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Hillsong Global Senior Pastrix Preaches Passive-Aggressive Sermon Insulting Whole Church and Leadership

Hillsong’s acting Global Senior Pastrix Lucinda Dooley, who quite frankly is one of the worst ‘preachers’ we’ve ever heard, used the pulpit yesterday to take some potshots and criticize the leadership and direction of Hillsong church over the last few years, explaining that they’ve been dry and dead for around three and a half years, since early 2019 or so, (or around the time Houston spent the hour drunk in that woman’s room at the conference?)

Because she preaches about as well as a retarded monkey with a microphone taped to its hand, Dooley falsely claims that the words “dried out” actually mean ‘disgraced.’ You’re free to check out Strongs to see that this is not true at all, but she brings that in, as well as some assertions that this particular valley of dry bones would only conclude the skeletonization process after three and a half years, in order to fit her assertions.

She says that in the same way that the valley of dry bones was dead and disgraced for the last three and half years, so too has Hillsong been disgraced and dead. But now God is coming to bring life into them. Dooley proclaims:

Ezekiel Chapter 37. Israel in the story had wandered far from God. Israel had lost his way. Israel had given up its faith. That’s what was happening. So Israel had gone far from God and given up its faith. Israel had lost its way, and Israel had lost all hope.

And can you put yourself in that story? Sometimes we have lost our faith. We have wandered far from God, and we have lost hope. So we will find ourselves in this passage today.

“The Lord took hold of me, he carried me away. He led me among the bones that covered the floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground, and they were completely dried out.” Ezekial 37:1-2 NLT

They were scattered, and they were dried out. Do you know that word ‘dried out’? The word ‘dried out’ church, it actually means they were disgraced. They were disgraced.

Another meaning of the word ‘dried out’ is that they would have actually had to have been very, very dead. For bones to be dried out, they had to be dead for a minimum of three weeks. But more likely in this passage, it would have been three and a half years.

…And then it goes on and it’s really amazing. And it says Then he said, “Son of Man, these bones represent the people of Israel. Those bones represent Hillsong Church, they become old dry bones, but hope was gone. A nation has finished therefore I prophesied to them. And this is what the Sovereign Lord says, oh people I will only…

The video, by Hillsong Accountability, tacks on at the end the quote “…. know they tried to bury us but they didn’t realize that we were seeds.” – suggesting they don’t view themselves as very dry and dead things after all, but only when it’s convenient to make a point.

h/t to Hillsong Accountability.

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The Knives Come out for Bobbie Houston, as Brian laments ‘Our Beautiful Church is Losing its Soul’

Disgraced pastor Brian Houston has released and then deleted an Instagram post showing text messages that purportedly showed and were widely interpreted Hillsong firing wife and church co- founder Bobbie Houston, raging against their former home as she decries the cold and calloused way she has been let go.

Bobbie, who has been the co-global senior pastor of Hillsong for 39 years, led the women’s ministry and oversaw Hillsong’s annual women’s gathering, Colour Conference and the Colour Sisterhood, a “global movement of women united around a mandate to make the world a better place.”

After 39 years of exemplary service and extraordinary faithfulness and fruitfulness, this is the communication Bobbie received from the Hillsong Church board as she is made redundant (effective immediately) through no choice of her own.

This just 3 weeks after she hosted her 26th year of Colour Conferences. (A total of 118 conferences around the world.) She has relentlessly served God and served people as she stood side by side with me for four decades leading Hillsong Church, faithful in the good times and the tough times alike.

And we are supposed to act like this is all ok. It’s not! Our beautiful church is losing its soul.

Given that the church has already removed sermons and videos of Houston, it looks like they are cleaning house.

In an email sent to members, Hillsong’s senior leadership says that it’s not what they’ve been led to believe. Rather than firing her by text, they say they previously discussed her being let go, and the email and text were designed to support her in her termination, something Bobbie clearly did not feel was communicated. They explain:

Dear Church,

You may have heard news of Bobbie Houston departing from her role at Hillsong Church. We wish to provide you with some information that will help you better understand what has led to this.

As you are aware, on Monday 21st March 2022, Brian resigned from all roles and duties at Hillsong Church. This required the Board to initiate difficult and challenging conversations with Bobbie regarding the transition in her role as Co-Global Senior Pastor, given that Brian had resigned and was no longer working for Hillsong Church.

Bobbie has served God and Hillsong Church faithfully over several decades and we thank her and honour her for this. The impact of Colour Conference on women across the world will be felt forever and into eternity, and she is and always will be loved.

Board members from the Hillsong Global and Australian Boards met with Brian and Bobbie on Monday 28th March 2022 to begin discussions regarding separation of their key roles and responsibilities. This process has continued and there is more work still to be done. Our desire has been to treat them with grace, love and honour, and at this meeting, we acknowledged the importance of publicly recognising Bobbie’s dedicated service to our church and the cause of Christ globally. We then committed to work with her to communicate this to the church.

After this meeting, Brian emailed the Church – to apologise, take responsibility and thank the people of Hillsong Church. He also indicated a strong desire to continue in ministry with Bobbie in the years ahead.

Yesterday, a follow-up email was sent to Bobbie from a member of the Australian board outlining the redundancy plan which was part of our discussions at the prior meeting. Before the email was sent, the board member sent her a text message to offer the opportunity for a phone call after she received the email. The desire was to show genuine care and open the opportunity for further discussion. Brian responded by making his feelings public on social media. This has been interpreted and reported that the Hillsong board “made her role redundant by text”, which is not correct.

As we are in a season of transition within our church, this is always difficult and complex as well as being emotionally strenuous for all. We are mindful of the deep sense of loss and grief that will be experienced at this time, and the challenges in planning a way forward for our church.

This is a very heart-breaking situation for all of us at Hillsong Church who are so honoured to have ministered alongside Brian and Bobbie. We know that God has their future in His hands and at the same time, we are relying on God’s guidance as we plan a way forward for our church. We are saddened by Brian’s public response and hope that he and Bobbie will understand the heart behind the decisions that are being made. The goal was to work together with them and keep the church safe in the process, not to hurt anyone.

Our focus is on health in this season, and to allow our church the opportunity to enter a new season while acknowledging and honouring the past, and all that our church family has been built on.

Please continue to pray for Brian and Bobbie and also for our church. As always, our pastoral team is available to anyone who would like support.

Hillsong Church Global and Australian Boards.

The church is currently being led by the former lead pastors of Hillsong Africa, Phil and Lucinda Dooley, who were named Interim Global Senior Pastors in January.

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Former Hillsong Pastors Say Brian Houston Knew about Carl Lentz’s Misconduct Well before He Was Fired

(Christian Headlines) Former Hillsong Church pastors are claiming that the global megachurch network’s founder, Brian Houston, ignored their complaints about the immoral behavior of former Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz before his termination in late 2020.

Pastors Zhenya and Vera Kasevich, who previously led a Hillsong church in Kyiv, Ukraine, were recently featured in the new Discovery Plus docuseries, “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed.” While being interviewed, the pastors claimed they saw red flags with Hillsong as early as 2010.

“We were senior pastors of Hillsong Church in Kyiv for 17 years. We left Hillsong in 2014,” Zhenya explained. “New York started about 2010 [and] we saw some things even back then.”

Vera added that a source told her Lentz was seen behaving in an “unpastorly manner, including smoking and drinking,” The Christian Post reports. Vera allegedly tried to bring her concerns to Hillsong’s General Manager in Sydney, but she was ignored, and the couple was “shut down.”

“There were double standards in this situation, and it was like this with Carl for sure,” Vera said.

In 2017, two former Hillsong volunteers also brought complaints about sexual misconduct by Lentz to church leaders. However, the volunteers said their allegations were deemed false, and they were dismissed from their positions at the church.

Lentz, who oversaw Hillsong campuses across the East Coast, was fired in 2020 over leadership issues and moral failures. The former pastor later revealed…

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Editor’s Note. This article was written by Milton Quintanilla and published at Christian Headlines.

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Hillsong Atlanta Dissolves, ‘Story Church’ Will Take Its Place

Nine months after launching Hillsong Atlanta, the church is shutting down and dissolving, with lead pastor Sam Collier taking the reigns of a new church called ‘Story Church.‘ It is the third Hillsong church to shut down in the last week.

Collier made the announcement during Sunday’s service. Where it was initially believed that he would be starting his own church and drawing the congregation with him, leaving whoever wanted to remain at Hillsong Atlanta to eke out a living, instead that church is shutting down completely, with Collier renaming the church and launching it Easter Sunday, free from the baggage that the Hillsong name brings. He explained:

I hear the Spirit of the Lord saying, ‘This isn’t a step back.’ God is saying, ‘This is the birthing. This is the birthing of something new.’ I hear the Lord saying, ‘At this month, it’s exactly nine months.’ It’s exactly nine months. And what the Spirit of the Lord is saying in this moment is, ‘I’ve been preparing you.’ Hillsong has been the ground in which the seed was planted, because He does nothing on accident. And He used the incubation period to birth something new.

…Transitioning into Story Church, so many people have questioned, ‘Well, we hear what happened over here, but what’s going to make you different? What policies are you putting in place? We’re imperfect; somebody is going to make a mistake. But when somebody makes a mistake, what are we going to do to reassure members and congregants that they can trust us with their lives and their investment?”

Collier plans on bringing in ‘culture experts’ and other pastors to audit the congregation and his church in order to “really go deep on how we can guarantee that safety” and ensure that what happened with Houston and many other Hillsong churches doesn’t happen with them. Instead, they plan on focusing on racial reconciliation as a founding principle for the new-not-new church.

“Racial reconciliation is our number one reason for existing besides salvation. There are so many churches within Atlanta; Atlanta doesn’t need another church. But what we believe is that Atlanta needs a church that is focused on uniting our world.”

His bio on the new story church website says “Collier was previously in ministry at North Point Ministries, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Newbirth Church, Orange Leaders and most recently Hillsong Atlanta where he was the former Lead Pastor.”

These are not good things.

Collier has a wild theologcial past, including spending years as Youth Choir Director in a church where the Senior Pastor was the openly pro-choice, openly pro-LGBT, heresy-spewing, Planned-Parenthood-endorsed Democrat Senator, Dr. Raphael Warnock, and then several years at Bishop Eddie Long’s megachurch – a prosperity gospel heretic who preaches wretched blasphemies about name-it-and-claim-it, speaking realities into existence, little god theology, and multiple sex scandals. Later he joined up with Andy Stanley for several years until he was tapped by Hillsong head honcho Brian Houston to lead the new plant, even though Collier has no seminary training and a horrific Christian pedigree.

The core pillars of the new church are ‘Salvation, Multi-Culturalism, Spirit-Filled, Excellent in Presentation, Women Empowerment and Post-Christian’ and it’s tagline is “When your story connects to God’s story, it leads to A Greater Story“

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More Details on the Pastor Hillsong Promoted After He Was Caught in Adulterous Sex Scandal

Hillsong is a mess in part because they don’t view most sex scandals as particularly bothersome- a perspective shared by many within the pentecostal and charismatic movement who have historically demonstrated high levels of tolerance for sinful and scummy behavior. They’re bad, sure, but it’s nothing a bit of time off can’t cure. That is unless they no longer remain useful, which in that case, like Brian Houston, they get cast aside.

For the vast majority of evangelicalism, there is no such thing as ‘disqualified from the ministry’ on account of ‘no longer being biblically qualified and able to meet the strict standards the Lord has on elders and pastors’. Far from it. Rather there is an easily taken pathway to a life temporarily lost.

The ‘Evangelical Ministry Restoration and Reintegration Process’ is the system whereby disgraced pastors who get kicked out of their churches, usually for sexual sins and committing adultery, become reintegrated into Christendom and restored to their former glory, through a 10 step process seen here.

Case in point. In early January of 2021, Pastor Reed Bogard, who helped found Hillsong NYC and Hillsong LA and was up until this point the senior pastor at Hillsong Dallas, released a short, curt, prerecorded message during the January 3 service announcing that he and his “pastrix” wife Jess were resigning. Three months later, Hillsong shut down the campus and disbanded the church, never once mentioning that weeks before he resigned, Bogard was accused of rape by a staffer (we are withholding her name) that he had an adulterous affair with years earlier in 2013.

10 years ago, Reed Bogard engaged in an extra-marital affair (ie, clergy sexual abuse) when he was a pastor at Hillsong NYC. This is not surprising, as internal documents later revealed that he was out of control, spending like a drunken pirate, drinking heavily, smoking tons of weed, and bullying the staff, having developed a reputation as an aggressive person.

The affair only lasted about 4 months, at which time Bogard would incessantly ask for sex, even taking her to his apartment in the infamous “Hillsong Party Building” where most of the senior leaders of the New York church lived, which would have exposed her. Following this, the woman confessed to a board member in late 2014 that she’d engaged in an affair with Bogard. Hillsong higher-ups investigated the claims and concluded it to have been ‘consensual’ despite the power dynamics at work. Christian Post reports:

Ben Houston, Brian Houston’s son, who was leading Hillsong LA and serving as Bogard’s boss when the former junior staffer first revealed her sexual relationship with him to Hillsong senior leaders, told investigators that he had spoken with his father and members of the church’s global board about the relationship. Investigators reported that Bogard was “stood down publicly from the platform in Los Angeles for a period of either eight or twelve months,” noting that “stories differ.”

Houston told the investigators that “the nature and extent of such discipline were handed down by top leadership in Australia,” the report reads.

“Thereafter, Mr. Bogard was returned to full Pastoral duties, and was eventually awarded a promotion to Lead Pastor in the newly created Church location in Dallas, Texas,” the report adds.

“The board came up with a plan that Mr. Bogard would not be permitted to serve in leadership in any capacity for twelve months, he would not be on platform for 12 months and he would undergo counseling,” investigators said.

Despite the sexual encounter being established and known, it was never made public or told to the congregation. It was not disqualifying, but rather was a mere blip. It was hidden from everyone, and Bogard was promoted from church-planting pastor at Hillsong NYC to Senior Pastor at Hillsong Dallas in 2019, where he remained until he stepped down in 2021.

Senior leadership at Hillsong knew and did not care, and that is why it is an inevitability that more stories will come to light about similar behavior. They spent a decade covering them up, which means more will only come into the light.

Hillsong’s many scandals are far from over.

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Transcript from Hillsong’s March 18 Event, Announcing Houston’s Indiscretions:

Editor’s Note. Though Brian Houston has since resigned and is no longer a pastor at Hillsong after it was revealed that he’d had a couple of indiscretions ove the last decade, we wanted to memorialize the event by putting up the full transcript of that tumultuous and consequential meeting, for posterity’s sake. From Crickey, who posted it, with it further saved to the Wayback Machine, if it ever goes behind a paywall or disappears.

Pastor Phil Dooley, Hillsong’s interim global pastor:

“At the start of this year, there was an announcement made by Pastor Brian that he would be stepping aside for 12 months, for the reason of his own personal health and emotional well-being and because of the court case that he is going to be dealing with at the end of the year. And Lucinda and I were asked to step into this interim role. And the reason why he took that step is absolutely the truth. That is why he took that step.

Prior to that, there are two incidents involving Pastor Brian that, as a board, we have had to deal with. And those incidents, firstly, involved something that happened approximately 10 years ago. [There are] two complaints against Pastor Brian and these allegations were treated very seriously. And I believe real significant steps were taken to investigate and resolve them.

The first incident involved Pastor Brian text-messaging with a female member of staff, which ended in an inappropriate text message along the lines of “If I was with you, I’d like to give you a kiss and a cuddle, or a hug”, words of that nature. That particular staff member was obviously upset by that and felt awkward and I think responded to that. [She] went to George Aghajanian and decided that she would like to leave staff because of that. And so she did. Brian was very apologetic for that. And I think, Pastor Brian, it was dealt with by George Aghajanian and Nabi Saleh.

I personally was not aware of that, as was the majority of the global board, until the end of last year, 2021. That was the first incident. 

Along with that, this particular staff member came back because she couldn’t get work. Came back a few months later and said: “I’m really struggling to get a job. I feel it’s unfair that I had to leave my job the way I did, and I would like some compensation for that.” 

And so it was decided that she would be paid a couple of months’ salary for what…

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Editor’s note. This transcript was written by David Hardaker and published at Crickey. Titled changed by Protestia.

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Another Major Sex Scandal at Hillsong! Pastor Gets Promoted After Confessing Affair!

Last year, before Global Senior Pastor Brian Houston resigned from Hillsong he pulled the trigger and shut down Hillsong Dallas, scattering the congregants into the wind in the wake of a series of scandals that plagued the church.

In early January of 2021, Pastor Reed Bogard, who helped found Hillsong NYC and Hillsong LA and was up until this point the senior pastor at Hillsong Dallas, released a short, curt, prerecorded message during the January 3 service announcing that he and his “pastrix” wife Jess were resigning.
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It was later revealed that like Hillsong NY, they were using the church to fund their lavish lifestyles, including $1100 a night Air B&B’s and $800 meals. Houston closed the church two months later, telling the congregants in light of these allegations: “while some of you experienced the Bogard’s as dedicated pastors, many others have experienced leadership that failed to meet the commitments and standards of Hillsong Church.”

It wasn’t just all money and financials, apparently. According to David Hardaker of Crikey, who obtained 30-pages of internal Hillsong investigation documents by law firm Zukerman Gore Brandeis and Crossman, who were tasked with investigating this incident last year, Bogard engaged in an extra-marital affair (ie, clergy sexual abuse) back in 2013 when he was a pastor at Hillsong NYC.

A year later, the woman in question, who was a staffer at the church, confessed to a board member that she’d engaged in an affair with Bogard. Hillsong higher-ups investigated the claims, with the report noting that church leadership failed to conduct “any meaningful inquiry” at the time of the incident, with everyone assuming it must have been consensual, despite “a powerful church leader and a young, low-level staff person”.

Despite the sexual encounter being established and known, it was never made public or told to the congregation. It was not disqualifying. Instead, Bogard was promoted from church-planting pastor at Hillsong NYC to Senior Pastor at Hillsong Dallas.

In 2020, the woman came forward with new allegations that their first sexual encounter wasn’t consensual at all, but that Bogard raped her and that she told him “no”. This prompted Hillsong to hire the firm to investigate, who in turn divulge:

“No one at any time ever probed for more information, to try to discern how one of the most powerful men in the New York church could have found himself in a sexual relationship with a young, vulnerable junior staff member. And no one appears to have questioned whether meaningful consent was possible let alone present, given the obvious power dynamic.”

The investigators further mention that the relationship seemed devoid of intimacy and instead was about reinforcing the power imbalance he had over her. Bogard also used his power and position as pastor to force her to sign a confidentiality agreement and non-disparagement clause to ensure she would not reveal their relationship to anyone.

The firm concluded that ultimately it’s impossible to say whether or not that initial sexual encounter was rape, but that there was such a heightened sense of power dynamics that Bogard clearly took advantage of, and that Hillsong investigators failed to account for this, noting “The fact that no church leader appears to have even considered this issue is a cause for concern.”

Bogard says that while he has no memory of her saying “no” to him during that first sexual encounter, he claims he was very drunk and had lost some of his memory from that night. The attorney investigating Bogard concluded that he seemed “less than entirely reliable and forthcoming” during his interview.

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Breaking! Brian Houston Formally Ousted From Hillsong, Resigns!

Interim Global Senior Pastor Phil Dooley held an emergency all-staff meeting Wednesday afternoon to announce that Brian Houston, the founder and face of Hillsong has been officially resigned from Hillsong, a day after we broke the story that Brian Houston’s teaching and sermons have all been purged and scrubbed from the Hillsong’s website.

Hillsong was founded by Houston and wife Bobbie in 1983 and has grown to over 30 campuses and 150,000 members. Rocked by sex financial scandals in America over the last two years, with Carl Lentz in NYC and later shutting down Hillsong Dallas after it was revealed Pastors Reed and Jess Bogard were spending money like drunken pirates.

All throughout the turmoil, Houston appeared as the apologetic face, expressing his dismay at sadness at the way his organization let people down and promising to do better, being seen as a steady hand that could guide them through though this present crisis.

But then it was revealed that he was embroiled in his own sex scandals, with at least two instances that we we know about. One of these involved sending a staff member flirtatious messages about a decade ago. “It was along the line of, ‘If I was with you, I’d like to kiss and cuddle you,’ words of that nature.” The second one was more recent, and it involved a visibly intoxicated Houston spending almost an hour in a woman’s hotel room alone with her, after a Hillsong conference at Qudos Bank Arena in 2019, with Dooley explaining that Houston violated Hillsong Pastor’s Code of Conduct.

During the meeting with Hillsong pastors and members, Dooley revealed that Houston handed in his letter of resignation at 4:00am this morning, ending nearly 40 years as the face of the church. Dooley reiterated that “we honor them for what they have done” and told members:

“Irrespective of the circumstances around this we can all agree that Brian and Bobbie served God faithfully over many decades and that their ministry has resulted in millions of people across the world being impacted by the power and grace and love of Jesus Christ. We are extremely grateful for all that Brian and Bobbie have given to build His house.

…We acknowledge that change is needed. We have committed to an independent review of our governance structure and processes.”

Furthermore, a letter posted to their website reads:

This is a breaking story….

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WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Hillsong Has Purged Brian Houston’s Preaching from Hillsong Website

Four days ago, Hillsong interim Global Senior Pastor Phil Dooley announced that Brian Houston, founder and former Global Senior Pastor of the 150,000-member, prosperity preaching, heresy-weaving multisite church committed several “indiscretions” with two women. Dooley previously led the South African campus and took over leadership duties from Houston in January so the founder could focus on his upcoming court case where he’s been accused of concealing the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old boy by his deceased father more than 30 years ago.

One of these involved sending a staff member flirtatious messages about a decade ago. “It was along the line of, ‘If I was with you, I’d like to kiss and cuddle you,’ words of that nature.” The second one was more recent, and it involved a visibly intoxicated Houston spending almost an hour in a woman’s hotel room alone with her, after a Hillsong conference at Qudos Bank Arena in 2019, with Dooley explaining that Houston violated Hillsong Pastor’s Code of Conduct.

Prior to these revelations, it was thought that Houston would be stepping away until his trial was up and then would reclaim his role, having already resigned from 18 of 19 Hillsong-related boards in preparation. Now, however, the prevailing wisdom is that he was forced to do both by the board, who were grappling with the fallout from this new scandal, and after Houston refused to take steps in keeping with repentance.

In an exclusive, we can confirm that while Houston’s fate remains uncertain, it does look grim, after Hillsong pulled down nearly all Houston’s preaching and teaching from Hillsong Channel, completely purging the website of his videos.

  • March 21, 2022
  • October 27, 2021

All 10 seasons of Brian Houston’s preaching are gone, along with both seasons of his “Art of Leadership.” Despite Houston being gone, other Hillsong pastors and personalities are featured. It is not just his channels, however. The current site also features 10 years of “Best of Hillsong Conference,” all of which have purged Houston’s videos from them.

Below are 2019, 2018, and 2017 conferences, with Houston’s preaching nowhere to be seen. The rest of them, dating back to 2010, have likewise followed suit.

  • March 21, 2022
  • April 17, 2021
  • March 21, 2022
  • October 27, 2021
  • March 21, 2022
  • April 12, 2021

While no announcement has been forthcoming, this by itself is a bold move for Hillsong, which has been embroiled in scandals for years, on account of their wretched theology and the way it has manifested. A few of the highlights include:

Hillsong Christmas Features Shirtless Men Drumming to Worship Songs
Lavish Lifestyles of Former Hillsong Pastors Revealed
Brian Houston Shuts Down Hillsong Dallas Church Amid Controversy
Sex Offender Denied Bid to Work at Hillsong, Despite Endorsements from Members
Hillsong Church Does Satanic Buddhist Dance During Christmas Service
Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz Engaged in 5-Month Long Affair with Muslim NYC Designer
Video: Hillsong Pastor Says he has the ‘Hillsong Starter Pack’: Fedora, Leather, Boots, Skinny Jeans, and Hot Wife
New Hillsong Church Professionally Partners/Consults with Facebook to Build Better Church + Pastor Signs NDA over Details

During their Sunday service, the first since the revelations came out, Dooley told the congregants:

“Let me remind you. Our church, as I said, is built on Jesus, not just on any one person. Beyond a board, beyond an eldership, we need these elements, they matter and we want to make sure they are done well. But our hope and our trust is in Jesus. We are guided by the word of God and the Holy Spirit of God, and we will continue to ask God for wisdom and guidance and strength in this season.”

We have reached out to Hillsong for comment but have not heard back from them at the time of publication.

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Hillsong Updates on Brian Houston. Is He Getting Fired over the ‘Indiscretions’…..?

The Hillsong leadership board has released a more in-depth statement to the public on former Global Senior Pastor Brian Houston, after they shared with over 800 leaders on a private zoom call that he was accused of two breaches of code of conduct involving two women, one a decade ago, one in 2019.

They explain:

As you are aware, Pastor Brian recently stepped aside from his ministry duties. When he stepped down in January this year, the reasons he gave were genuine. The situation with his father over many years had taken a personal toll that was greater than he had realized, and he needed to focus on his upcoming legal issues.

At the time of his announcement, the Hillsong Church board did not make a public statement because we were still working through a number of issues privately with Pastor Brian. 

These private issues come in the form of some bad behavior towards two women:

The first issue was approximately a decade ago and involved inappropriate text messages from Pastor Brian to a member of staff, which subsequently resulted in the staff member resigning. At the time, Pastor Brian was under the influence of sleeping tablets, upon which he had developed a dependence. He immediately apologized to the person. We also worked closely with Pastor Brian to ensure he received professional help to eliminate his dependency on this medication, and this was achieved successfully.

and the main one:

The second issue involved a complaint received in 2019. Following an in-depth investigation, it was found that Pastor Brian became disoriented after a session at the Hillsong Conference, following the consumption of anti-anxiety medication beyond the prescribed dose, mixed with alcohol. This resulted in him knocking on the door of a hotel room that was not his, entering this room and spending time with the female occupant.

The investigation by the integrity unit appointed by the global board found that although all parts of the complaint were unable to be sustained, important elements of the complaint were sustained and the conduct was of serious concern. Ultimately, the board found that Brian had breached the Hillsong Pastor’s Code of Conduct.

Both Houston and the woman in question denied that sexual activity took placed. At this point, Hillsong saying what it is. However, even if the whole thing with his father wasn’t going down, what he did in

Following that investigation, Pastor Brian 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.

Here is where the timeline gets fuzzy for us.

He took a bunch of pills and booze and went into the hotel room in 2019. An investigation of indeterminable length occurred, and then Houston said he would step down from leadership, which never happened. He also did not take other steps. And so the rest of 2019 passed, then all of 2020, and then all of 2021, and then only stepped down a month ago. They do not say what further actions were taken by the board in 2021, with our guess would be forcing Brian Houston to steps down from 18 of 19 Hillsong Entities he oversaw. At the time this was framed as his decision, in order to concentrate on his court case, but perhaps this was instigated by the board, who has done a wretched job of holding him accountable for the actions of 2019, if it’s taken then years to actually do something about it.

For Houston, so far he has not been terminated, but will likely will remain on a leave of absence to deal with his court case, where it is all but certain, supposing he is not imprisoned for concealing his father’s sexual abuse of a minor, that he will retake the helm once more.