Pastor carl lentz pool7/23/2023 Neither Hillsong nor Carl Lentz immediately responded to requests for comment.In a letter emailed by Brian Houston, the Hillsong Church's founding pastor, to Hillsong East Coast members and staff in New York City on Wednesday, Houston announced Carl Lentz had been terminated from his position as lead pastor. Hillsong is also known for its popular worship music and conferences. It now has locations in 28 countries around the world and, pre-pandemic, saw an average 150,000 attenders each week, according to its website. Pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston founded the original Hillsong Church in 1983 in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. “While I have no doubt in my heart that this is the right course of action, I must mention Bobbie’s and my personal sadness, as we have known Laura her entire life and Carl for well over 20 years,” Houston wrote in his letter. He worked in youth ministry in Virginia Beach before moving to Brooklyn’s trendy Williamsburg neighborhood to launch Hillsong’s first US location, according to media reports. Lentz was raised in Virginia and played basketball at North Carolina State, where he told the New York Post he was “doing my own thing, being my own god.” He moved to Los Angeles to attend King’s College and Seminary, then headed to Australia to join Hillsong’s training program, Hillsong College, where he met his wife, Laura. Lentz, relatively unknown before taking the helm of Hillsong NYC, became a darling of major media outlets for his hipster dress, his tattoo-covered arms and his celebrity congregants, including Justin Bieber, who according to GQ was baptized by the pastor in the bathtub of Tyson Chandler, a New York Knicks player at the time. Indeed, their venue, Irving Plaza in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan, was a church by day and concert hall by night. The worshippers who flocked there were-like their lead pastor-young, hip and dressed looking more like they were headed to a rock concert than to Sunday morning church. The church, part of the global network of Hillsong churches, quickly drew attention for the long lines waiting to be “let in” on Sunday mornings-and for the demographic waiting in those lines. Lentz, along with Houston’s son Joel, began Hillsong NYC, the first Hillsong East Coast church, in 2010. Friends and congregants include Justin Bieber and his wife, Hailey Baldwin Bieber, as well as the Jenner sisters. Lentz, 41, was one of a number of pastors GQ Magazine has described as “hypepriests” who lead churches frequented by celebrities. “I know this will come as a shock to you, but please know that this action was not taken lightly and was done in the best interests of everyone, including Pastor Carl,” Houston wrote. The email, which was obtained by Religion News Service, cited the reason for termination as “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures,” but did not reveal any details beyond that, saying to do so “would not be appropriate.” On Wednesday, Hillsong founding pastor Brian Houston notified staff and members of Hillsong East Coast by email that Carl Lentz had been terminated as lead pastor for the megachurch’s New York City location. Original post (November 5): In an Instagram post on Thursday, Carl Lentz, the lead pastor of Hillsong NYC, admitted to an extra-marital affair, ending a day of speculation as to why he had been fired from Hillsong. “We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning,” Houston said in a tweet, adding, “The best is yet to come.” Update (November 12): Brian Houston, global senior pastor of the international Hillsong Church, announced Thursday that an independent investigator will review the “inner workings” of Hillsong’s New York City branch after the firing of its lead pastor, Carl Lentz, last week.
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