Frank Houston
| Frank Houston | |
|---|---|
| 8th General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in New Zealand | |
| In office December 1965 – June 1977 | |
| Preceded by | R R Read |
| Succeeded by | Jim Williams |
William Francis "Frank" Houston (born 22nd April 1922 in Wanganui, New Zealand[1] – Sydney, Australia; 8 November 2004), was a Pentecostal Christian pastor in the Assemblies of God in New Zealand and Australia.
Biography
He commenced ministry training as a Salvation Army officer shortly after turning 18. He married Hazel and they had five children. They transferred to the Baptist church, and later to the Assemblies of God in New Zealand. Houston founded his first Assemblies of God ministry at Lower Hutt in 1960, and served as the superintendent of the Assemblies of God in New Zealand from 1965 to 1971.
In 1977 he moved to Sydney, and founded the Sydney Christian Life Centre in "Sherbrooke Hall" in Double Bay, which was not affiliated with any denomination in its first decade, but then became an Assemblies of God church. With further growth it moved to Darlinghurst, and then warehouse premises in the inner Sydney suburb of Waterloo, which housed a 600 seat auditorium, a Bible and Creative Arts College, and many other ministry arms. He was known by those close to him in the church as "the Bishop" (not as an official title but as a humorous reference to mainstream churches). He was also involved in over twenty CLCs being opened throughout New South Wales, Australia and overseas. Houston served as pastor there for more than two decades and in senior positions within the Assemblies of God in Australia.
In 1999, after consultation amongst senior pastoral staffs of the church and the staff of Hills Christian Life Centre, a daughter church pastored by his son Brian, the churches were merged and Sydney CLC became the "City Location" of Hills CLC.
In 2000 Houston confessed to the sexual abuse of a boy in New Zealand 30 years earlier. In response, Brian Houston, who was then also the National President of the Assemblies of God in Australia, fired his father shortly afterward.[2]
In August 2007 further allegations emerged that Houston had sexually abused a trainee pastor during counseling sessions in the early 1980s.[3]
He is the subject of the biography Being Frank (1989), authored by his wife Hazel.
| Preceded by R Read |
General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in New Zealand 1967–1977 |
Succeeded by Jim Williams |
References
- ↑ Hazel Houston, Being Frank: The Frank Houston Story. London: Marshall Pickering, 1989, p24
- ↑ Stephen Gibbs (2004-11-13). "Hillsong farewells a lost sheep pioneer". Sydney Morning Herald (John Fairfax Holdings). Retrieved 2006-06-21.
- ↑ David Marr (2007-08-03). "Hillsong - the church with no answers". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2007-08-03.