Hillsong Church has now dropped to five campuses in America, following an announcement that Hillsong San Francisco is leaving the global Australia-based megachurch, leaders shared Sunday.
After being rocked by scandals for years, 11 of 16 of the church’s U.S. campuses have left the Hillsong Brand. Hillsong Church now has just five U.S. locations: Los Angeles and Orange County in California, along with New York City, New Jersey, and Boston, according to its website.
The latest departure reportedly stems from pastors Brenden and Jacqui Brown, who lead Hillsong San Francisco, desire to follow God’s vision.
The Browns had felt God calling them to a “fresh vision” for their church, said Sam Lopez, lead pastor at Hillsong California, during a service at his church this weekend. The separation had been under discussion for around two years and church leaders were simply waiting for the right time to do it.
Hillsong San Francisco will now be independently run and operated under the new name Heirs Church.
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Lopez insisted that nothing happened to cause this decision and that the Browns are leaving with Hillsong’s blessing.
“In my conversations with a couple of people in our church, I’m starting to realize that this isn’t very normal. . .The tone I keep getting is like, ‘So what happened?’ And let me tell you, nothing happened,” Lopez said.
“And then the response is usually like, ‘That’s too good to be true. What really happened.’ And I go, ‘That’s actually what happened,” he continued. “That’s genuinely the full truth. We’re just excited. And part of my job is not to keep and to hoard and to try to build a little empire. My job is to see especially our staff step into the call of God on their life.
He added that, “God has asked them to take a step of faith—we’re backing it 100%.”’
Hillsong Church Global Senior Pastor Phil Dooley joined Lopez in the announcement.
While Dooley acknowledged during the service that “we’ve faced some challenges as a church,” he focused on the “lasting impact” the San Francisco campus has made on the Hillsong brand.
“We believe the time is right for this,” Dooley said. “This is an exciting season for the Browns and for our church in San Francisco, and we want to say how much we love Brenden and Jacqui, and we value their dedication, their sacrifice, and their commitment to pastoring and leading the Hillsong San Francisco community.”
The Browns have been members at Hillsong for 24 years and in leadership for the last seven, he noted.
To the Browns and the San Francisco church, Dooley said, “We love you, and we are committed to remaining in close relationship with you as we embark on this faithful journey together.”
On Instagram, the Browns posted a statement about their excitement for this news.
“We’re stepping into a new season as a new church!” they wrote. “God has been faithful in every step of our journey, and we believe He’s leading us into something fresh and full of purpose. While our name is changing, our heart remains the same—to love people and connect them to Jesus.”
They thanked the global church family and leaders for their support and invited worshippers to return for “Vision Sunday” on Feb. 23 to “unpack the vision for what’s ahead!”
Hillsong’s History of Scandal
Since the pandemic, Hillsong’s global church has faced numerous high-profile scandals, The Roys Report (TRR) previously reported. In 2020, Hillsong New York City Lead Pastor Carl Lentz was fired due to “moral issues,” including being unfaithful to his wife.
Then in 2022, Brian and Bobbie Houston resigned as the global senior pastors of the church, TRR reported. An internal investigation revealed Brian had alleged sexual misconduct and acted inappropriately toward two women in 2019.
He later complained that he was “betrayed,” “lied about,” and “defrauded.”
Houston also made headlines in 2023 when an Australian court found Houston not guilty of concealing sex abuse by his father, Frank Houston, and not reporting it to the police, TRR previously reported.
That same year, Australian Member of Parliament Andrew Wilkie launched an investigation into the church’s spending. Wilkie told the Australian Parliament that the church had engaged in mass money laundering, tax evasion, and fraud, and used church money “to do the kind of shopping that would embarrass a Kardashian.”
Wilkie also alleged that Hillsong makes $80 million more annually than it reports. He also said that founder Brian Houston and other church leaders live luxuriously living large on the church’s money.
The Pentecostal powerhouse church still operates campuses in more than 30 countries, according to its website.
Liz Lykins is a correspondent covering religion news for The Roys Report, WORLD Magazine, and other publications.
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6 Responses
In a documentary about Hillsong, Brenden Brown was being interviewed. When the non-Christian interviewer asked him “What’s important about praying? What’s important about believing?”, Brown was silent for about 15 seconds. This was clearly a situation where Brown could explain the Gospel. He didn’t. He couldn’t.
Eventually after the silence, Brown said “There’s nothing wrong with not praying. There’s nothing wrong with not believing. Someone might be there saying they don’t believe in God. That’s cool. But God believes in you.”
Wow, had a great opportunity to share and that was the response? Brown needs to find God.
It could be argued that a reply like that was because he was more conscious of being in the market place where there are present and potential consumers-customers. Or, he was being mission minded. 🙄
It must be pointed out that though Hillsong originated in NZ & AUS. Its ideas and methodology were copied and based on US business and promotion practices that included “quality” services and presentations that obviously included music. In short, US capitalism and all that it entails.
Church growth principles morphed into best marketing strategies.
On that, it could also be argued that if many religious entrepreneurs had not “embraced” religion. Due to their personalities – ego and material drive – they would have simply sought other business interests and enterprises with many no doubt becoming successful as the world judges success.
The challenge today is to discern the difference between a christian church and that of business enterprise.
Think critically if you can’t think spiritually. 🤔
They are portraying this as an unusually amicable split and that nothing is wrong. I suspect that the brand is working against them so it’s time to get a new name.
Hillsong needs much, much more, spiritually than a name change.
nonsense.
God wouldn’t “call you to fresh vision” while all the scandal was going on but not public? Ends justifying the means I guess? Only when things get public and the money dries up does God step in and give you a new vision?
Those people asking incredulously, “No, what really happened?” – I hope they follow their guts right out the door.