Hillsong Los Angeles Church To Open Confirmed by Brian Houston 

Hillsong church is expanding in America once again. 

They took over the streets of New York City when Pastor Carl Lentz and worship leader Joel Houston started Hillsong NYC on Oct 17, 2010 and kicked off weekly services on Feb. 13, 2011. They have coined two phrases that they use often to describe Hillsong NYC that I love #churchinthewild and #occupyallstreets. 

Now Pastor Brian Houston, the pastor of Hillsong in Australia, has confirmed in an open letter the launch of a new Hillsong campus on the west coast of the U.S. in Los Angeles. 

"Yes, its true - Hillsong Church is expanding into Southern California!! In a city as influential as LA - a city obsessed with putting names in bright lights - our heart and our prayer is that our church will add to the growing skyline a name Higher, Brighter and Greater than any other...JESUS," writes Houston. 

His son Joel, singer/guitarist/songwriter with Hillsong United helped launch Hillsong NY and now his other son Ben will be the pastor of Hillsong LA. 

The NY location has been a huge success with more and more service times being added each week and they hope to have just as much of an impact in LA. 

Here is what Ben Houston had to say about Hillsong LA coming together:

 "Coming into the beginning of this year I started feeling God stirring me towards this. I have always loved people - loved seeing people find Jesus, loved seeing the Church do what it can to help others. And I kept thinking about the possibility of doing what we do, as Hillsong Church, in a city of millions like Los Angeles. Any time I was in prayer, or writing, or any other God-moments the same thought would keep going through my mind and burning inside of me. It got to the point where I spoke up to Lucille about the possibility of us moving to LA to plant a church. She is the most amazingly supportive and releasing wife and was shocked at first, but excited to see if God was in this. It didn't make a lot of sense in the natural - as we love Sydney, have an amazing role in the church, and our family is very set up here. But we couldn't shake that God was calling us out of our comfort zone to do something significant for Him. Over the next couple of months, we prayed about it and got to the point where we knew we needed to speak up. We talked with my parents and wondered if they had any plans towards the west coast of the USA. They also took it as a bit of a surprise, but were supportive of us being obedient to God. Now here we are. We don't know exactly what this will look like; we don't know many of the details; but I am confident that if God is in this, and if we are obedient, anything is possible!"

The planning stages are still in their 'infancy' and so there are no details on when Hillsong LA will start meeting. However, we are sure it will be big and everyone will be well aware when this takes place. 

We are excited to see what God does through Hillsong in the city of Los Angeles. 

Read Pastor Brian Houston's full letter about the launching of Hillsong LA HERE.