Brian Houston Announces His Future is Bright: ‘At Least Another Decade of Productive Ministry’
As if he's ever had a single minute of "productive ministry"
A week after Brian Houston uploaded a Facebook video about his former church Hillsong, blaming them for his resignation and insisting he did nothing wrong, He and his wife Bobbie held an “Evening with Bobbie and Brian” where Houston confirmed they had plans for a another decade of public ministry.
Taking place at the Pioneer Theater in Castle Hill, the event featured worship, prayer and preaching by the duo. The event was originally only supposed to be one night, but they added several more shows due to overwhelming demand. Though the event was free, attendees were asked to reserve a seat which caused chaos after several “unhinged and childish people” took advantage by reserving seats with names such as ‘Carl Lentz’ and ‘Carl Lentz’s Mom,’ forcing organizers to put out an open invite to overcome these space limitations.
His sermon was a reheated message that he’s been preaching up and down the United States since being axed for his indiscretions, speaking on the importance of having “purpose”, but his early comments were the most salient.
I had it in my heart to just have a meeting where we get the chance to connect with a lot of friends, a lot of people who we’ve done a lot of life with and, of course, some faces we don’t know so well as well, and it’s already been good for our souls.
He continues:
So anyway, we’re glad to see you all. Bobbi and I, we’ve just been really praying about the future. What next year, obviously, this is a big year. At the end of the year, I’ve gotten a bit to get through. And we know you’re praying for us and we feel that prayer, we feel that sense of people leaning in, and I believe God answers prayer.
But after that, so 2023, that’s when we’ll really start to think about what the next part of our lives are going to look like. But I’m upbeat. I feel encouraged, believe it or not, and it’s been a hell of a year.
You know, I’m pretty good at not looking back at and getting regret over so much lost. I mean, I’m pretty good at looking forward and getting excited about the next 10 years. So, again, just pray for us that we will really hear the voice of the Spirit. We’re going to have at least another decade, at least another decade of productive ministry, fruitful ministry, whatever that looks like, we’ve always just been about helping people, save people growing in the things of God. And that’s what we’ll continue to be doing.”
Though he is not expecting to announce his plans until 2023, there is no world in which Houston doesn’t reveal that he’s starting a new church, and he will likely have thousands of people attending on day one.
His plans may get complicated, however, because Houston is scheduled to appear in court on December 2 after pleading “not guilty” to charges of concealing the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old boy by his deceased father more than 30 years ago- a case which investigators took two years to build.
If convicted, he faced five years in prison.
In 2014, a Royal Commission confirmed that Pastor Frank Houston, who had a sexual interest in the Lord’s little ones, confessed to abusing the young boy in 1969 and 1970. Brian Houston was made aware of the allegations in 1999, five years before his father passed, but did not go to the police and turn his father in.