The Church tells of Brian Houston’s “indiscretion” toward women

Hillsong founder Brian Houston is under fire again after church officials said he had committed “indiscretions” against two women.

Pastor Phil Dooley, who took over the role of head of the Evangelical Church after Houston resigned earlier this year, told 800 staff members of the incident Friday.

He detailed two incidents over seven years apart, which were investigated by senior church staff, one of which led to a woman returning from church.

The first incident involved a female church member who quit after making a complaint about an “inappropriate” text message about a decade ago.

“It was along the lines of ‘if I were with you, I’d love to kiss and cuddle you,’ words of that nature,” Pastor Dooley told the congregation, according to many media reports.

The woman was said to be upset and complained to Hillsong general manager George Aghajanian before leaving her job.

The woman was paid several months’ pay as compensation with Houston’s offer.

“Pastor Brian said ‘I want to pay for this personally because it was my fault,'” Pastor Dooley said.

Pastor Dooley told staff about another incident that happened at a Sydney hotel during the church’s annual conference at Qudos Bank Arena in Homebush in 2019.

Staff were told that Houston’s drinking and prescribing anxiety medications played a role in the incident.

Pastor Dooley said he locked himself out of his own room, spending 40 minutes in the woman’s room.

“The truth is, we do not know what happened next,” said Pastor Dooley.

“The woman did not say it was sexual activity.

“Brian said there was no sexual activity, but he was in the room for 40 minutes.”

The incident was investigated by the church’s worldwide board of directors, which decided he should take a three-month break.

Hillsong was contacted for further comment.

Houston resigned from the mega-church in January while fighting allegations that he was hiding his father’s sexual abuse.

He was charged last year with concealing a count of aggravated indictment and pleaded not guilty.

He is due to return to court in Sydney in November.