![]() ![]() Its songs have been blasted in churches from Uzbekistan to Papua New Guinea. The church has drawn, by some estimates, 100,000 people to its pews each weekend and racked up millions of followers on social media. It attracted celebrities like Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Kevin Durant. Carl Lentz, a so-called pastor to the stars who baptized singer Justin Bieber in 2014, was fired Wednesday by Hillsong Church for reasons including what the megachurch called moral failures. Using a “seeker sensitive” approach, it sought to attract young Christians in big cities, or people wary of or unfamiliar with more traditional churches. Powered by a lucrative recording label that dominated Christian contemporary music, Hillsong sold millions of albums and lured large crowds to arena concert performances. It became a global juggernaut at a time when religion was struggling in a secularizing Europe and North America. The Hillsong megachurch grew out of the merger of two organizations: Sydney Christian Life Center, founded by Frank Houston in 1977, and Hills Christian Life Center, founded by his son. ![]() His father, who died in 2004, was never charged. In 2014, the commission heard evidence that his father had sexually abused a 7-year-old boy decades earlier. The police investigation came after an allegation was made to the Australian royal commission on child sexual abuse. Houston has entered a not guilty plea, according to the Sydney court where his case is being heard. Houston has vigorously denied the accusation and reiterated in his statement on Sunday that “these allegations came as a shock to me, and it is my intention to vigorously defend them.” Houston, now 67, “knew information relating to the sexual abuse of a young male in the 1970s and failed to bring that information to the attention of police.” Houston in August 2021 with one count of concealing a serious indictable offense by his father, Frank Houston. The church’s leader, Brian Houston, said in a statement published on Hillsong’s website on Sunday that he had agreed to give up “all ministry responsibilities” until the end of 2022 to focus on his legal battle following the advice of Hillsong’s legal advisers. ![]() MELBOURNE, Australia - The leader of Hillsong, the Australian megachurch that has attracted throngs of young people and celebrities worldwide, has stepped down as he prepares to fight a criminal charge of concealing historical child sexual abuse by his father. ![]()
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