brutally honest, a complete piss-take.

Because these are not just worship leaders. They are central figures in the Soul Survivor story - the very movement now irreparably tainted by the confirmed abuse, manipulation, and safeguarding failures of Mike Pilavachi and other senior team members.

Victims, Beneficiaries… and Complicity

Matt Redman was there at the very beginning of Soul Survivor, shaping its sound, brand, and global reach. His songs, written within that movement, spread across churches worldwide and helped cement Soul Survivor as a global phenomenon. Tim Hughes followed soon after. Both have openly acknowledging in interviews that they were impacted by Pilavachi’s behaviour, including coercion and inappropriate massages.

Reports suggest that both Tim and his brother Pete Hughes and Matt & Beth Redman at one point raised concerns about Pilavachi’s actions. But nothing changed. The events went on. The platform grew. The money flowed.

And here we are. Both men are now household names in the worship world. They’ve built careers, ministries, and financial stability on the back of a movement that, for so many, meant trauma, manipulation, and deep betrayal.

This isn’t to say they weren’t victims, they were. But they were also insiders. Beneficiaries. They were part of the system that allowed Pilavachi’s abuses to continue unchecked. That truth is uncomfortable. But it is the truth.

Worship Without Honesty Is Just Noise

Which brings us to the question nobody seems to ask: how can you lead worship if you cannot lead with honesty?

Worship isn’t just about music. It’s about integrity, truth, and openness before God and community. And truth is not convenient. It’s not polished. It’s messy. It requires speaking up, not just about vague “painful experiences,” but about what really happened - who knew what, when, and why so much silence persisted for so long.

Yes, Matt Redman has fronted a documentary with his wife about his own painful experiences with Pilavachi. Yes, Tim Hughes has admitted that Mike’s behaviour left its mark. But neither has yet taken the opportunity to fully acknowledge their proximity to the abuse, or to use their vast platforms to amplify the voices of survivors who were left without a stage, without a microphone, without a song.

And if worship is being led without honesty - if they refuse to face the screams and cries of those who were broken by the very system that made them famous, then it is not worship at all. It is just noise

Back to Business as Usual?

The most galling part is this: can it really be business as usual for two people who were so closely involved with Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor? Pilavachi has vanished. The man who built the empire has slipped out of the country, his reputation destroyed and his voice still strangely absent. And yet those who stood beside him, who owe their careers to his stage, can now apparently return to the stage - as if nothing happened, as if the chapter can just be turned, as if the songs drown out the accountability.

I don’t think so. Survivors don’t think so. And God certainly doesn’t think so.

A Slap in the Face

For those of us who lived through Soul Survivor, and for the survivors whose stories still go unheard, seeing Redman and Hughes reunite on stage feels less like worship and more like performance. It feels like a calculated return to the machine. It feels, frankly, like a slap in the face.

It says: We can keep singing. We can keep earning. We can keep leading. And the silence? That can carry on too.

But silence is what enabled Pilavachi’s abuse to flourish. Silence is why so many survivors carry wounds that will never heal. Silence is the opposite of worship.

The Harder Song

Redman and Hughes were both victims, they too suffered under Pilavachi’s twisted authority. That is true. But victims who were also insiders, who gained careers, contacts, money, and global influence from the very system that enabled harm, cannot remain unchallenged.

Worship is not meant to be comfortable. Sometimes it demands the harder song: the song of truth-telling, accountability, and repentance. Of speaking openly about what happened, no matter how costly. Of laying down platforms rather than polishing them.

Until then, these glossy adverts for worship events will not look like an invitation to sing. They will look like a performance staged over the pain of others.

And that is not worship. That is denial with a backing track.