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Brian Houston Stepping Down as Hillsong Head Honcho

In a stunning move, Hillsong Church Global Senior Pastor Brian Houston and his wife Bobbie announced Sunday morning that they are transitioning away from their leadership role within the organization, in order to make way for a new vision going forward.

The multinational megachurch has 150,000 members spread across 123 churches in 24 different countries.

Speaking during the church’s annual Vision Sunday service, Houston explained that with the church growing and expanding so rapidly, it was “virtually impossible” and “unsustainable” for them to manage alone and to do all that they are doing. Consequently, they want to bring in younger leaders to lead chart a new path forward.

I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching and praying and thinking about the future and the way ahead, what life looks like for a church moving forward. For Bobbie and I, moving forward and I guess globally, we’ve grown so rapidly and it’s been really a time when what has become clear is we need to put a whole lot more structure into what we’re doing globally.

It’s really at a point where it’s virtually impossible, unsustainable for us to be able to lead everything that we’re leading right now, and so I want to look at ways that we can share that load and over these next couple of years heading up to that church being 40 here. I would like to really put in place younger leaders. Younger leaders here in Australia and younger leaders around the globe.

While they insist they’re not retiring, the Houstons, who are approaching their 70s, say they will be shifting their day to day involvement for a “new season.”

As such, they’re bringing in the lead pastors of Hillsong Church London, Gary and Cathy Clarke, to take over the global management of the church over the next two years, just in time for the Church’s 40th anniversary. Houston credits the Clarkes for their role in expanding Hillsong all across Europe, where they’ve been pastors for 21 years.

Houston also touched upon how the Hillsong churches in the US have been “hit hard” by a series of scandals. As a result, they introduced the new lead pastors who would be taking over from disgraced former pastor Carl Lentz. Chrishan and Danielle Jeyaratnam, currently pastors at the Hillsong campus in Perth, Australia, were announced as the new leaders and would be moving to New York with their 4 young kids to take over the job.

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Hillsong’s Bobbie Houston Apologizes for ‘R*****’ Slur During Spicy Sex Talk

Bobbie Houston, wife of Hillsong Global Senior Pastor Brian Houston, has apologized for dropping the r-bomb during a teaching session nearly 20 years ago.

Houston made the comments during a recently unearthed teaching segment from a 2003 series called Kingdom Women Love Sex, where she gave women advice to having a better and active sex life. Her candid descriptions of the effects of weight gain in the marital bed irked critics, however, who accused her of using one particular word as a slur and pejorative.

If I carry weight I feel like a retard, how are you going to do anything to surprise your man when you need a hydraulic crane just to turn over in bed?

Curiously, she also recommends getting plastic surgery in the nether regions to enhance the sex – surely more offensive than dropping a rude word.

Have plastic surgery if it makes you feel better and it is for the right reasons, and girls, pelvic floor exercise – can you believe I am saying this? You know, I have heard that orgasm is not as strong if you are really sloppy in that area…

Back pain. Plumbing bits. OK, get them fixed, get healed, or go to a doctor, I’m not joking.

Now, in a statement released on the embattled church’s website, Houston offered an unreserved apology, made no excuse, and vowed never to do it again.

A recently published media article included comments that I made almost 20 years ago while I was teaching on the subject of healthy marriage, intimacy and family.  

In that teaching I used certain words and examples that were unwise and offensive, and especially so in a world where appropriate and sensitive language is of absolute critical importance.  I unreservedly and humbly apologised then for any hurt incurred, and I do so again.  

For over two decades, I have sought to champion the value and rights of women, but that was not reflected in my comments.  We live in a world where words carry enormous weight and consequence, and rightfully so. Life brings with it many lessons and moments of deep regret. I hope and pray that those affected will find it in their hearts to forgive me.

Bobbie Houston

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Hillsong Church Announces Investigation into Allegations of Spending Like Drunken Sailors

Hillsong Global Senior Pastor Brian Houston sent a letter to members on Monday promising to look into and investigate claims that pastors at Hillsong Churches in America were engaged in gross financial impropriety with no fiscal oversight.

We reported last week that pastors and leaders were given PEX cards with tens of thousands of dollars on them to spend on their leisure, with no reconciliation accounting needing to be done for how the money was spent.

Purchases include $1100 per night AirBnB, renting $6000/month apartments, unlocked iPhones, ATV’s, weekly manicures, spending $600-700 on single meals, buying wine and booze that costs hundreds of dollars per bottle, and buying designer clothing and gifts for celebrities visiting the church.

Houston says:

I am writing to you today because of several stories circulating online alleging a serious abuse of trust — the misuse of church funds by Hillsong Church employees…

We are particularly grieved that, in many cases, inaccurate accounts in these stories have been reported as if they are true. Hillsong Church strongly refutes that our culture casually allows for such gross misuse of church funds. In fact, these stories are especially troubling since Hillsong has a record of excellence in financial accountability globally and an unwavering commitment to financial integrity…

The church, which brought in nearly $100 million in revenue in 2019, continues the letter by claiming that staff members are paid modest salaries and that “personal expenditures are not permitted to be charged to church credit cards. If this occurs, it is addressed and the church is reimbursed for such expenditure in a timely manner.”

Of course, it wouldn’t take much to say that a $300 or $400 meal of sushi was not a personal expense, but rather a church expense made to “promote outreach” or an “evangelism expense.”

By all accounts, the Hillsong organization is not using an outside source or auditing firm but will handle the investigation in-house.

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Hillsong Church Hit With $20,000,000 Lawsuit for ‘Immoral Acts’ +Damages

Hillsong Church is gearing up to meet their financial maker, becoming the defendants in a series of lawsuits over breaches of contract and damages, according to a series of recently filed suits against the scandal-ridden Australian megachurch.

On this side of the pond, Hillsong’s Connecticut plant is being sued by The Wall Street Theater Company. Hillsong rented the theater from them for their weekly Sunday church service at a cost of nearly $6000 a month. They signed a fresh lease a few months before the pandemic hit, and then when the world went sideways, sought to take advantage of the agreement’s 120-day termination clause.

The theater agreed, but the clause to exit the lease was $100,899.25, which Hillsong refused to pay. Connecticut doesn’t have a pandemic-related moratorium on commercial rent payment that many states do, and so Hillsong would be liable for it. The suit alleges that Hillsong acted in an “immoral way” and also stole electronic equipment from them.


Hillsong Connecticut made the news a few months ago when their lead pastors Blaze Robertson and wife Desiree Noel Robertson jumped ship and slinked away to a new church, with no formal document being made to the congregation.

Meanwhile, back in Australia, owners of a 300-apartment complex are suing the Church for shoddy construction work done when building their homes, alleging that the apartments which were purchased for up to a million dollars are structurally unsound, making them near impossible to sell in the future.

Lest you wonder what that has to do with Hillsong, the apartments were built by Sydney Christian Life Centre, who is the developer and part of Hillsong’s property arm. (Think of Hillsong as a multinational corporation. They have their hand in many cookie jars.)

A 2019 report deemed that the windows and balconies to the units were structurally unsound, but the Sydney Christian Life Centre (aka Hillsong) are saying that the real culprit is Icon Construction Australia, who they subcontracted to do the work, and who they filed a lawsuit against, deeming them to be the real culprits.






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Lavish Lifestyles of Former Hillsong Pastors Revealed

Pastors at Hillsong Church were living lavish lifestyles for years, spending money like drunken sailors at the expense of member’s tithes, according to a new report in the NY Post that spoke with former pastors and members.

They describe how Hillsong NY, the former home of the disgraced woke pastor Carl Lentz, did not expect their leaders to act modestly or use the tithing wisely.

“Pastors splurged on fancy restaurant meals, designer clothes and weekly manicures while living in the same Kent Avenue Williamsburg high-rise (whose apartments rent on average of nearly $6,0000 a month) and zipping around the neighborhood on ATVs .”

Former Hillsong LA service pastor Nicole Herman recounts how they all used PEX cards (prepaid expense cards) which were loaded up at the end of services after all the tithes were collected.

These cards would be used on pretty much whatever they wanted and did not have to be reconciled, explained or justified at the end of the month.

The post reports that “Of the $12.7 million that Hillsong East Coast made in 2019, 88% of it came from “tithes & offerings.” Over 66% of that revenue went to a combination of staff salaries, benefits and expenses ($3.8 million) and operating expenses including venue rentals, staffing, and production costs ($4.9 million).”

One congregant who nannied for many of the pastors,Jenna Babitt, described a long list of extravagant purchases, including large quantities of food for the pastors before services, mostly consistent of Sushi and expensive takeout, with the occasional Chipotle chipped in. They frequently rolled out the red carpet for guest and celebrity attendees, pushing designer purchases and spending up to 200$ on a single meal from pricey the Dean and Deluca restaurant.

Another former member, Megan Phalon, got a job babysitting for pastors Kane and Karla Keatinge, eventually doing light personal assistant duties for them. She says “He’d be spending all this money and at the end of the month he’d be like, ‘I don’t know what this was for.” She describes going out and buying a brand new unlocked iPhone without being told who it was for, and the pastors buying All-Terrain Vehicles to drive around town.

Another former member who functioned as lead pastor Reed Boggard’s assistant and was there from day one, Brandon Walker, describes how Hillsong leadership were all about eating out and staying in fancy hotels and Airbnb’s, including booking one that cost nearly$1100 a night. 

According to the post:

“Walker recalled one day out on the town with Jess Bogard and two of his friends when she bought the group matching $100 jackets before taking them out to dinner at a “pretty nice, pretty expensive Italian restaurant” called North Italia, where she dropped hundreds on a decadent, wine-filled meal. “I think the bill was $600 to $700,” Walker recalled. “It was just, like, ‘Wow. [She] just dropped over $1,000 for no reason.’ ”

He concludes:

At the end of the day, there’s no accountability, there’s no self-reflection. Everything’s a flex, everything’s a show.”


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Two More High-Profile Hillsong ‘Pastors’ Resign Amidst Scandals

As Hillsong continues their investigation into the dysfunctional culture at their New York City branch where disgraced pastor Carl Lentz once held sway, a pair of high profile pastors have resigned their post, citing concerns for the need to stay mentally healthy and remain healthy amid fluctuating public sentiment and international turmoil.

Pastor Reed Bogard, who also 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, explaining:

Hey church. Hope you’re doing well. Just wanted to take a second on behalf of Jess and I to share some news with you.

As many of you know, Jess and I have been part of our church for 15 years. We met at college, went to Hillsong college, worked on staff in different roles there, and then transitioned back to America where over the last 10 years we’ve been able to be a part of three church plants and have the opportunity specifically here to be the lead pastors. And it has been an incredible ride thus far, we’ve had some crazy days, great days, seeing God do many, many miracles, and we’re so grateful for that.

With that said, the last 10 years of being in church planting mode has really taken a bit of a toll on Jess and I and our family. We just really feel like it’s time to transition off of our staff and take some time to remain healthy, get healthy, and really see what this next season holds for us.

Bogard takes a few more seconds to heap effusive praise on Global Senior Pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston and then signs off, effectively ending his tenure at Hillsong.

Brian Houston continued with the video, explaining that though the announcement might surprise some members, they would care for the congregation and would take their time finding them a new pastor. (With their Church model, a senior pastor is “assigned” to the congregation by upper Hillsong management.)

Reed’s announcement to you right now, not sure if that comes as a shock. Reed and Jess have given their heart and soul to the pioneering of Hillsong Dallas Love the last couple of years, and we’re grateful for that, and the great work they’ve done.

Reed and I have been talking now over a period of time and we both agreed it would be a perfect time for them to come to a new season in their life, which means a new season also for Hillsong Dallas.

I do believe in the future of Hillsong Dallas. In the meantime, we will make sure week by week that the church is being cared for. We have a great team over in America and around the world. Even though we are restricted in what we can and can’t do right now in terms of travel, you are not going to be forsaken.

The video can be seen here.


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Hillsong’s Bobbie Houston Recommends Plastic Surgery, Not Feeling like a ‘R******’ For Better Sex Life

Bobbie Houston, wife of supreme Hillsong overlord Brian Houston, has some interesting advice to women wanting to have a better marriage, and it’s getting her a lot of flak.

In some recently unearthed audio from a 2003 series called Kingdom Women Love Sex, a title that was later toned down since to Kingdom Women Love and Value their Sexuality, Houston speaks about staying fit, exercising to boost your sexual prowess, even geting surgery if need be, but it was one particular comment that has people raising their eyebrows. Actually, make it two.

Though most of it is run of the mill sex advice, it was her candid descriptions on the effects of weight gain in the marital bed that irked critics, who accused her of using one particular word as a slur and pejorative.

If I carry weight I feel like a retard, how are you going to do anything to surprise your man when you need a hydraulic crane just to turn over in bed?

Shockingly, she goes on to recommend plastic surgery “down there” to enhance the sex, as well as recommends kegels.

Have plastic surgery if it makes you feel better and it is for the right reasons, and girls, pelvic floor exercise – can you believe I am saying this? You know, I have heard that orgasm is not as strong if you are really sloppy in that area…

Back pain. Plumbing bits. OK, get them fixed, get healed, or go to a doctor, I’m not joking.

Houston says not to worry about “Kama Sutra position 5004,” saying, “just don’t even go there. It won’t work,” riffing, “because how many would agree your men have trouble assembling a swing set on Christmas morning?

She says that women should also get their teeth done, get a facelift if needed to keeps things sagging and employ an extensive anti-aging beauty regiment to keep one looking good.

We need to be good at sex ourselves so that if the world happens to come knocking we can tell the story of God in our lives. We can say, ‘I have a great marriage and a great sex life.’ Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Hillsong is currently embroiled in a scandal in its’ NYC church plant, after a culture of sexual perversion and power struggle has been unearthed in the aftermath of the firing of disgraced adulterous pastor Carl Lentz.

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Singer Justin Bieber Studying to be a Hillsong Minister, Apparently

Unnamed sources are coming out of the woodwork claiming that Justin Bieber is studying to become a minister with Hillsong Church, with Daily Mail, Ok Magazine, and others reporting that he plans to become ordained in 2021.

Given that there are no names attached to the piece, only “sources close to the singer” alleging that “Justin has never felt happier or healthier, and he says he owes it to the church. [He] believes he can take a leadership position in restoring order,” referring to Hillsong NYC and the aftermath of disgraced Pastor Carl Lentz’s adulterous joyride taken right through the heart of the congregation, the whole thing is a non-starter.

The fact this is so believable is the real story, however. We can see Hillsong giving him the keys to the kingdom. Bieber is active on social media making consistent professions of faith, inviting a variety of pastors on to give the gospel, and talking a lot about Jesus and his relationship with him. He is a member of Hillsong Choir and has led worship at pal Judah’s Smith Churchome, as well as has preached from the pulpit.

Bieber explains a more recent message he gave:

My whole message at church the other day was, there’s power in your weakness. So when you feel weak — there’s so many people in this world who are struggling — there’s just power in that weakness. So, when you fight through that season you usually get to the other side, and it gets better.

Sounds terrible.

Here’s another spine-shuddering theological poison pill.

Again. What the heck.

While Bieber is anything if not completely unqualified to preach or become a minister, he is consistent in his earnestness, with his understanding of biblical truth being underdeveloped, and is reminiscent of a newly converted 14-year-old trying to explain the Christian faith and gospel to his parents after just one weekend at bible camp.

It’s not great, and you don’t want to see him sharing that with anyone, but you have to admire his willingness to put himself out there. It may be happening with a lot of scrunched up faces and raised eyebrows, but the gist of the internal change is communicated. These sources continue:

[He] doesn’t plan to give up his music career, but he feels there’s a bigger calling out there for him. He wants to be a full-fledged minister next year.

Someone tell The Master’s Seminary to give this kid a scholarship already!

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Breaking! Carl Lentz Previously Caught With ‘Young Celebrity’ by Longtime Employee in 2014

Disgraced ex-Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz was caught having sex with a young celebrity in his own home, according to allegations by a former employee in a bombshell report by the Sun.

The claim comes from Lee Martin, who was employed by the Lentz family as their dog walker for many years. He says that he once walked into the apartment and assumed no one was home. He went upstairs and then heard the pair having sex in one of the bedrooms, being the only ones in the house, and then saw them emerge from the room looking flushed and unkempt.

I walked into the house one day to walk their dog and I didn’t see or hear any people in the apartment at first. So I took it that no one was there and went in and got their dog on a leash. And as I went to exit the apartment, I walked past the bedroom and I heard sex noises.

It definitely sounded like two people were having sex. I was kind of shocked but I do walk into stuff like this quite a lot. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to be there because nobody would be making those kinds of noises if they knew someone was around.

When I walked out of the door, I accidentally let the door close behind me too loud. And so by the time I made it to the elevator, Carl and the star were right behind me. He didn’t look me in the eye, and didn’t talk to me or acknowledge me, which was very unlike him. They both seemed kind of flushed – like they had been having sex.

Long time family dog walker and past employee Lee Martin. Source/ The Sun

Lee told several close friends about the incident at the time, but chose not to disclose it until the recent revelations with Ranim Karim came about. According to insider reports, several more women have come forward as a result of the investigation Hillsong has launched into the culture at their NYC “church” plant. Though Lee has named the celebrity Lentz was sleeping with, the Sun has chosen not to report it.

Lee, for his part, wasn’t a fan of Lentz and the way he behaved, explaining:

I always found he kind of put out this manipulative, almost grooming vibe. And I started to look at his interactions with people over the years, videos and pictures and things, and it just seemed inappropriate for a pastor.

I would see him parading around the neighborhood with his shirt off, wearing thousand dollar leather pants, on an electric scooter, smoking an electric cigarette. It just doesn’t seem like a pastor at all.

This information lines up with Hillsong founder Brian Houston’s claim that Lentz had “many affairs.” We’re sure this won’t be the last revelation to come out.

[Editor’s note. Reports of dysfunction from Hillsong continue to emerge at a rapid rate, but we have chosen to not cover the majority of them because of their reliance on “unnamed sources” that we have been unable to verify. Until they name who is bringing forth the allegations, we won’t be writing about it.]

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Bombshell Transcript! Brian Houston Describes ‘Culture of Dysfunction’ at Hillsong NY, With Carl Lentz at the Center

We wrote to you earlier that an audio recording between Hillsong founder Brian Houston and Church executives has leaked, revealing that disgraced Pastor Carl Lentz, who cheated on his wife with model Ranin Karim, had engaged in multiple sexual affairs and committed adultery with many women. Houston described them: “It was more than one affair, they were significant. And at least some bad moral behavior had gone back historically”. See more here.

Now that we have had the chance to transcribe the audio, what we have discovered is that if Houston and the global board is to be believed, Hillsong NY was a dysfunctional mess. Evidently Carl Lentz was an overbearing and narcissistic shepherd. Sadly, Hillsong employees felt afraid to even speak to their pastor let alone challenge him. We now know that this arrogant man ruled Hillsong NY like his own little fiefdom.

On the affair and whether or not Lentz could be restored

So not to (downplay?) the seriousness of it, but if it was just about a moral failure, perhaps it would have been possible to work with Carl and Laura and work our way through it and have a period of restoration. And that might’ve been possible, but the nature of where my relationship with Carl was already up to, and then add the significant nature and the serial nature of the moral issues, just meant that I believed, and our global board believed, that the only way to go was to terminate Carl and really start with a fresh start in New York, and so that’s where I’m at.

I’m only going to say this once, but if you want to know why we would take such radical action, and so quickly, the leadership actually has been talking about not just general narcissistic behavior, manipulating, mistreating people, I think sometimes, you know other hurtful things, the breaches of trust, the (unintelligible) lying, and constantly lying. And so basically broken trust.

Houston says that there was always a sense where Hillsong East Coast “to a degree was running their own race” and describes how many people and staff were raising issues and frustrated at not being heard and being mistreated by Lentz. They were upset that no matter how many times they brought up their concerns regarding their since-departed pastor or with a process, that nothing ever happened or changed.

Confronting Carl

Carl was an extremely and is an extremely hard man to confront, and anyone who may have tried to do that would know exactly what I’m talking about. And so it’s not as though people weren’t being heard. It’s just that it’s a situation where it’s almost impossible to get an issue raised…and so the messenger became the enemy.

Speaking of the dysfunction of the church and the uncertainty people are experiencing, particularly other staff members and high-level volunteers, the board said that they spoke to dozens of people even as Houston asks for grace for the team and from the team. He stresses that some things just need to wait- likely a month for the investigation to wrap up to talk to members and aggrieved staff before they can start implementing solutions and putting into practice the resultant recommendations.

Was there financial impropriety involved?

We have no current evidence of anything inappropriate with finances, but it is part of our investigation. So if something does come up we will address it, and if there’s anything that the investigations shows had some criminal nature, then we will report it accordingly.

There was a lot of concern about finances, and this took up a big chunk of time. They emphasize that Hillsong has robust financial safeguards in place and that the global board is audited every year. They reiterate that Lentz did not have access to Hillsong bank account: “It wasn’t like they just had free access to the offerings. We guard and protect the integrity of people’s giving.”

On Lentz treating people badly

I despise seeing people being treated badly or misused, wherever that is and however that looks, and I had a meeting with all our lead pastors probably last year, where I was speaking very strongly about the way that we deal with people, and really challenging the idea of people being mistreated in any way. Carl didn’t come to that meeting, unfortunately. Every other lead pastor in the world was there and so..yeah…It’s not Hillsong’s culture to speak roughly to people or treat them harshly…

Hillsong leader speaking about the culture of the NYC church

I can testify to, and many other people can as well, is that the heart that Brian and Bobbie have the pastoral heart [sic], for the one, and wherever they are in the world they’re always inquiring about the one. Their care for the church is always top and foremost in their thinking. And that’s the experience we’ve always had growing up in this culture. Sadly, that wasn’t replicated through what’s happened in New York. And all we can do is hope to change that going forward.

Houston’s final reflections on Lentz

Everyone knows that not everything about Carl Lentz was bad. Carl is a passionate character. He’s supremely gifted, clearly. You know I think he genuinely, genuinely cares for lost people. You know his passion there was very contagious and I’m certain there’d be people that are part of this meeting where it was Carl Lentz that led you to Jesus…so I don’t want anyone to think that we can’t see any good. There was a lot of good amongst all of that. It was just a situation that was becoming more and more untenable, and so that’s I guess the only other thing that I’d like to say.

Our thoughts:

Things never should have gotten this far. Lentz should have been disqualified YEARS ago.

We wrote back in 2016 how he appeared on the worship stage with other pastors, dancing alongside the naked cowboy. We mentioned in 2015 how they turned their Christmas productions into near-burlesque shows like their “Sleazy Silent Night.” We told you about telling Oprah in 2016 “you don’t have to be a Christian to have a relationship with God. We wrote in 2017 how Lentz and Bieber took turns taking shots in a bar and took off their clothes while doing so. And we told you in 2015 how they were having an open and unrepentant homosexual man leading worship.

We’ve been practicing discernment and polemics for years, and Lentz should have been removed on theological grounds ages ago. He should have been excommunicated and given the throat punch of disfellowship- doubled over in pain to be handed over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh and the hope of his restoration to the body.

He never should have been a pastor in the first place. And the fact that being a man-whore and cheating on his wife finally got him expelled, while he was allowed to play the theological whore and blaspheme against the Lord with impunity for half a decade, at least, says everything we need to know not only about Lentz, but about Brian Houston and the rest of the Hillsong church and organization.