Hot Mic Catches Bobbie Houston Telling Brian To ‘Hook’ Audience To Donate to New Online Church

Last year, Brian and Bobbie Houston announced they were starting a new online church in 2024.

Online watchdog ChurchWatch reports that the Houston’s new online church will be called “Jesus Followers TV” and will be founded with the help of David Hall’s Revival City Church in Adelaide, South Australia.

On March 23, 2022, Brian resigned from his position as global senior pastor of Hillsong Church after a series of controversial issues, including accusations that he “breached the Hillsong Pastor’s code of conduct” by behaving inappropriately toward two women. On Aug. 17, 2023, an Australian magistrate found Brian not guilty of covering up his father’s sexual abuse.

ChurchWatch also leaked two audio files from a behind-the-scenes conversation that took place during the recording of a message for the online church.

The hot mic audio was accidentally uploaded to Revival City Church’s YouTube page. In the recordings, Bobbie can be heard telling her husband to “hook” the audience so they don’t leave before he gives the offering announcement.

“So when do you think I should do the offering?” Brian asked one of the producers. “Before the message or after the message?”

RELATED: Former Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston Plans To Start a New Church in 2024

Bobbie responded that she believes it should be at the end of the message. “But,” she told Brian, “You’ve got to hook them so that people don’t leave.”

The conversation then turned to Bobbie’s Rolex watch, which fell off during the filming. Brian went on to respond to a question from someone on set about getting the watch fixed.

“Well, they may not like that one because that’s a ‘doctored Rolex,’” Brian said. He then joked that the watch was his but that his wife stole it. “The thing is this watch is a Rolex, then it went to a company in England that put this black coating on it—[Rolex] would say this is worthless…in terms of their evaluation.”

During what appears to be the portion of filming containing Brian’s message, Brian can be heard sharing how he and Bobbie plan to visit the communities they are building, mentioning London, New York, and Sydney.

“Well the one thing I can tell you is that we’re not just wanting to just put things on TV,” Brian said. “We’re trying to build a community. And so we learned, especially through COVID, that there’s many different ways now we can gather and connect as the church.”