Introduction
William Francis "Frank" Houston (born 22 April 1922, Whanganui, New Zealand – died 8 November 2004, Sydney, Australia), was a Pentecostal Christian pastor in the Assemblies of God in New Zealand and Australia. Frank Houston co-founded the Hillsong Church in Sydney with his son, Pastor Brian Houston.
Biography
Houston commenced ministry training as a Salvation Army officer shortly after turning 18. He married Hazel and they had five children. The couple transferred their allegiance to the Baptist church, and later to the Assemblies of God in New Zealand. Houston initially attended the Ellerslie Assembly in 1960, but later transferred to the Lower Hutt Assemblies of God, and served as the superintendent of the Assemblies of God in New Zealand from 1965 to 1971.
In 1977 Houston 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. Houston 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 Christian Life Centres being opened throughout New South Wales and overseas. Houston served as pastor at his church for more than two decades, and in senior positions within the Assemblies of God in Australia.
In 1999, after consultation amongst senior pastoral staff of the church, and the staff of Hills Christian Life Centre, a daughter church pastored by his son Brian, the churches were merged to become the Hillsong Church.
Sexual allegations
In 2000 Houston confessed to the sexual abuse of a boy in New Zealand 30 years earlier. Shortly afterward, in response, Brian Houston, who was then also the National President of the Assemblies of God in Australia, dismissed his father.
In August 2007 further allegations emerged that Houston had sexually abused a trainee pastor during counselling sessions in the early 1980s.
On 8 October 2014 Brian Houston admitted to a Sydney hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that his father was guilty of other cases of sexual abuse against children.
Houston is the subject of the biography Being Frank (1989), authored by his wife Hazel.
Death
Houston died from a stroke on 8 November 2004. Hazel died 6 months earlier.