Former Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston Seeks Funding for New Ministry, Citing “Desperate Needs”

Brian Houston, the former senior pastor of the international Hillsong Church, has asked for financial support to launch his new television ministry. In a filmed speech at the end of July at a church in Detroit, Houston, accompanied by his wife Bobbie, described the new ministry, Jesus Followers (Disciples of Jesus), and made the appeal.

Houston had announced in November 2023 that he would return this year with a new online ministry. He has already set up “connection groups” on Zoom and is now beginning a fundraising campaign for a television production studio. “We are building a new church and, to be frank, we are starting from nothing; we have desperate needs,” the 70-year-old Australian pastor said. He added that a studio would require television cameras, a production team, camera operators and others to work with the ministry. “This is a business of faith, and I believe that if people come together and give, they can help us make a difference,” he said. In the same speech, he said the ministry might not begin with large crowds: “if you are ten or twenty, that is what would be called being pioneers building a church, one person, one family at a time.”

Houston founded the Hillsong evangelical megachurch network in 1983. He resigned as global senior pastor in March 2022, after two women made allegations of misconduct against him. He has always denied those allegations. Before that, he had been prosecuted on charges of concealing sexual assaults committed by his father, Frank Houston. An Australian court found him not guilty of those charges in August 2023.

A Hillsong Church employee has also filed a complaint. It accuses the megachurch of diverting donations from believers and giving “large cash gifts” to Brian Houston, his family and other leaders. The complaint is an accusation and has not been reported as established. Handling of donated funds is a matter of direct accountability to the congregations that give, a principle reflected in Proverbs 11:1.

The network has shrunk considerably since the scandals involving its founding pastor. More than half of the American Hillsong churches have left the global family.

Discovery Plus has released the trailer for an upcoming documentary series about the global evangelical Hillsong Church. According to the announcement, the series covers sexual abuse, financial exploitation and homophobia, and includes what the announcement calls “poignant” testimonies.

Source: Read the original report (translated from French)