Frank Houston — Quotes Examined

"Frank would visit my room on the excuse of going to the toilet. This black shadow would come into my room."

David Cowdrey was eight years old in 1962 when Frank Houston — then a pastor and future General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in New Zealand — began sexually abusing him during Saturday night prayer meetings at the Cowdrey family home. The family had invited Houston as a trusted man of God. Instead, he was a predator who used spiritual authority as a mask for evil. This is not theological error to be refuted — it is the fruit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, exactly as Jesus warned.

"I was paid for my silence."

Brett Sengstock was sexually abused by pastor Frank Houston from the age of seven. When the abuse was finally exposed in 1999, Frank Houston met Sengstock at a McDonald's and signed a napkin agreeing to pay $10,000 — money Sengstock describes as hush money. Brian Houston, who by then led the merged Hillsong Church and served as National President of the AOG, never reported the abuse to police. The institution chose silence, money, and reputation over justice for a child. This is the antithesis of everything Scripture demands.