Early life

Houston was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 17 February 1954. His parents, Frank and Hazel, were then Salvation Army officers. When Houston was three his parents joined the Assemblies of God in New Zealand and began pastoring a church in Lower Hutt, near Wellington. Here Houston and his brother and three sisters spent their childhood. After completing school he went to a Bible college for three years. Shortly after completing college he met his future wife, Bobbie, on Papamoa Beach in New Zealand during a Christian convention. They were married in 1977.

Ministry

After moving to Sydney, Australia in 1978, Houston served together at the Sydney Christian Life Centre in Darlinghurst, where he became the assistant pastor to his father, Frank Houston. In 1980 he started a church on the Central Coast and revived a church in Liverpool in 1981. In 1983 Houston saw a need in Sydney's north-western suburbs and hired the Baulkham Hills Public School hall to start a new church, the Hills Christian Life Centre. The first service was held on Sunday, 14 August 1983. From an initial congregation of 45 people, the church grew to become Hillsong Church with a weekly attendance of over 20,000.

In May 1997 Houston was elected the President of the Assemblies of God in Australia (now called Australian Christian Churches) after Andrew Evans' retirement. He is a regular speaker at Christian conferences and churches across the world. He helped to create the Australian Christian Churches network of Pentecostal churches in February 2000. This alliance represents over 200,000 members in affiliate churches and was its inaugural president. He is also a member of the Australian Pentecostal Ministers Fellowship (APMF) and a pastor for Leadership Ministries Incorporated. At the 2009 National Conference of Australian Christian Churches, Wayne Alcorn was voted in to replace Houston after he chose not to run again for the position.

On 5 April 2009, it was announced that the board of Garden City Christian Church in Brisbane had nominated Houston and his wife Bobbie to become their new senior pastors. Garden City had been searching for a new senior pastor after the resignation of Bruce Hills in December 2008. On 26 April 2009, a majority of registered members of Garden City Christian Church voted to support the board's nomination.

Brian and Bobbie Houston's home, is in the suburb of Glenhaven, Sydney.

Houston's three grown children, Joel, Ben and Laura, also live in Sydney.

Joel is a musician, a songwriter and Hillsong Church's creative director.

Ben is married to Lucille.They are pastors at Hillsong's Northern Beaches extension service.

Laura married Peter Toganivalu in 2008. Laura works for the church in the areas of graphic design & marketing and is currently partnered with her husband as pastors of the Hillsong Youth Ministry.

Houston has written 12 books; his most recent, For This I Was Born, was released in 2008. His other books include For This Cause, Selah (2006), Selah 2 (2007), How To Build Great Relationships, How To Live In Health & Wholeness, How To Make Wise Decisions, How To Flourish In Life, and How To Live A Blessed Life. Books no longer in print include Get A Life (1996), You Can Change The Future, and You Need More Money (1999).