Brian Houston
Born	17 February 1954 (1954-02-17) (age 55) Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation	Pastor
Spouse(s)	Bobbie Houston
Children	Joel, Ben and Laura
Website [1]

Brian Houston (born 17 February 1954, in Auckland, New Zealand) is a Pentecostal Christian pastor in the Australian Christian Churches. He is currently the Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia, Australia's largest congregation^{[citation needed]} with a current membership of over 21,000 people.^{[citation needed]} He was also the National President of Australian Christian Churches, the largest Pentecostal denomination in Australia, from 1997 to 2009. The denomination is the Australian organisation of the Assemblies of God.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Ministry 2 Family 3 Books 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Houston was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 17 February 1954. His parents, Frank and Hazel, were then Salvation Army officers. When Houston was three his parents joined the Assemblies of God in New Zealand and began pastoring a church in Lower Hutt, near Wellington. Here Houston and his brother and three sisters spent their childhood. After completing school he went to a Bible college for three years. Shortly after completing college he met his future wife, Bobbie, on Papamoa Beach in New Zealand during a Christian convention. They were married in 1977.

[edit] Ministry

After moving to Sydney, Australia in 1978, Houston served at the Sydney Christian Life Centre in Darlinghurst, where he became the assistant pastor to his father, Frank Houston. In 1980 he started a church on the Central Coast and revived a church in Liverpool in 1981, which are both thriving churches today. In 1983 Houston saw a need in Sydney's north-western suburbs and hired the Baulkham Hills Public School hall to start a new church, the Hills Christian Life Centre. The first service was held on Sunday, 14 August 1983. From an initial congregation of 45 people it is today the 21,000 member Hillsong Church.

In May 1997 Houston was elected the President of the Assemblies of God in Australia (now called Australian Christian Churches) after Andrew Evans' retirement. His passion for leadership and trying to inspire people to live to their full potential and make a difference in the world has made Houston a popular speaker at Christian conferences and churches across the globe. He helped to create the Australian Christian Churches network of Pentecostal churches in February 2000. This alliance represents over 200,000 members in affiliate churches [2] and was its inaugural president. [3] He is also a member of the Australia Pentecostal Ministers Fellowship (APMF) [4] and a pastor for Leadership Ministries Incorporated. At the 2009 National Conference of Australian Christian Churches, Wayne Alcorn was voted in to replace Brian after he chose not to run again for the title.

On 5th April 2009, it was announced that the board of Garden City Christian Church in Brisbane had nominated Brian and his wife Bobbie to become their new senior pastors. Garden City had been searching for a new Senior Pastor after the resignation of Bruce Hills in December 2008. On 26th April 2009, a majority of registered members of Garden City Christian Church voted to support the board's nomination.

[edit] Family

The Houstons live in Sydney, Australia. Their three grown children also live in Sydney; Joel, Ben and Laura. Joel is a musician, a songwriter and Hillsong Church's creative director. Ben is married to Lucille (their first child, Savannah, was born in 2008.) Ben and Lucille are pastors at Hillsong's Northern Beaches extension service. Laura, who married Peter Toganivalu in 2008 also works for the church in the areas of graphic design and marketing.

Brian's father Frank Houston founded the Sydney Christian Life Centre in 1977 at Waterloo. He was the most senior Assemblies of God figure in NSW before he was sacked by his own son after he admitted having sexually abused a boy in New Zealand more than 30 years ago^[1].

[edit] Books

Brian Houston has authored 12 books, of which his most recent, For This I Was Born, was released in 2008. His other books include For This Cause, Selah (2006), Selah 2 (2007), How To Build Great Relationships, How To Live In Health & Wholeness, How To Make Wise Decisions, How To Flourish In Life, and How To Live A Blessed Life. Books no longer in print include Get A Life (1996), You Can Change The Future, and You Need More Money (1999). The last publication has landed Houston as being understood as a prosperity theologian.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Brian and Bobbie Houston's website
• Hillsong Church website
• Australian Story interview with Brian Houston
• A brief history of the Assemblies of God in Australia
• [5]

Preceded by Andrew Evans

National President of Australian Christian Churches 1997–2009

Succeeded by Wayne Alcorn

v • d • e National Presidents of Australian Christian Churches (the Assemblies of God in Australia) Charles Greenwood | Henry Wiggins | Philip Duncan | Edward Irish | Alec Davidson | James Walace | Ralph Read | Andrew Evans | Brian Houston | Wayne Alcorn

v • d • e Hillsong Ministries Hillsong Church (Brisbane Campus) - Hillsong Church London - Hillsong Church Kiev - Hillsong Church Cape Town - Hillsong Church Stockholm - Hillsong United - Hillsong College Hillsong Music Albums - Musicians - Songs - Hillsong United band Leadership Brian Houston - Bobbie Houston - Darlene Zschech - Reuben Morgan- Joel Houston Events Hillsong Conferences (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) - Colour Conference