The lead pastor at a prominent megachurch has resigned from his post amid claims of inappropriate relationships.
Brian Houston, the global senior pastor at Hillsong Church in Australia, has resigned from his post, according to a statement released by the church’s board. He has not addressed the veracity of the claims against him.
“We would like to advise you that Pastor Brian Houston has resigned as Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church, and the board has accepted his resignation,” the board said in a Wednesday statement.
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“We understand there will be much emotion at this news, and we all share these feelings,” the board noted. “Irrespective of the circumstances around this, we can all agree that Brian and Bobbie have served God faithfully over many decades and that their ministry has resulted in millions of people across the world being impacted by the power, grace, and love of Jesus Christ.”
Multiple statements were released to the Australian press last week regarding alleged sexual misconduct by Houston. While the allegations were not referenced in the resignation statement, the board did acknowledge the accusations last week, stating that it was “dealing with two complaints made against Pastor Brian over the last ten years.”
Houston sent inappropriate texts to a staff member, resulting in the staff member resigning in 2012, one complaint alleged. The former senior pastor did this while “under the influence of sleeping tablets, upon which he had developed a dependence,” according to the board.
The other complaint claimed Houston knocked on a hotel room door that was not his during the 2019 Hillsong Conference and “[spent] time with the female occupant,” an incident that occurred while the older pastor was under the influence of alcohol mixed with anti-anxiety medicine, the board said. However, the board did not provide details about what may have happened behind closed doors, with Hillsong’s interim Senior Global Pastor Phil Dooley telling hundreds of attendees, “The truth is we don’t know what happened next,” according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
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“The woman has not said there was any sexual activity,” Dooley reportedly added. “Brian has said there was no sexual activity, but he was in the room for 40 minutes.”
The Hillsong board said it took appropriate actions at the time, including an investigation by the “integrity unit” after the 2019 incident that determined that Houston had “breached the Hillsong Pastor’s Code of Conduct.”
Following this discovery, Houston “agreed to take specific action including stepping down from leadership for a period. However, unfortunately he failed to take all of the agreed steps, which resulted in further action being taken by the board in late 2021. Pastor Brian remains on a period of leave,” the board added.
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Houston temporarily stepped down from his role as global pastor in January, which he said was part of preparation for a trial. An Australian court charged Houston with covering up the sexual abuse of a young male by his father in August 2021. Houston pleaded not guilty to the cover-up allegations in October 2021 and faces a trial later this year.
Houston is the founding pastor of Hillsong, which says it had 150,000 regular church attendees across 30 countries as of February. Hillsong has faced significant scrutiny for its handling of sexual misconduct in recent years. Hillsong New York Pastor Carl Lentz was fired in 2020 after the church learned that he was engaged in “more than one extramarital affair.” The church was also accused in 2021 of ignoring allegations of sexual assault by its congregants.
