Hillsong’s drama continues

Hillsong is a global brand. Starting in the northern Sydney suburbs it has spread from Sydney to more than 125 sites in 27 countries – including 12 in the UK.

Its music is probably the most commercially successful in the world – and there will be few churches in the UK which have not sung a Hillsong song. The organisation claims that it has 150,000 attenders worldwide – including over 40,000 in Australia – where it is a key part of one of the fastest growing denominations – the Australian Christian Churches (Assemblies of God). But the brand is in trouble, after several cases of ‘inappropriate’ behaviour – including that of Carl Lentz, its high-profile New York leader. However, it is the case of Brian Houston, its founder and global leader, which has done most harm.

In August 2021 Houston was charged by the New South Wales police with failing to report his father’s sexual abuse of children which he became aware of in the 1990s. Houston senior was also a Pentecostal pastor. Brian Houston and his wife Bobbie, who in the megachurch tradition is also a senior pastor, took a leave of absence whilst they fought the charges. The trial is due to take place in December of 2022 and is expected to last up to three weeks: at the time of writing the result is not known.

But worse was yet to come. Houston was accused of two incidents of ‘inappropriate’ conduct, and he then resigned from Hillsong entirely. As is often the case in these personalised multi-church brands, there is a great deal of family influence – with several of their children working for Hillsong in different parts of the world. As the Hillsong board seek to save their company/church, they are facing an uphill struggle. Not only does there seem to be a civil war within Hillsong, but half their US churches have disaffiliated and Brian Houston has recently re-emerged in Sydney preaching in a different capacity. ‘An Evening with Brian and Bobbie’ at a Sydney theatre on 9 November was, according to Houston, sold out within two hours.

This whole affair has been deeply damaging to the church of Christ in Australia (and elsewhere), and especially to the hundreds of people who have benefitted from the ministry of Hillsong. It is all too tempting for evangelicals who do not approve of Hillsong to join in the mocking of the secular organisations who hate them (the ABC and Sydney Morning Herald in Australia have a particular delight in broadcasting all things anti-Hillsong – not least because they perceive them as being deeply linked with the former Prime Minister, Scott Morrison). But we should beware of ‘schadenfreude’ (delight in the misery of others).

We can recognise the good that Hillsong has done – whilst at the same time deploring the damage done by unbiblical structures, practices and doctrines. And then we can go look in the mirror of God’s word and see how our structures, practices and doctrines bear up.

• Brian Houston has now posted a video online. In it, The Guardian reported, he ‘reaffirmed his commitment to contesting the charge that he concealed from New South Wales police child sexual abuse perpetrated by his disgraced father, Frank, in the 1960s and 1970s’. He also reportedly ‘said that while alcohol had “not proven itself to be my friend” he was not an alcoholic’.

The paper further reported: ‘He also addressed a specific allegation from 2019, when he was found to have violated Hillsong’s code of conduct by entering the hotel room of an unidentified woman for 40 minutes while under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs during the church’s annual conference. “The notorious night in 2019 where I mixed a double dose of anti-anxiety tablets with alcohol was a one-off occasion,” he said. “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”.’  en staff