Hillsong Church's co-founder Brian Houston is resigning from his role as global senior pastor, the church announced Wednesday. Last week, the megachurch said an internal probe into allegations of inappropriate behavior revealed that Houston "breached the Hillsong Pastor's Code of Conduct."
"We understand there will be much emotion at this news, and we all share these feelings," Hillsong said in a statement Wednesday. "Irrespective of the circumstances around this, we can all agree that Brian and Bobbie have served God faithfully over many decades and that their ministry has resulted in millions of people across the world being impacted by the power, grace, and love of Jesus Christ."
On March 18, Hillsong's global board announced it had reviewed two complaints made against Houston over the past 10 years.
The first accused Houston of sending "inappropriate text messages" to a member of the church's staff around a decade ago. Hillsong said Houston had developed a dependency on sleeping pills and was under the influence at the time of the incident. The church said Houston "immediately apologised to the person," but that the staff member ultimately resigned.
"To this former staff member, we again apologise and would welcome the opportunity to provide further assistance if this is needed," Hillsong said.
The second complaint accused Houston of "knocking on the door of a hotel room that was not his" at a Hillsong conference and "entering this room and spending time with the female occupant." Before the incident, Hillsong said the pastor "became disoriented" after he consumed a higher-than-prescribed dose of anti-anxiety medication along with alcohol.
The church noted that while the investigation into the second complaint contained details that were unable to be sustained, other important elements were and that "the conduct was of serious concern."
"We felt that we did all we could to assist the person who made the complaint and treated this person with compassion and respect, and also abided by her requirement for confidentiality," Hillsong said.
Following the probe, Houston agreed to carry out certain measures, but in late 2021 the church said it had to take "further action" due to Houston failing to take all of the agreed steps.
In January, Houston announced he would be stepping aside from all ministry responsibilities but did not mention the misconduct complaints. At the time, he said he was leaving to focus on fighting a charge brought by police in Australia which alleged he concealed child sex offenses in a court case involving his father.
Hillsong said last week that the reasons Houston gave for stepping aside at the beginning of the year "were genuine," and that it did not make a public statement at the time because it was "still working through a number of issues privately with Pastor Brian."
The church, which averages 150,000 attendees weekly across its 30 locations around the world, said its governance structure and processes will undergo an independent review following Houston's resignation.
Houston's resignation comes years after Hillsong New York City's lead pastor Carl Lentz was fired from the church for leadership problems, trust breaches and "moral failures," according to Entertainment Tonight.
"It would not be appropriate for us to go into detail about the events that led to this decision," Houston said in a statement at the time. "Our focus at this time is to honor God and pastorally care for our East Coast church community as well as the Lentz family."