(Screenshot: Brian and Bobbie Houston’s new online church JesusFollowers.TV operates a YouTube channel.)
Following their departures from Hillsong Church and Gateway Church, Brian Houston and James Morris have established new churches using different legal structures to determine how the churches will be governed.
Traditionally, articles of incorporation and bylaws have determined how churches are governed by specifying whether or not church attendees have voting rights or if church governance is reserved for a board of directors or board of elders.
More recently, Brian Houston’s prior church Hillsong popularized the practice of creating churches as limited liability companies, based on legal advice from attorneys.
Church Created as Limited Liability Company
While Houston’s website uses the name JesusFollowers.TV for his new online church, the church’s legal name appears to be Wiljalo, LLC, with church donations being collected by a separate non-profit organization named Calling and Purpose, Inc.
A search of corporation databases and secretary of state websites found no Houston-related organization named Jesus Followers.
An email was sent to Houston requesting clarification, but no response was received.
(Screenshot: Houston is an effective church marketer and uses names that have marketing appeal.)
In 2023, Winters & King, a law firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, specializing in religious non-profit legal issues, filed paperwork with the states of California and Oklahoma creating the limited liability company Wiljalo, LLC. The following screenshot reports the type of business for Wiljalo, LLC is religious services.
In his book The Business of Church, Stephen Lentz (father of former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz) wrote, “Because we live in a litigious society, it is important to isolate different initiatives that might have high risks. It is first and foremost a containment strategy. We recommend using a single-member limited liability company (LLC) to isolate different church initiatives that are vital to the footprint of the church in its community. Each activity can be vigorously pursued without putting all of the assets of the church at risk.”
Wiljalo’s principal office address is located at the law office of Winters & King.
While it might seem odd that a “church” operates from a law office, this legal strategy has existed since the 1980s. James Eugene Ewing, the camp meeting revivalist-turned direct mail fundraiser, operated Church by Mail operated from the law office of the late attorney JC Joyce also from Tulsa.
By creating the church as an LLC, Houston is accountable to no one as there is no board of directors. Houston is listed as the sole manager of the church.
The articles of incorporation for Calling and Purpose do not describe the entity as a church but, reveal the organization’s purpose is to provide “Christian ministry and leadership training.”
Brian and Bobbie Houston are two of the three Calling and Purpose board members.
Houston’s church would not be eligible to join the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability because he doesn’t have an independent board of directors.
If Houston were to receive a very large salary from the new church and the IRS were to audit, it would be problematic because Houston as manager could determine his own salary.
Passage Church
Gateway Church, the previous employer of James Morris, restricted church business decisions to its board of directors. The Gateway articles of incorporation reported, “The Corporation shall have no members.”
The new Passage Church being launched by James and Bridgette Morris will operate in a similar manner. While its articles of incorporation do provide for corporation members, it also restricts decision making to its board of directors.
Passage Church will initially operate with six board members (three couples) which include James and Bridgette Morris, Oliva and Michael Lynch, and Kelsi and Brennan Webber.