The “Seven Mountains Mandate” is language sometimes used in Pentecostal churches to suggest that Christians should actively seek influence in society. But sometimes true believers in a hard line version of the mandate think that God is calling them to take control of a city or a nation. And apparently there are hardliners on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
The Seven Mountains are family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government. The hardline “dominionist” edge of the movement is led by self proclaimed prophets who cite Isaiah 2:2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains.” These ideas were popularised in a 2013 book Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate by Dallas based “prophet” Lance Walnau and Bethel church’s Bill Johnson.
Sue Baynes is the ‘spiritual advisor to Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate. She clearly has been a spiritual gude for the Mayor Tate who she baptised in 2018. but more controversially she has been paid by the council in advising Tate.
In a interview with “Apostolic Reformation Australia” Baynes recounted her meeting with Tate prior to his election as mayor where he told her the story of becoming a Christian. She responded “If that is your heart is as a Christian to come into this position as mayor, I want to talk to you about something. And for the next hour, I outlined for him on a piece of A4 paper, the Seven Mountain Mandate, I drew it out and I said, this can be a template for how we can see our city transformed by the power of God to look like the kingdom of God. And his chin dropped, hit the desk and he said, I want this. I want you to help me to do this. So at the end of the meeting, he said to me, Sue, will you do something for me?
“And I thought, yeah, you’re a businessman. You want me to do something for you? You’re a political candidate. You want me to do something for you? And he said, ‘would you please pray and ask God am I meant to be the next mayor of the city?'”
In that interview Baynes set out her belief that she was called to “disciple” the Gold Coast: “We’ve started discipling our city. We’re starting to see how we can pastor our city as church leaders. And my role is to bring vision and direction to that process. And that’s my apostolic gift that God has given me to be able to step into that place and bring that apostolic.”
In another interview this year with Pastor David Vaka of Breakthough Church, pubicised by the Rationalist society along with the one quoted above, , Baynes recounted a moment she regards as spiritally powerful. “One of the declarations that I made, and I felt to do this in an apostolic way, David, as apostolic declaration over the city, one of them that I made was that we would no longer be called Sin City. And I recall at that moment that I felt the shift over the city and the response from the 4,000 plus people who were in that auditorium at the time at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, it was like this roar of the Spirit just came forth and it was like, yeah, we’re breaking the power of the name of Sin City over the Gold Coast. We are not receiving that name.”
It’s true. Billboards with the name “sin city” on them have been removed – and the night club they advertised has now closed.
For Baynes this is an example of a spritual gift she says God has given her. “if the apostles and prophets don’t stand up in these other spheres of influence, then who else is going to be the leader there and what voices are going to come through that are not godly and not righteous and not holy and don’t bring kingdom principles? There’s never going to be a vacuum. The vacuum will always be filled with some voice. And if it’s not the voice of an apostle or a prophet or someone who carries a mantle of authority because of the gift that God has given them, then it’s just going to make way for voices from the enemy to come forward.”
Baynes believes that God has plans for the Gold Coast telling Vaka, “I believe that God has earmarked the Gold Coast to be a city of refuge, a sanctuary city, a place where people can be safe, safe in lots of ways, not just physical safety, but their religious beliefs that we are protected. Families can grow and be nurtured, and we don’t live in the place of lack where we find people, people on our streets and suffering from terrible addictions, et cetera, a sheep city, a city that is a place of hope and a light to many others. That’s what we are going for. A city that’s transformed by the power of God to look like heaven on earth.”
For a short period, Scott Morrison was the pin-up boy for the seven mountains movement. the failure of donald trump to be re-elected in 2020 caused angst for the movement as many ‘prophets’ had proclaimed a victory. Seven Mountains is a movement that sees Christian polititians success as god-ordained,, but may struggle with their inevitable failure – it was the UK Conservative Enoch Powell and erstwhile professor of Greek at Sydney University who said “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.”
In Australia, many Christians who use Seven Mountains terminology, given widespread pragmatism are not intent on seizing power, but wish to have more influence. It is quite possible Baynes is simply using grandiose words to describe her relationship with the Gold Coast mayor. It could simply be someone exxagerating their importance. But it does give rise to the possibility some Christians are seeking to have an outsize influence on politics beyond their numbers. It is easier to make that case about the US and other parts of the world – a thesis Australian author Elle Hardy pursues in her Beyond Belief, How Pentecostal Christianity is taking over the World
In general, the larger Pentecostal churches in Austraia have exercised pragmatic responses to the various waves of theological enthusiams from the United States. Hillsong might be the archetype – the New Apostolic Reformation, or Latter Day Rain Movement that gave the freedom to staid Pentecostal churches to adopt contemporary music can be said to have unlocked Hillsong as a musical force. But Brian Houston – as far as The Other Cheek is aware never claimed to be an apostle or imposed the extreme authoritarian “covering” on Hillsong members that sometimes goes with claims of apostolicity. That’s not to say that he was without power as a church leader, but that Hillsong resisted the extreme edges and squalls brought on by the latter rain.
Image Credit: Даниил Хогоев from PxHere