Hillsong Church founders Brian and Bobbie Houston made good on an earlier announcement that they would make a comeback in 2024, unveiling their new Jesus Followers online ministry, which they say is now in “desperate” need of a television production studio.
“This is going to be a faith ministry, and I’m really believing God will give us a big powerful group of partners who will stand with us in the building of Jesus Followers,” Brian Houston said in a recent broadcast from Motor City Church in Detroit, Michigan.
“Because, like anything, we’re building a new ministry, we’re building a new church, and frankly we’re starting with nothing, and we’ve got desperate needs.”
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“Right now we’re on the other side of the country from where Bobbie and I are based at the moment, but we can’t do that every single time,” he continued. “We’re believing God for a studio, and that comes with the need for not only television cameras but production crew, people to operate those cameras and people to work with us in production. … It’s a faith venture, and I believe as people partner and give, that you can help us make a difference.”
The 70-year-old Houston founded the Hillsong Evangelical megachurch network in 1983 and formally resigned as Hillsong’s global senior pastor in March 2022 after revelations that two women made serious complaints of misconduct against him in the last 10 years.
Houston told his viewers that he and his wife are “pioneers” who are more than able to start something new again, and they know what it takes to build something new.
“We genuinely are Jesus followers, and well, we’ve pioneered before. Before I was 30 years of age, Bobbie and I had already pioneered six churches, and at least five of them are still thriving all these years now,” Houston said.
“We might not start with millions of people. I’d be praising God if we did, or hundreds of thousands of people, but if there’s 10 of you, if there’s 20 of you, that’s called pioneering, and you build a church one person, one family at a time.”
Houston cast a vision of building “connect groups” of people online worldwide for his ministry through Zoom. He also plans to eventually have in-person meetings with the various groups from time to time. He urged people to sign up as volunteers for his ministry.
“We already have had a zoom with volunteers and just really creating and building a volunteer basin you could easily become a part of that. We would love that,” Houston said.
Houston said he is contemplating online leadership training as well.
“For 40 years, we had a staff meeting or leadership meeting every single week. So I can see us doing that through Zoom, and we really want to be building connect groups, where different communities and groups will meet in various places whether it’s geographical or otherwise and we can do all of that on Zoom meetings,” he noted.
The Houstons first announced their plans to return to ministry with an online operation last November.
That announcement came about two months after Houston’s daughter Laura Toganivalu and her husband, Peter, who resigned earlier in 2023 as global pastors of Hillsong’s youth ministry, Hillsong Young & Free, also announced the launch of a new church.
Brian Houston initially stepped down from the Hillsong’s boards in September 2021 as he faced criminal charges related to allegations he concealed sex abuse committed by his father decades earlier after he heard about it in 1999.
Hillsong Church announced in January 2022 that Houston was stepping down from his role at the church’s helm for all of 2022. Houston denied any wrongdoing, and last August, an Australian court found him not guilty of the charges.
Four months before the acquittal, Houston pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood alcohol content of .08% or more. He was also sentenced to three years on probation, a $140 fine and other penalties.
In his message at Motor City Church, Houston described the case that was mounted against him in Australia as a political attack on his character that failed.
“I had politicians who were on a mission and painting a false narrative. The media, of course, documentaries, all sorts of people, but the actual evidence pointed to something entirely different than the narrative that was out there,” he said. “Ultimately, the magistrate, he … said I find this the exact opposite of a cover-up and he called me not guilty. It was a day of victory. It was a day of relief. … We conquered the lies and the opposition that had come against us.”
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