The New York Times reported that the Australian church has lost nine of its 16 American church campuses in the past two weeks.

Houston resigned on March 23 after the Hillsong board released a statement saying they believed he had sent inappropriate text messages to a staff member and spent time in a woman's hotel room. The board accepted the resignation.

He had been on leave of absence from his duties as senior pastor since January as he faced trial for allegedly failing to report sexual abuse by his late father, also a minister.

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Australian news service Eternity News reported that the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney deferred the pastor's next hearing until Jan. 27.

Houston, who founded Hillsong in the Sydney suburbs in 1983, is charged with concealing a serious indictable offense of another person.

At issue is the allegation that the 67-year-old had known about, yet failed to report to authorities, the sexual abuse of a young man by his father, the late Frank Houston, during the 1970s.

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The announcement comes amid the church's barrage of multi-million dollar international lawsuits, his wife's apology for body-shaming slurs and a hard-partying top staffer flaunting wild extramarital sex romps.

The 66-year-old told congregants the news at the Australia-based church's annual Vision Sunday event this weekend.

While Houston and his controversial sex-book-author wife Bobbie will continue to be involved in Hillsong, he will be shifting responsibility for what is the crux of the empire to Gary Clarke, who is currently the lead pastor of Hillsong's UK branch, he explained.

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