Brian Houston’s cryptic post after Hillsong downfall

The globe-trotting former pastor has taken to social media to share a cryptic post on Instagram after resigning from Hillsong over complaints from two women.

Former Hillsong boss Brian Houston has broken his silence after quitting the church he made famous following misconduct allegations made by two women. Picture: Supplied.

Hillsong co-founder Brian Houston has shared a cryptic post after quitting the church he made famous following complaints from two women about his behaviour.

Since resigning as global pastor of the mega-church last month, Houston has remained quiet on social media where he has over one million followers.

But on Wednesday, he shared a photo of himself and his daughter to Instagram.

“My beautiful daughter loving her dad,” he captioned the post, which had comments disabled.

The photo was then shared by his daughter Laura Toggs, who remains a youth pastor with Hillsong, with the caption “yesterday with my dad”.

Brian Houston has taken to social media for the first time since he left Hillsong. Picture: Instagram.

The start to 2022 has been tumultuous for Houston and Hillsong.

His shock resignation from the church was made at an emergency all-staff meeting at the mega-church’s head office in Sydney’s Baulkham Hills last month.

“Irrespective of the circumstances around this, we can all agree that Brian and (wife) Bobbie have served God faithfully over many decades,” the church wrote in a statement.

The church’s board committed to an independent review of their governance structure and processes.

“This is a time of humble reflection and we are committed to doing what is necessary to ensure God is honoured, and our eyes are fixed on Jesus.”

Pastor Brian Houston, alongside wife Bobbie, announcing he was stepping down from mega-church Hillsong. Picture: Supplied.

Pastor Phil Dooley, who took over the role as the head of the evangelical church after Houston stepped down earlier this year, detailed two incidents investigated by senior church staff.

The first alleged incident involved a female church member who quit after making a complaint about an “inappropriate” text message about a decade ago.

“It was along the line of ‘if I was with you, I‘d like to kiss and cuddle you’, words of that nature,” Pastor Dooley told the meeting.

The woman left her job after complaining about the incident to Hillsong general manager George Aghajanian, with Mr Houston reported to have paid out the woman several months’ salary a compensation for the incident.

The second incident allegedly occurred at a Sydney hotel during the church’s annual conference at Qudos Bank Arena at Homebush in 2019.

Brian Houston speaks on stage during the Hillsong Atlanta grand opening at Hillsong Atlanta in 2021. Picture: Supplied.

The senior pastor spent 40 minutes inside of a woman’s room after claiming to have been locked out of his own.

The woman was not a member of Hillsong staff but did complain to the Church of the incident.

“The truth is we don’t know what happened next,” Pastor Dooley said, though Mr Houston denies that he engaged in any sexual activity.

On both occasions of alleged misconduct, the church reported that the senior pastor had been under the influence of either alcohol or sleeping tablets.

Mr Houston is currently defending allegations he concealed his father’s child sexual abuse.

He stepped down from his senior position in the church in January as a result.

Police allege Mr Houston knew from September 1999 that his father Frank Houston had indecently assaulted a male in 1970.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of concealing a serious indictable offence and is due in court in November.