The daughter and son-in-law of disgraced Hillsong founder, Brian Houston, are planting a new church—and Houston says he “couldn’t be more excited.”
The couple, Laura and Pete Toganivalu, announced on Instagram that they’re holding an interest party for the new church next Wednesday.
The Toganivalus, who resigned as global pastors of Hillsong’s youth ministry in May, first announced plans for the new church last month in a video announcement on Instagram. Then on Sept. 21, they shared an invitation encouraging their followers to attend an interest party for the plant.
“Nothin’ fancy, we’d just love to meet you, enjoy a chat and share some small bites provided by the lovely people at The Vicar,” the couple said. “We’ll share some of our hearts for building community and discipleship, pray together for the days ahead and hopefully have a little laugh here and there.”
Houston, who resigned as global senior pastor of Hillsong Church in 2022, commented on the video, “I’M IN. SEE YOU THERE!!”
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Then Houston shared the Toganivalus’ interest party invitation to his own Instagram account.
“A new church and a new day for all of Sydney and for the Northwest,” Houston wrote on his post. “We couldn’t be more excited for @petertoggs [and] @lauratoggs. I hope you are able to join their upcoming special interest night.”
At the end of his post, Houston cited Isaiah 42:9: “Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
In May, when the Toganivalus announced their resignation to Hillsong, Laura Toganivalu said she and her husband were “moving into a new season that we never imagined.” She added, “All 36 years of my life have been spent in this house . . . The people of our church have inspired me every day of my life.”
Houston’s own resignation from the megachurch stemmed from alleged sexual misconduct, TRR previously reported. In March 2022, he formally resigned after an internal investigation revealed he acted inappropriately toward two women. Houston allegedly spent time alone in a hotel room with a woman, not his wife, in 2019 after consuming anti-anxiety medication and alcohol, the board of directors of Hillsong said.
He has since complained that he was “betrayed,” “lied about,” and “defrauded.”
Then in April of this year, Houston pleaded guilty to charges in California of driving under the influence of alcohol after a prior arrest on Feb. 26, 2022, which was less than a month before his resignation from Hillsong.
Houston made headlines this fall when an Australian court found Houston not guilty of concealing sex abuse by his father, Frank Houston, and not reporting it to the police in August, TRR previously reported.
However, Sydney Court Magistrate Gareth Christofi ruled that Houston had a reasonable excuse for not reporting his father’s crimes.
Houston, who co-founded Hillsong Church with his wife, Bobbie, in the suburbs of Sydney in 1983, is now focused on traveling and speaking at churches around the world.
Freelance journalist Liz Lykins writes for WORLD Magazine, Christianity Today, Ministry Watch, and other publications.
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8 Responses
Interesting. You refer to him as ‘disgraced’, which he is not how he would refer to himself. He would refer to himself as ‘innocent’, ‘persecuted’, ‘wrongly judged’ or ‘exonerated’ Yet, you recently referred to someone as a ‘gay pastor’ – which is an oxymoron and a misrepresentation of biblical leadership – because that’s how he refers to himself. Your approach is very inconsistent here.
If the purpose of this publication is to stand for truth then do that. Don’t indulge in sinful ideology on one issue, and then take a punitive stance in another. Kind of undermines the purpose and ethos of the publication.
An independent study found that the allegations that Brian Houston acted inappropriately toward two women were credible. For that, Houston resigned from Hillsong. That’s why the term “disgraced” applies to Houston, even though a judge found that he had a reasonable excuse for not reporting his father’s sexual abuse of minors. I also think many would question whether there’s ever a reasonable excuse for not reporting a known pedophile.
So if it is a violation of criminal law, you take the conclusion of others. But if it is a violation of moral or church law, you default to the self-referential label.
The main concern should be Brian Huston trying to weasel his way back into ministry via this new church.
Jacqueline and Joe-I respectfully encourage both of you to look up the definition of journalist.
Not sure what use that is but if you are inferring they are objective, there is no such thing. At least admit it.
Sometimes there is no winning in reporting. I’m a huge fan Julie. I feel your reporting is truthful at restoring the church and we desperately need to be informed.. We need more reporting, the kind that your team and the team at Ministry Watch. I’m so thankful for your work. Please keep shining a light.
There’s an MDiv thesis out there for somebody that does the leg work on researching the number of pastors who have children going into ‘ministry’ and correlating that to size of the church. My hunch is that you would see more of that happening in mega-church-corps (a different study could look at parachurch or NFPs) vs smaller churches or bivocational.