Tag: brian houston

Categories
News

Breaking! Brian Houston Billed Church $150k for Three Day Luxury Vacation+ Other Crazy Expenses

In this Oct. 7, 2014, photo, founder of the Sydney-based global Hillsong Church Brian Houston leaves a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearings in Sydney, Australia. Houston has been charged with concealing child sex offenses, police said on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP)

A whistleblower provided Australian parliament member Andrew Wilke with a stash of financial records detailing the lives of luxury Hillsong leaders have been living. Wilke detailed some of the more astonishing expenses in open sessions, accusing the church of money laundering and tax evasion. He explains:

Last year a whistleblower provided me with financial records and board papers that show that Hillsong is breaking numerous laws in Australia and around the world relating to fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.

For example, this document shows how, in 2021, four members of the Houston family and their friends enjoyed a three-day luxury retreat in Cancun, Mexico, using $150,000 of church money. These other documents show former leader Brian Houston treating private jets like Ubers—again, all with church money. For example, in one three-month period, Brian Houston’s trips cost $55,000, $52,000, $30,000, $22,000 and $20,000.

Meanwhile, the new head of Hillsong, Phil Dooley, has told church followers he only flies economy, but these documents show him clocking up $58,000 in business-class flights for him and his daughter to Guatemala, $42,000 in business-class flights to Mexico and $32,000 in business-class flights from Cape Town to Sydney via the US.

Hillsong followers believe that the money they put in the poor box goes to the poor, but these documents show how that money is actually used to do the kind of shopping that would embarrass a Kardashian—for example, a $6,500 Cartier watch for Bobbie Houston, $2,500 in Louis Vuitton luggage, a $2,500 watch for Phil Dooley, two watches worth $15,000 for Joel and Julia A’Bell, shopping sprees for designer clothes at Saks Fifth Avenue and even $16,000 for custom skateboards.

Then there are the cash gifts—for instance, $15,000 for Darren Kitto’s 50th birthday, $36,000 for Gary Clarke’s 30th anniversary and $4,300 for his 60th birthday, plus up to $30,000 to board members, some of whom allegedly helped cover up the sexual abuse carried out by Frank Houston, Brian Houston’s father.

There are also the curious payments of $10,000 each to Paul de Jong and Chris Hodges, the external pastors who investigated allegations of Brian Houston’s 2019 sexual misconduct in a Sydney hotel room involving a female parishioner.

The documents also show church donations being used to pay more than a million dollars a year in royalties to Hillsong musicians like Joel Houston, who’s Brian Houston’s son.

Categories
News

$5K Couch? $800 Dress Shirt? $949 Blazer? Brian and Bobbie Houston Selling Off Luxury Clothes, Furniture

Months after disgraced former Hillsong leader Brian and Bobbie Houston sold their home for $4.5M dollars, they are now offloading some of their luxury items, with Bobie Houston explaining on Instagram:

We have gifted & donated things our entire lives, and will continue to do so – a good friend will help get some of these items to college students & local charity drop offs – but right now we are selling in order to move things properly and efficiently.

These are no garage sale or swap meet goods, but rather expensive, designer clothing and furniture, with Houston having dozens of jackets. Have a look at some of their wares.

Categories
News

Hillsong Founder Brian Houston’s Trial Concludes, Now Comes A SIX MONTH Wait

Former Hillsong Global senior pastor Brian Houston will have to wait months to find out if he’ll be found guilty on charges he concealed his father’s pedophilia, with the closing address in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court postponed until June 2023, to conclude a so-far three weeks trial.

During the trial, Houston acknowledges that he was guilty of not reporting his father’s molestation of a young boy as soon as he found out back in 1999, but maintains he did the “right thing” because the victim allegedly told him he didn’t want anyone knowing- a claim the victim denied in court- and that he was simply honoring his request.”

“What I was committed to was (the victim’s) wishes, not betraying him and his wishes…I believe we did the right thing, that I personally did the right thing.”

Houston, who was terminated earlier in the year from Hillsong after the revelation a series of inappropriate sexual relationships surfaced, including sending romantic texts to a woman not his wife, and spending 45 minutes in a hotel room doing unspecified things with a different woman while drunk and high on pills.

In a post on Instagram, Houston was optimistic about his prospects, saying he and his wife Bobbi were “building for the future.”

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, along with all the living creatures that inhabit this living planet. And then as a grand finale, his opus magnum, God created the human race. He created them in his image. But in time, in time the human race, which has the freedom to choose as God chooses, became a rebel race. But God is love. So he used his freedom to set in motion a plan designed to redeem and restore his image-bearers without removing his image.

God’s plan began with a man, Abraham, whose family would eventually become an entire nation…

Categories
News

Brian Houston’s Pedophile Father Given Generous Severance Package, According to Testimony

Despite admitting to being a pedophile who molested a young boy, Frank Houston, Brian Houston’s Father, was allowed to retire from the public eye without news of his molestations ever going public and was allowed to remain on the church’s payroll for almost a year afterward, collecting pay and benefits. 

Houston is on trial facing charges that he concealed his father’s sexual abuse by not reporting it when he learned about it, as required by law. Houston acknowledged his fault but claimed he kept silent at the request of the victim. If found guilty, he faces five years in prison. News AU reports:

Despite admitting to molesting a child, paedophile Frank Houston was still given a retirement package when he left the church, his son Brian Houston told the court.

Frank Houston was dismissed from the church and his credentials as a pastor removed in late 1999 after he made admissions about his rape of Mr. Sengstock.

However, the court was told Frank Houston remained on the church’s payroll until November 2000.

Brian Houston told the court his father was given the retirement package more than a year after he admitted to the offending.

The court heard the package was going to “financially look after” Frank and Hazel Houston.

“He had been fired from preaching, had his credentials taken, he’d been asked to leave Hillsong … this was an attempt to sign him off as an administrator,” Mr. Houston said.

Crown prosecutor Gareth Harrison suggested he was being allowed to “quietly retire” with no public announcement being made he was an “admitted paedophile”.

“What I’m suggesting to you is, what is clear from this meeting, Frank was being allowed to resign quietly,” Mr Harrison said.

and

Mr. Houston said his mother was “foremost in people’s thoughts” when it came to the financial package, as she had worked her whole life at the church and was not accused of any wrongdoing.

He said he couldn’t explain the motivation of the board, only that they wanted to look after his mother.

Mr. Harrison suggested it was an attempt to “conceal the true reason Frank was leaving”.

“I don’t believe there was any attempt to conceal Frank’s paedophilia,” Mr. Houston said.

“Frank had been gone from the church for almost 12 months.”

Categories
News

Brian Houston Claims Sex-Abuse Victim Begged Him Not to Report Father’s Abuse+ New Revelations

Former Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church, Brian Houston, testified in court Friday that his father’s abuse victim, Brian Sengstock, begged him not to report it to police or authorities, a wish he says he honored and a claim the victim vehemently rejects, after Sengstock’s mother made the abuse known.

Houston is on trial responding to charges that he concealed sexual abuse by his deceased father more than 30 years ago. He was made aware of the allegations in 1999, five years before his father passed, but did not go to the police and turn his father in. He has pled ‘not guilty’ and, if convicted, faces five years in prison.

Houston described the meeting where he confronted his father, saying it was “tense” and “awkward” and lasted around 45 minutes.

“He simply said ‘that did happen’…He told me it only happened once, he told me it involved fondling his genitals. He was, I think, a mix of embarrassed, humiliated, shamed, remorseful.”

As a result of the confession, Houston told his father that he would not be able to attend church at Hillsong anymore, then known as Sydney Christian Life Centre.

He asked why, and I told him we have a ‘one strike and you’re out, no tolerance policy’ towards pedophiles, and it can’t be any different for you than it is for anyone else.”

He reiterated several times that Sengstock did not want any of this reported, describing him as “paranoid” that he might be identified.

(Mr Sengstock) was very dogmatic that he didn’t want the police involved… He said ‘you are not to go to the police’. He said ‘if anyone’s going to go to the police, it’ll be me and I don’t want to do that’.

I told him that I had no option but to disclose it to the national executive of the Assemblies of God and then his demeanor changed. He got angry, sort of panicky. And he said ‘I don’t want to be part of some big church investigation’.

He said ‘I don’t want my name splashed all over the church, you know how gossipy they all are’….He said ‘if strangers from the church try to contact me I won’t talk to them, I’ll deny it, I’ll hang up’. He was just very blunt and clear he didn’t want to be having any conversation with any people from the church. He was very concerned about his anonymity.”

The trial continues Monday.

Categories
News

Frank Houston, Despite Being Defrocked, Kept Preaching Till He Died (Contradicting Son’s Testimony)

Brian Houston says his father never preached again after he took away his credentials. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)

Despite Hillsong’s Brian Houston stripping his father of his ministry credentials after discovering he molested at least one seven-year-old boy, the elder Frank Houston continued to preach and teach unabated, delivering sermons until his death, according to court testimony.

In 1999, Houston took away his dad’s preaching credentials. This was told to Assembly of God leaders, who met in secret and decided not to make the shocking confession public, providing in part that the pedophile pastor never preached again. In multiple interviews, Brian Houston testified to this fact that his father never preached again until he died in 2004.

This morning, the court heard that Frank Houston was still preaching at the Hunter Valley Christian Life Centre eight weeks before his death and would occasionally lead prayer over those attending the services. The church’s pastor Robert Cotton said he was unaware of the child sex abuse and that if he had known, he would have never let him preach in 2004, saying:

“There’s no way in the world I would have had him back in the church. I wouldn’t have had him near any of the kids in the church. I wouldn’t have had him around my son who was in the church.”

In audio from the 2004 sermon, Frank can be observed commenting on a child’s looks:

“This curly haired little man here … But what a fantastic young fellow he is, curly hair, sort of. Good looking. It’s not your fault you’re good looking. So thank God you are. Who wants to be ugly when you can be good looking.”

The trial continues.

Categories
News

Trial Watch: Meeting Where Brian Hillsong Revealed Dad’s Pedophilia Kept Secret, Minutes Kept Hidden

After Brian Houston’s dad, Frank, admitted to molesting a 7-year-old boy, Houston called a meeting between Assemblies of God leaders, who all agreed to keep the details a secret, the court was told.

Brian Houston is currently facing five years in prison for “concealing a serious indictable offense of another person” for not turning in his father to the police after the confession, instead keeping quiet about the matter until his father’s death five years later.

According to Keith Ainge, then the Assemblies of God secretary in 1999, denominational leaders met at Sydney Qantas Club in 199 after a frantic request from Houston, who was then the denomination’s National President. Ainge explained that after making the announcement, Houston recused himself but not before explaining that the victim, Brett Sengstock, did not want anyone to know what happened, and the matter kept quiet, a charge Sengstock has vehemently denied in court.

“(Brian’s) father had admitted that he had behaved inappropriately, and so he immediately suspended his credential, which was his prerogative as the national president.”

There was some talk about consulting a lawyer and telling the police, but ultimately the ydecided against it, believing that Houston had already spoken to a lawyer and believing Houston’s claim about Senstock’s request for silence.

AOG VP John Lewis requested that the meeting’s minutes be kept hidden, on account of the sensitive nature of the situation, and that they be kept in a secret file so that parishioners couldn’t just discover and read them. The rest of the participants agreed.

A day prior, Sengstock aunt, Barbar Taylor, told the court that after she confronted Brian Houston about what his dad had done, Houston told her not to put anything in writing and that if she wanted to discuss it, to only talk to him about it and only on the phone.

Categories
News

Brian Houston’s First Day in Court Goes Poorly as Sex Abuse Victim Denies Pastor’s Testimony

Hillsong’s former Global Senior Leader Brian Houston had his first day in court today, responding to charges that he concealed the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old boy by his deceased father more than 30 years ago- a case which investigators took two years to build.

He has pled ‘not guilty’ and if convicted, faces 5 years in prison.

In 2014, a Royal Commission confirmed that Brian Houston’s father, Pastor Frank Houston, was a pedophile who confessed to abusing a young boy, now revealed as Brett Sengstock, in 1969 and 1970. Brian Houston was made aware of the allegations in 1999, five years before his father passed, but did not go to the police and turn his father in.

Brian previously claimed that Sengstock told him he didn’t want anyone knowing, a claim the victim vehemently rejected in court. According to News 9:

On Monday, (Sengstock) described a phone call he made to Brian Houston after not receiving $10,000 from Frank Houston, which he felt pressured to accept and considered payment for his silence.

“(Brian) turned around and said to me ‘you know this is all your fault’. I didn’t say anything, and he said ‘you tempted my father’,” he told the court.

(Houston’s Lawyer) asked on Tuesday whether he recalled another phone conversation, where Houston had told him he was believed, Frank Houston had confessed, and his wishes for privacy and no further investigation from the police or the church would be honored.

“That’s not any conversation I recall with him at all,”(Sengstock) said.

Houston’s defence is relying on whether he had a reasonable excuse to not report his father’s abuse to police in the five years between him confessing it to his son and his death in 2004.

Houston’s lawyer has argued Houston was respecting the survivor’s wishes not to involve police.

Crown prosecutor Gareth Harrison on Monday told the court the witness had never told Houston he did not want the police involved.

Categories
News

Brian Houston Announces His Future is Bright: ‘At Least Another Decade of Productive Ministry’

A week after Brian Houston uploaded a Facebook video about his former church Hillsong, blaming them for his resignation and insisting he did nothing wrong, He and his wife Bobbie held an “Evening with Bobbie and Brian” where Houston confirmed they had plans for a another decade of public ministry. 

Taking place at the Pioneer Theatre in Castle Hill, the event featured worship, prayer and preaching by the duo. The event was originally only supposed to be one night, but they added several more shows due to overwhelming demand. Though the event was free, attendees were asked to reserve a seat which caused chaos after several “unhinged and childish people” took advantage by reserving seats with names such as ‘Carl Lentz’ and ‘Carl Lentz’s Mom,’ forcing organizers to put out an open invite to overcome these space limitations. 

His sermon was a reheated message that he’s been preaching up and down the United States since being axed for his indiscretions, speaking on the importance of having “purpose”, but his early comments were the most salient.

I had it in my heart to just have a meeting where we get the chance to connect with a lot of friends, a lot of people who we’ve done a lot of life with and, of course, some faces we don’t know so well as well, and it’s already been good for our souls.

He continues:

So anyway, we’re glad to see you all. Bobbi and I, we’ve just been really praying about the future. What next year, obviously, this is a big year. At the end of the year, I’ve gotten a bit to get through. And we know you’re praying for us and we feel that prayer, we feel that sense of people leaning in, and I believe God answers prayer. 

But after that, so 2023, that’s when we’ll really start to think about what the next part of our lives are going to look like. But I’m upbeat. I feel encouraged, believe it or not, and it’s been a hell of a year. 

You know, I’m pretty good at not looking back at and getting regret over so much lost. I mean, I’m pretty good at looking forward and getting excited about the next 10 years. So, again, just pray for us that we will really hear the voice of the Spirit. We’re going to have at least another decade, at least another decade of productive ministry, fruitful ministry, whatever that looks like, we’ve always just been about helping people, save people growing in the things of God. And that’s what we’ll continue to be doing.”

Though he is not expecting to announce his plans until 2023, there is no world in which Houston doesn’t reveal that he’s starting a new church, and he will likely have thousands of people attending on day one. 

His plans may get complicated, however, because Houston is scheduled to appear in court on December 2 after pleading “not guilty” to charges of concealing the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old boy by his deceased father more than 30 years ago- a case which investigators took two years to build.

If convicted, he faced five years in prison.

In 2014, a Royal Commission confirmed that Pastor Frank Houston, who had a sexual interest in the Lord’s little ones, confessed to abusing the young boy in 1969 and 1970. Brian Houston was made aware of the allegations in 1999, five years before his father passed, but did not go to the police and turn his father in.

Categories
News

Hillsong’s Brian Houston Slams Church Board For His Resignation, Denies Any Wrongdoing; “They Poured Ultimate Shame And Humiliation On Me”

Disgraced Hillsong Church’s former Global Senior Pastor has come out swinging at his former church Board in a Facebook video posted today, blaming them for his resignation and insisting he did nothing wrong.

Houston left the church he founded after being accused by the leadership of committing indiscretions with two women and having a drinking problem, including getting drunk and spending nearly an hour in a woman’s hotel room in 2019, and has not spoken up publicly about the incident other than in veiled references, until now.

He reveals that he’s disappointed the Board did not fight for him to remain on staff and weather the storm.

On March the 21st 2022, in unison with Bobby, I made the hardest decision of my life. And that was to offer my resignation to the Hillsong Church board after pioneering the church in 1983 and giving 39 years of service. I guess a big part of me hope that the Board, knowing the pressure I was under, would reject my offer and continue to fight for me, but that was not to be.

Houston denies resigning because of any mistakes he made but rather because after the Board threw him under the bus with their accusations, it poisoned the well too much to recover.

I want to be clear. The media and others incorrectly say I resigned because I breached the Hillsong code of conduct, but that’s just not true. I didn’t resign because of my mistakes. I resigned because of the announcements and statements that had been made, which Bobbie and I felt made my position untenable. And I spelled out my reasons for my resignation in my resignation letter to the Hillsong Church Board.

He’s super torqued about it as well.

In direct quotes from my resignation letter, I said, the Board statement to the church has made my position untenable. the Board gave enough detail to allow people’s imaginations to run wild and draw their own conclusions… there was enough detail to pour ultimate shame and humiliation on me, but enough ambiguity to lead people to make their own conclusions about what did or didn’t happen. Frankly, in many cases, those conclusions are wrong.

He concludes by giving more details about the Board’s claim that he abused alcohol and these women.

I spoke about alcohol has having not proven itself to be my friend. But sadly, that has built a narrative out there that I’m an alcoholic, and the stories about my alcoholism that are the result of gossip and whispering and innuendo.

The narrative that I’m an alcoholic is false. In fact, I’ve been told by an expert therapist that I do not display the behaviors that are typical of an alcoholic. My apology was about the specific incidents of which the Board are aware; incidents which were unbecoming for a minister of the gospel, and for which I’m deeply sorry.

And then prescription medication. It was in the early 2000s, with my constant global travel and the stress I was under, I became dependent on sleeping tablets, which I’ve spoken about openly many times, including in my book, Live, Love Lead. Let me be clear. The last time I took a single sleeping tablet was over 10 years ago. And even though I’ve continued to travel widely, I haven’t taken even one sleeping tablet for a decade. It’s not an ongoing problem.

And the notorious night in 2019 where I mixed a double dose of anti-anxiety tablets with alcohol was a one-off occasion. It happened once. It hadn’t happened before, and it hasn’t happened since. So I don’t have an ongoing problem with anti-anxiety tablets or any other prescription medication. And I respectfully ask you to please not label me that way or blindly accept that narrative.

Houston did not directly address the flirtatious text messaging he was caught having with a staffer, which has been previously described by interim Hillsong leader Phil Dooley who at the time explained: “It was along the line of, ‘If I was with you, I’d like to kiss and cuddle you,’ words of that nature.” 

Dooley said the staff felt upset and awkward by the encounter and reported the incident to Hillsong general manager George Aghajanian, and then quit her job. The woman was given several months’ salary as severance, with Dooley explaining, “Pastor Brian said, ‘I want to pay that personally because it was my fault,’ because it was a personal indiscretion.”