Former Hillsong global pastor Brian Houston (Image: Facebook)

Former Hillsong global pastor Brian Houston has sought to set the record straight on the “gossip and speculation”, which has followed the tumultuous ending earlier this year of his near 40-year leadership of the megachurch he founded with wife Bobbie.

“The narrative that I am an alcoholic is false,” he said via a prerecorded Facebook livestream this morning. 

As far as his dependency on sleeping tablets was concerned, this was known “since the early 2000s”, he said.

Houston also addressed — in part — the now infamous 2019 incident when he had entered the hotel room of a female Hillsong supporter and stayed there for 40 minutes, after apparently becoming disoriented because of a cocktail of alcohol and anxiety tablets. Houston said this was a “one-off” that had never happened “before or since”.

“I don’t have a problem,” he said, though he failed to explain exactly what occurred in the room that night.

Houston’s brief address, down the barrel of a camera, was largely an explanation for past actions, with a dose of self-pity mixed with a cri de coeur for the loss of old friendships he and Bobbie had suffered since things went south with the Hillsong Church earlier this year. 

Houston’s Facebook appearance also coincided with a directions hearing this morning in a Sydney Magistrate’s Court where Houston faces charges that he concealed information on child sexual abuse committed by his late father, Frank. Brian Houston has previously strenuously denied the police case against him. He formally entered a not guilty plea in March.

The timing of Houston’s attention-grabbing event angered some former Hillsong followers who interpreted it as disrespect for the victims of Frank Houston’s abuse and the victims of Hillsong actions more widely. “Just when you think Brian has reached the bottom he goes one lower,” one source told Crikey.

Houston also described the lack of support for his wife Bobbie since her forced departure from Hillsong in April this year as “heartbreaking”. 

The Houstons had been enraged when Hillsong sent a text to Bobbie, alerting her to an email making her redundant. Brian immediately responded with an online message decrying the injustice of it all.

“[Bobbie] 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,” Houston wrote.

The Houstons have made no secret of the depth of the injustice they have felt since Brian Houston was dramatically forced to sever all ties with the church in March this year. This followed the extraordinary public announcement by Hillsong that the pastor who had led them to international megachurch status had been guilty of transgressions against two women.

It emerged that a select group of senior church figures had known of the transgressions for years but had kept that information secret. Hillsong staff were informed that in 2019 Houston, apparently disoriented by a combination of alcohol and anxiety tablets, had spent 40 minutes in the hotel room of a woman who was a Hillsong supporter. According to the story made public by Hillsong, Houston had lost the key to his own hotel room and went to the woman’s room for help. The woman has never spoken of the event publicly.

Since being removed from Hillsong, the Houstons have spent time in Europe and then the United States where Brian was invited to speak at churches where he was known. He today described the speaking he had done in the United States as a “rich tonic for my soul”.

Houston’s case in a Sydney Magistrate’s Court is due to start at the beginning of December and is expected to run for three weeks. 

If you have any information on this modern parable, please email David Hardaker at dhardaker@protonmail.com