Disgraced Hillsong founder Brian Houston and his wife, Bobbie, are asking for money for an online church venture. The longtime pastor says they’ve “got desperate needs” for a TV studio, while glossing over recent scandals and a government probe into past church spending.
“This is actually a dream I’ve had for some time,” said Brian Houston in the launch video for Jesus Followers TV, which premiered on July 28. The website describes the ministry as an “online platform and church . . . a trustworthy voice of hope and inspiration in the days ahead.”
Two years ago, Brian and Bobbie Houston resigned as global senior pastors of Hillsong Church based in Sydney, Australia, after an internal investigation revealed Brian had acted inappropriately toward two women. Hillsong’s board of directors stated that Houston had spent time alone in a hotel room with a woman, not his wife, in 2019 after consuming anti-anxiety medication and alcohol.
In the video, Houston glossed over past controversies, saying, “When we finished our time at Hillsong a couple years ago, it was obviously the end of a big season.”
Houston called Jesus Followers TV “a new church, a new community—and it’s online and it’s global (with) people all around the world.” He closed with an offering call, saying, “This is going to be a faith ministry, and I’m really believing God will give us a big, powerful group of partners.”
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“Frankly, we’re starting with nothing and we’ve got desperate needs,” he added. “We’re believing God for a studio, and that comes with the need for not only television cameras but production crew . . . There’s television lights needed and LED screens and so many things.”
In late 2022, the Houstons reportedly sold their home in Sydney’s Hills District for $4.5 million along with two long-held luxurious apartments on Australia’s popular Bondi Beach.
Since then, Australian Member of Parliament Andrew Wilkie has launched an investigation into the Houstons’ alleged lavish spending during their years leading Hillsong. Wilkie noted frequent vacations and how the Houstons “treated private jets like Ubers, again all with church money.”
Despite the needs stated at launch, Jesus Followers TV has released sermon videos online for the past three Sundays. Viewership is a fraction of the Houstons’ once-global reach. Their YouTube channel has 740 subscribers, and a TikTok profile of video clips has 27 followers.
Hillsong, a Pentecostal powerhouse, reportedly still draws over 100,000 people to services in about 100 locations in 27 nations. However, some churches have disaffiliated from Hillsong and giving and attendance across the global church have declined in recent years.
Longtime Australian minister Stephen McAlpine, who lives in Sydney, told The Roys Report (TRR) that Christians are concerned about the Houstons’ rapid reemergence in public ministry.
“People do find it troubling, but not surprising,” he said. “In a subset of evangelicalism, returns to ministry occur without consideration around appropriate time out or reparations.”
McAlpine added that some “deeper questions” remain unanswered. “How do megachurches do accountability outside of their own, self-interested structures?” he asked. “There seems little time to pause and lament. And it doesn’t reflect a biblical approach to church discipline.”
‘I brought trouble to myself (and) my family.’
Revelations of Houston’s alleged sexual misconduct and subsequent resignation in 2022 from the global megachurch that he and his wife co-founded made headlines worldwide.
In the recent video message, Houston vaguely referred to “mistakes,” while expounding on a Scripture passage about how a man’s moral compromise brought harm to the Israelite nation.
“You know, I made mistakes,” preached Houston, “—not some of the mistakes that have been published, which are false narratives. But I did make mistakes. And not only did I bring trouble to myself, I brought trouble to my camp, to my family.”
Over the past two years, the longtime pastor has complained that he was “betrayed,” “lied about,” and “defrauded.” But the couple have also been building towards a ministry comeback.
Months after resigning from Hillsong, the Houstons led a worship service hosted at a theater just three miles from the Hillsong Church main campus. More recently, Brian Houston announced a memoir will be forthcoming, while also previewing the now-launched online church.
Yet other headlines involving Brian Houston have seemed to dampen their plans.
In April 2023, 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.
However. last August, an Australian court found Houston not guilty of concealing sex abuse by his father, Frank Houston, and not reporting it to the police. Sydney Court Magistrate Gareth Christofi ruled that Houston had a reasonable excuse for not reporting his father’s crimes.
In the recent sermon, Houston recast the events in spiritual terms.
“On that day, we conquered the lies and the opposition that had come against us,” he said of the ruling. “You are not just a conqueror. The Bible describes you as more than a conqueror.”
Online TV ministry or ‘family’?
In the video’s opening, Houston discussed branding as central to the church launch.
“What would we call it?” he asked. “Everyone’s got these cool names for their churches . . . our daughter and son-in-law just started a brand new church in Australia called Parable Church. I love it all!”
He added: “But I thought, if we ever started another church, I would just love to call it, Jesus Followers. Just building disciples of Jesus . . . so that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
McAlpine, who’s also a former journalist, said that he sees “brand protection as central” to the Houstons’ moves. “And by ‘brand’ I mean the corporation, not necessarily the good name of Jesus,” he said.
As to how the online church will foster discipleship, Houston has been light on specifics.
They are currently “building a volunteer base (and) already have had a Zoom call with volunteers,” he said, whom he added are based in Australia, the U.S., and other nations. Houston also briefly mentioned “leadership training online” and “building connect groups.”
TRR reached out to Jesus Followers TV for details but did not receive a response.
Social posts about the launch of Jesus Followers TV featured images of television cameras and production crew behind-the-scenes.
Brian Houston has been adamant that Jesus Followers TV is “not just going to be weekly online preaching,” he said. “No, we’re building a community, we’re building a family.”
McAlpine responded, “It’s hard, after running a corporate model for so long, to return to the language or even the philosophy of family. Using the word doesn’t make it so!”
Freelance journalist Josh Shepherd writes on faith, culture, and public policy for several media outlets. He and his family live in central Florida.
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20 Responses
Well, nobody is forced to give them anything. If they receive donations, it’s a free transaction.
You could say the same for crypto-currency scammers.
Australian readers, please give us in North America your opinions. Are these folks truly pastoral? Or shameless money grubbers addicted to fame? In the photographs shown above, their names and faces appear much larger than does the title of their new venture. This suggests that they’re more about promoting B&B than following Someone Greater. I’d be happy if these observations are proven to be incorrect.
I can’t speak for every Aussie, but for me as an Australian, I have never considered them authentic disciple makers or pastoral in any sense. The pastors here I looked up to were calling them out in the early 2000s. Honestly I don’t know what their heart-motives are but it sure doesn’t bode well that they’re asking for money again…and so soon…
Complete and utter money grabbing charlatans and a bloody disgrace to Australia. 🍺
Hillsong church is well known in North America, along with its own unbiblical scandal – just read about Carl Lenz the disgraced ex-pastor of Hillsong New York. You don’t need to be in Australia to read about the depth and global reach of Hillsong and the scandals that follow its founders and leaders.
Dear Cec
Opinion from Australia:
Yes to “shameless money grubbers addicted to fame” etc.
Much worse.
There is pure evil associated with Houston and Hillsong, dating back to Frank, Brian’s pedophile father who fled prosecution in New Zealand to re brand inAustralia. Sexual and physical abuse of small children, very dark happenings reported by children decades ago, literally under Hillsong’s original location. The mother of these now adult children has been persecuted by police and corrupt authorities for decades, who cover for each other’s secrets in freemasonry tradition. Many Christians in Australia are ignorant of these facts, and not open to the reality. Hillsong remains Australia’s iconic first megachurch.
These facts are reported in non mainstream media in a radio interview series called “Pedos DownUnder” . Interviewer Fiona Barnett was herself sexually abused as a girl by Anthony Kidman, father of Nicole. Her testimony got him convicted. Incidentally Nicole, like Brian, was in the know about her father.
These characters are satanic, not Christian.
Many such details reported in past stories here also: https://julieroys.com/tag/frank-houston/
While you are at it, please do some digging with Frank Houston and the “Manifest Sons of God” / Latter Rain heresies which later evolved/morphed into NAR, 7 Mountains theology, etc. Which conveniently ends up with people like Paul Cain, Mike Bickle, and others. In disease pathology, this would be going backwards to find patient Zero by tracing the all the steps of contact and transmission. And this a very appropriate analogy given its blight on the church.
Serious problems there..You cant sin and get away with it…They missed their lavish lifestyles….Now there out to get your money…Sad..
Stephen McAlpine is always a worthwhile voice to listen to. I have found.
“On that day, we conquered the lies and the opposition that had come against us,” he said of the ruling. “You are not just a conqueror. The Bible describes you as more than a conqueror.”
Being found not guilty because of some legal technicality a judge found convincing does not mean you are actually resolved of responsibility to report sexual abuse to authorities.
Going by the imagery, it seems to indicate who’s front and centre in their lives.
Some people learn from their mistakes and others do not. It looks like Huston has not and is ready to make more of them.
“We were two years in “The wilderness” and now everything is good again. The Church needs us back. We need to be relevant again. How could anyone thrive without us in their lives? You can trust us because what was stated about us were lies.”
Same playbook used by others. Sadly, there are enough people who will believe them.
Just go away. You misused what God gave you.
For the love of all that’s holy (literally), please do not give these people another red cent.
Nor any of the other churches that are dragging Jesus’ name through the mud.
Find a real church. Not a perfect church, but a real one.
Paul warned against such as this and so to did Jesus Christ. “Woe to you. How will you avoid hell?” Words spoken to all of those greedy fraudsters who “stand in Moses’ seat.” These two are old. I once saw a cell in hell devoted to those who are goats, not sheep. This is their soon coming destiny. All of the money and fame is useless there. The higher you go on this planet, the bigger the inevitable fall. The greatest in God’s Kingdom are those humble ones who serve all. It has always been this way and will always be.
I am willing to donate most of the money I have …… from my Monopoly board game that I have not used in a number of years.
“Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue.” ~ P. T. Barnum
They’re names are plastered everywhere. That’s concerning. This is narcissism at its finest.