Hillsong founder Brian Houston marks return to megachurch with bizarre animal anecdote

Five months after resigning from his role in the Hillsong megachurch, founder Brian Houston has marked his return with a bizarre anecdote.

Five months after resigning from his role in the Hillsong megachurch, founder Brian Houston has marked his return with a bizarre anecdote of killing a horse when he was a teenager.

The “comeback sermon” was the first time Houston has spoken since he stood down after an investigation found he had breached the church’s moral code and behaved inappropriately with two women.

Speaking in Seattle on Sunday, Houston told the crowd about a time when he was 17 and struck a horse being ridden by a girl.

“The horse went flying over the rear of the car, it broke its neck and died instantly … the rider was uninjured”, he said.

He goes on to say the insurance company wrote off the car.

(File image) Hillsong founder Brian Houston has spoken for the first time since resigning from his role in the megachurch in a ‘comeback sermon’. Picture: Marcus Ingram/Getty Images

“But that’s not what God does … That’s what we love about the Lord … you are not written off.”

Houston resigned after an internal investigation found that he sent inappropriate text messages to a staff member in 2013 while under the influence of sleeping tablets.

He was also found to have knocked on the hotel room door of a woman while intoxicated and under the influence of anti-anxiety medication, after a church conference in Sydney in 2019.

In January, Houston stepped down from his role on all boards within the church while he defends a criminal charge he concealed his father’s child sexual abuse.

Police allege Houston knew from September 1999 that his father Frank Houston, who died in 2004, indecently assaulted a male in the 1970s.

Houston will fight the allegations. The trial is expected to begin later this year.