Brian Houston is revisiting Hillsong's humble beginnings-and warning that impressive buildings, celebrated worship and a powerful legacy cannot guarantee a church's spiritual vitality. In a JesusFollowers.TV message, Houston contrasts the church's early days in a dusty school hall with its later grandeur, offering a pointed prayer about the ministry he helped establish.
"And today, Hillsong Church is more like a lion," Houston says. "Beautiful buildings, incredible worship, amazing legacy. It's more like a lion. My prayer is it'll never become a dead lion."
The remarks come in "A Live Dog Is Better Than a Dead Lion," which premiered October 17 on the Brian & Bobbie Houston YouTube channel. Drawing on Ecclesiastes 9:4, Houston uses the unlikely comparison to ask whether churches and individual Christians can retain an impressive exterior while losing the faith that once animated them.
His comments express a warning about what Hillsong could become, rather than a declaration that the church is spiritually dead. Throughout the message, he remembers its growth warmly and argues that a large, polished church can remain spiritually alive.
Houston's most vivid memories, however, concern the days when there was little polish to admire. Recalling the church's beginnings in 1983, he describes preaching from a production road case, rearranging a cramped school hall and gathering leaders to pray in a broom cupboard after the chairs had been removed.
"It wasn't aesthetically impressive at all," he says. "But I'll tell you, the power of God was there."
The cupboard, he recalls, was so dusty that those praying almost emerged with asthma. On another occasion, the church had nothing available to collect an offering, prompting him to borrow the cap of a man attending for the first time. For Houston, those makeshift arrangements illustrate a congregation whose spiritual energy exceeded its resources.
That recollection gives the sermon its central question: when a church becomes more accomplished, does its dependence on God grow with it? Houston repeatedly challenges listeners to examine whether worship has become routine, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit has faded, or a reputation built in the past has replaced a living faith in the present.
"People can have a huge reputation built on the past," he says, "but there is no sense of God's presence."
Houston also addresses the elaborate conference openings associated with Hillsong, acknowledging that others tried to reproduce them. He maintains that the original presentations carried a message and depth, while warning that impressive execution can eventually become an end in itself.
"All the form is there," he says. "Maybe it's impressive, but the depth of the meaning is not there."
His criticism extends to religious activity that becomes preoccupied with presentation. Reading from The Message rendering of Amos 5:21-24, Houston invokes the passage's condemnation of empty gatherings, image making and noisy music, alongside its demand for justice and fairness. He then makes clear that he continues to value conferences, conventions and church meetings.
"That's not where I'm coming from," he says of becoming opposed to those gatherings. "I love all those things." His concern, he explains, is whether genuine spiritual life remains within them.
The sermon also turns toward Houston and Bobbie's current recording setup. Speaking from their home into Bobbie's phone, with his notes nearby and a microphone in place, he acknowledges the modest production behind JesusFollowers.TV.
"It's not a TV studio," he says. "It's far from it." His prayer is that the broadcasts bring people life, hope and answers, applying the same standard to his own platform that he asks listeners to apply to their churches.
Houston closes by identifying complacency, ego, compromise and resistance to change as dangers to spiritual growth. His proposed response is practical: prayer, Scripture, worship and time alone with God.
"Stay in faith. Stay close to the Lord. Stay hungry," he urges. After recalling everything from a borrowed offering cap to packed auditoriums, his appeal returns to the question running through the message: is the faith beneath the familiar routines still alive?
Watch messages from Brian and Bobbie Houston on their YouTube channel, or visit brianandbobbie.com.
