Frank Houston
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Frank Houston born William Francis Houston in Wanganui, New Zealand, 1922 died Sydney, Australia, 8 November 2004.
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.
Houston founded his first Assemblies of God ministry at Lower Hutt in 1960, later becoming the superintendent of the New Zealand Assemblies of God.
In 1977 he and his family moved to Sydney, and founded the Sydney Christian Life Centre in Darlinghurst - which was not affiliated with any denomination in its first decade, but then became an Assemblies of God "pinup church". With further growth it moved to warehouse premises in the inner Sydney suburb of Waterloo, which housed a 2,000 seat auditorium, a Bible and Creative Arts College, and many other ministry arms. He was awarded an honorary doctorate.[citation needed] Known in the church as "the Bishop" 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. He was purportedly received over $100,000 yearly in nontaxable "love offerings" on the global Pentecostal preaching and healing circuit, in addition to his A/G minister's stipend.
In 2000 he was advised to resign his ministerial credentials by his own son, Brian Houston the President of the Assemblies of God in Australia, after Pastor Frank confessed that he had engaged in paedophile sexual activities with a teenage boy while ministering in New Zealand some thirty years earlier. This revelation came as a shock to the members of the Australian A/G. However, it is probably true to say that Frank Houston was responsible for the conversion to Christianity of thousands in Australia, around South East Asia and the world, and he is remembered as the father of the Christian Life Centre churches in Australia.
After consultation amongst senior pastoral staff of the church and Brian Houston, and pastor of a daughter church, Hillsong, the churches were merged and CLCS became its second campus.
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