Brian Houston (pastor)

Brian Houston (/ˈhjuːstən/ (listen) HEW-stən, born 17 February 1954) is an Australian pastor and evangelist. He is the founder and senior pastor at Hillsong Church, based in Sydney with locations around the world. He was the National President of the Australian Christian Churches, the Australian branch of the Assemblies of God, from 1997 to 2009.[1]

Brian Houston
Born (1954-02-17) 17 February 1954
Auckland, New Zealand
OccupationPastor
Spouse(s)Bobbie Houston
Children3
Parent(s)
Websitebrianchouston.com

Life and career

Early life

Houston was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 17 February 1954.[2] His parents, Frank and Hazel, were then Salvation Army officers. When Houston was three his parents joined the Assemblies of God in New Zealand and began pastoring a church in Lower Hutt, near Wellington.[3]:62 Here Houston and his brother and three sisters spent their childhood. After completing school he went to a Bible college for three years.[3]:66 Shortly after completing college he met his future wife, Bobbie, on Papamoa Beach in New Zealand during a Christian convention. They were married in 1977.

Ministry

After moving to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in 1978, Houston served at the Sydney Christian Life Centre in Darlinghurst, where he became the assistant pastor to his father, Frank Houston.[4] In 1980 he started a church on the Central Coast and worked at a church in Liverpool in 1981. In 1983, Houston hired the Baulkham Hills Public School hall in Sydney's north-western suburbs to start a new church, the Hills Christian Life Centre.[5][6] The first service was held on Sunday, 14 August 1983.

In May 1997, Houston was elected the president of the Assemblies of God in Australia (now called Australian Christian Churches) after Andrew Evans' retirement. He helped to create the Australian Christian Churches network of Pentecostal churches in February 2000. This alliance represents over 200,000 members in affiliate churches[7] and he was its inaugural president.[8] He is also a member of the Australian Pentecostal Ministers Fellowship (APMF).[9] At the 2009 National Conference of Australian Christian Churches, Wayne Alcorn was voted in to replace Houston after he chose not to run again for the position.

On 10 May 1999, Frank Houston stepped down from the role of senior pastor at Sydney Christian Life Centre and Brian Houston was appointed to the position.[10] Brian Houston said that Frank "appeared rushed" to hand his church to him. This was before the revelations of Frank's child sexual abuse became known.[11] Fifteen years later, in 2014, Brian Houston spoke at hearings held by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, stating that he received an allegation in October 1999 that his father sexually abused an Australian under-age male. Brian Houston's statement and the evidence submitted to the Royal Commission revealed that in November 1999, his father confessed of committing child sexual abuse.[10] The Royal Commission censured Brian Houston for his failure to report the sexual abuse allegations against his father and for his failure to avoid a clear conflict of interest investigating his own father while serving as National President of the Assemblies of God in Australia.[12]

In September 2018, Hillsong left the Australian Christian Churches to become an autonomous denomination, identifying itself more as a global and charismatic church.[13] According to both Hillsong and ACC, the parting was amicable.[14]

He is an executive producer for Hillsong Music Australia (HMA), which is the music ministry of Hillsong Church.[15] This music ministry has been very successful over the years with chart topping albums from Hillsong United (born out of the youth ministry), and Hillsong Live, which is the "worship expression" of Hillsong Church and incorporates their entire worship team. Each year Hillsong records their annual live album, and the songs from this live recording are then sung by church congregations all over the world. Some of the most popular songs sung today in churches are Hillsong songs, including "Mighty to Save" and "Shout to the Lord" (which was featured on a special episode of American Idol called "Idol Gives Back" in 2008.[16]

Family and personal life

Houston and his wife Bobbie reside in the suburb of Glenhaven, Sydney, Australia. They have three children, Joel, Ben and Laura. All are married and involved in the leadership of Hillsong Church.[17][18][19]

Writings

Details of books written by Houston:

Title Year ISBN Notes
"Get A Life" 1996 ISBN 978-0957733619 No longer in print
"You Can Change The Future" 1999 ISBN 978-0957733626 No longer in print
"You Need More Money" 1999 ISBN 978-0957733602 No longer in print
"How To Build Great Relationships" 2002 ISBN 978-0957733671
"How To Live A Blessed Life" 2002 ISBN 978-0957733633
"How To Flourish In Life" 2003 ISBN 978-0957733688
"How To Make Wise Decisions" 2004 ISBN 978-0957733602
"How To Live In Health & Wholeness" 2005 ISBN 978-0975206003
"Selah" 2006 ISBN 978-0975206027
"For This Cause" 2006 ISBN 978-0957733657
"Selah 2" 2007 ISBN 978-0975206034
"For This I Was Born" 2008 ISBN 978-0849919138
"Live Love Lead" 2015 ISBN 978-1455533428
"There Is More" 2018 ISBN 978-0735290617
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References
  1. "Brian Houston Title & Occupation". Archived from the original on 12 October 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
  2. Detzler, Wayne (11 February 2013). Emerging Awakening - A Faith Quake: Revival Is Rising in the Emerging Church Paperback. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock. ISBN 978-1610979870.
  3. Hey, Sam (9 August 2013). Megachurches: Origins, Ministry, and Prospects. Australia: Wipf and Stock. ISBN 978-1625643223.
  4. Oslington, Paul (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Economics. USA: Oxford University Press. p. 266. ISBN 9780199729715.
  5. Anderson, Allan (2013). An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity. UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 155.
  6. Bailey, Sarah Pulliam (5 November 2013). "Australia's Hillsong Church Has Astonishingly Powerful Global Influence". Huffington Post. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  7. Croucher, Rowland (6 January 2003). "Australian Christian Churches". John Mark Ministries. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  8. Brooks, Adrian; Gallagher, Paul (11 April 2000). "Spreading God's Fire in Australia". Charisma Magazine. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  9. AUSTRALIAN PENTECOSTAL MINISTERS FELLOWSHIP (January 2001). "INQUIRY INTO THE DEFINITION OF CHARITIES AND RELATED ORGANISATIONS". Archived from the original on 18 June 2005. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  10. Houston, Brian (28 September 2014). "Statement in the matter of Case Study 18 - Statement of Brian Charles Houston" (PDF). Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. p. 4. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  11. Houston, Brian (2014). "Transcript (Day 88): 9 October 2014 (PDF)" (PDF). Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuses. pp. 55–56. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  12. Browne, Rachel (23 November 2015). "Royal Commission sex abuse inquiry censures Hillsong head Brian Houston". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  13. Blair, Leonardo (19 September 2018). "Hillsong Church Becomes Own Denomination, Splits From Australia's Largest Pentecostal Group". christianpost.com. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  14. "Hillsong splits from denomination: 'we have no grief or dispute at all'". Premier. 19 September 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  15. Executive Producer Credits
  16. Shout to the Lord on American Idol on YouTube
  17. "Joel Houston Lead Pastor NYC". Hillsong International. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  18. "Ben Houston Lead Pastor LA". Hillsong International. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  19. "Laura Toggs Youth Pastor". Hillsong International. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
Preceded by
Andrew Evans		 National President of Australian Christian Churches
1997–2009		 Succeeded by
Wayne Alcorn


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