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.
