Hillsong Church denies co-founder Brian Houston’s explosive claims about his wife’s redundancy

Hillsong has responded after co-founder Brian Houston leaked a text his wife Bobbie received from the church following his resignation.

Hillsong has come out swinging at its co-founder, Brian Houston, saying his version of events about his wife Bobbie Houston’s redundancy from the megachurch are “not correct”.

Late on Friday, Mr Houston shared a screenshot to his Instagram which appeared to show text messages between Hillsong management and Ms Houston about her status of employment.

The first text message read: “Dear Bobbie, I wanted to text to let you know I will be sending an email shortly regarding your employment. Please let me know if you would like to talk about it or if you have questions”.

“I don’t even have words to express how cold and callous this has all become”, the second text said.

Mr Houston posted the screengrab along with a caption which condemned the church for their alleged poor treatment of his wife.

He said: “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.”

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Text received by Brian Houston's wife regarding her redundancy. Picture: Instagram/brianchouston

“This just three 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.”

The Sydney-based church on Saturday provided a statement to news.com.au in connection to Mr Houston’s explosive claims.

In its statement, the Hillsong board claimed it met with Brian and Bobbie Houston on 28 March 2022 “to begin discussions regarding separation of their key roles and responsibilities”.

They further claimed that after the meeting, Mr Houston emailed them apologising, taking ownership and indicating “a strong desire to continue in ministry with Bobbie in the years ahead”.

Brian Houston said the way Hillson had treated his wife, Bobbie Houston, was 'not OK'. Picture: Instagram/brianchouston.

Hillsong management noted that on Friday, the same day as Mr Houston posted to Instagram, “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.”

How this all began

In 1977, Mr Houston’s father, Frank Houston, started Sydney Christian Life Centre which later merged into Hillsong Church.

However, Frank Houston’s final years in ministry were damaged by allegations of child sex abuse. These claims also had adverse consequences for his son, Brian Houston.

Mr Houston – who at times has advised Prime Minister Scott Morrison – was charged by NSW police with one count of concealing a serious indictable offence by his father, Frank Houston, in August 2021.

Police alleged Mr Houston “knew information relating to the sexual abuse of a young male in the 1970s and failed to bring that information to the attention of police”.

On January 30, Mr Houston stepped away from ministry duties because of the charge and said in a statement “these allegations came as a shock to me, and it is my intention to vigorously defend them”.

He has since pleaded not guilty to the charge and is due to appear in court in November.

But in March, Mr Houston resigned from the global church after he was accused of inappropriate behaviour towards two women.

In a statement on March 18, Hillsong said the first incident, which allegedly occurred about a decade ago, involved “inappropriate text messages from Pastor Brian to a member of staff”. The female staff member later resigned because of Mr Houston’s behaviour.

Brian Houston announced his resignation from Hillsong following allegations raised by two women. Picture: Marcus Ingram/Getty Images

“At the time, Pastor Brian was under the influence of sleeping tablets, upon which he had developed a dependence. He immediately apologised 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.”

Hillsong’s statement at the time did not specify the content of the text message exchange between Mr Houston and the woman.

In a video that has since been leaked however, new head of Hillsong Church, Phil Dooley informed staff they were along the lines of, “‘If I was with you, I’d like to kiss and cuddle you,’ words of that nature”.

Pastor Brian Houston, alongside wife Bobbie, in a video during which he announced he was resigning from the church. Picture: Supplied

According to a statement from the Hillsong board on March 18, the second alleged incident occurred at the annual Hillsong conference in 2019 when Mr Houston was “disoriented” after he consumed alcohol and mixed it with anti-anxiety medication above the prescribed dose.

“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 statement read.

Mr Dooley said in the leaked video that “the truth is we don’t know what happened next. The woman has not said there was any sexual activity. Brian has said there was no sexual activity, but he was in the room for 40 minutes”.

In both instances, Hillsong management have attested that Mr Houston personally compensated both women for their distress.

In the first matter, it is understood that Mr Houston paid the former Hillsong staff member a couple months’ salary. In the second instance, he is said to have compensated the female he met at Hillsong conference for her conference fee and church donation.

Originally published as Hillsong Church denies co-founder Brian Houston’s explosive claims about his wife’s redundancy