Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed

What Is the Series About?

Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed is a four-part documentary series released on Discovery+ on March 24, 2022, that investigates the sprawling scandal ecosystem surrounding Hillsong Church, one of the world's most influential evangelical megachurches. Rather than focusing on a single crime, the series maps the full arc of institutional failure: child sexual abuse and its alleged cover-up at the highest levels of church leadership, the spectacular fall of celebrity pastor Carl Lentz, allegations of financial misconduct, labor exploitation, and a deeply coercive internal culture that survivors say silenced victims for decades.

The docuseries arrives at a moment of acute institutional crisis for Hillsong. By the time cameras rolled, the church had already lost its most prominent American face, was under scrutiny from Australian charities regulators, and its founder was facing a criminal charge in New South Wales. The series weaves together survivor testimony, former staff interviews, and investigative reporting to argue that the abuses were not isolated incidents but symptoms of a church structure built to protect its leaders above all else.

The Case

Frank Houston: The Abuse at the Root

The darkest thread running through the docuseries is the conduct of Frank Houston, Brian Houston's father and a foundational figure in Australian and New Zealand Pentecostalism. According to reporting drawn upon in the series, Frank Houston sexually abused boys over the course of his ministry, with the abuse estimated to have taken place between approximately 1965 and 1977. At least eight men came forward with allegations in connection with coverage surrounding the docuseries, and reports indicate as many as nine boys may have been victimized in total.

Frank Houston was never prosecuted. He died in 2004, taking the full scope of his crimes with him. His victims, unnamed in the available public record, were left without any formal judicial reckoning.

Brian Houston: The Concealment Charge

The series' most consequential legal thread concerns Brian Houston, the founder of Hillsong Church, who in August 2021 was charged by New South Wales authorities with concealing child sexual abuse. Prosecutors alleged that Houston had known about his father's sexual abuse of a young male in the 1970s and had failed to report that information to police, a criminal offense under New South Wales law.

Houston pleaded not guilty. His trial began in December 2022 and concluded with a landmark ruling: a NSW magistrate found him not guilty, accepting that he had a reasonable excuse under the relevant legislation for not going to the police. The acquittal was reported by the BBC in August 2023. The charge had nonetheless placed a global spotlight on how Hillsong's leadership had handled knowledge of abuse within its own founding family.

Carl Lentz: Misconduct in New York

Carl Lentz, the charismatic senior pastor of Hillsong New York City who cultivated friendships with global celebrities, was fired by Hillsong in November 2020 following the revelation of an extramarital affair. The series uses his downfall as a lens into the broader culture of the church, examining allegations of exploitation, abuse of power, and misconduct that went well beyond a single affair. Lentz has not faced criminal charges; the available sources describe his case in terms of church discipline and civil misconduct rather than criminal prosecution.

Jason Mays and Anna Crenshaw

The docuseries also references the case of Jason Mays, a Hillsong staff member accused of indecent assault against Anna Crenshaw, a former Hillsong College student. Crenshaw is the only victim identified by name in the source material. Her age at the time of the offense is not recorded in publicly available reporting. The precise outcome of the Mays case has not been confirmed in the available record.

Financial and Institutional Misconduct

Beyond the individual criminal and disciplinary cases, the series draws on reporting including investigations by Australian regulators into whether Hillsong misled charities authorities to argue that financial opacity and exploitation of volunteer labor were structural features of the institution. Former church members describe a system in which questioning leadership was culturally forbidden, creating conditions in which abuse could persist and accusers could be isolated.

Production

The series is a four-part production released on Discovery+ in the United States on March 24, 2022. It has also been made available through Investigation Discovery, Foxtel, and Fetch in other markets, reflecting the international reach of both the platform and the story. The director has not been confirmed in publicly available documentation. The production incorporates extensive first-person testimony from survivors and former Hillsong insiders, alongside documentary footage and news archive material.

The Apple TV episode listing identifies at least four episodes, including one titled The Newest Revelations, suggesting the series was structured to accommodate an evolving and still-unfolding story at the time of production.

Reception

The series attracted significant attention on release, timed as it was to a moment when Hillsong's institutional credibility was collapsing in real time. Critics noted the docuseries' effectiveness in giving voice to survivors who had long felt silenced by the church's culture of loyalty and non-disclosure. Reviews also flagged the series' breadth, covering financial misconduct, sexual abuse, and celebrity culture simultaneously, as both a strength and an occasional structural challenge. An IMDb rating has not been confirmed in the available sources. The series was reviewed by outlets ranging from secular entertainment press to religious publications, with Premier Christianity among those examining its theological and institutional implications.

The Case Today

The legal and institutional fallout from the Hillsong scandal continued well beyond the docuseries' March 2022 release. Brian Houston's criminal trial ran through late 2022 and concluded with his acquittal in August 2023, when the court accepted his reasonable excuse defense. That acquittal closed the most prominent criminal chapter of the saga without a conviction, though it did not resolve the underlying questions about institutional knowledge and cover-up that the series raises.

Hillsong Church itself has undergone significant restructuring in the wake of the scandals. Carl Lentz has not returned to ministry in any official Hillsong capacity. The cases involving Frank Houston's victims, men who came forward without ever seeing their abuser face justice, remain unresolved in the sense that no legal accountability was ever possible after his 2004 death. For those survivors, the docuseries represents one of the few public acknowledgments of what they say they experienced.