The Lentzes and Sunshine Sachs parted ways. Crenshaw left Hillsong College and the church, enrolling at a different Australian Bible college. Houston contacted his New York pastor right away. And New York City had a reputation as a wasteland for new churches. I do believe God blesses people but I also believe in purpose, he said in a 2018 interview. Crenshaw says Aghajanian said, How do you think they feel? Gossip blogs noted the shots were the first time Lentz had been spotted in public since entering rehab. But the wounds from Sydney remained. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the role of the person who abused Anna Crenshaw when she was a child. From Spot/Vasquez-Max Lopes/Maciel/Backgrid. Days after the meeting, the Nigerian student attended a special dinner party for Hillsong congregants who tithe above 10 percent. In November, celebrity preacher at the church's New York church Carl Lentz had a spectacular fall from grace, fired for "moral failings" after his infidelities were publicly revealed. Those guys were dicking down! says a former Hillsong volunteer who spent time at the building. While the source suggested that Termini had grown tired of Hillsongs controversies, the pastor struck a more sanguine tone when reached by text message. A current pastor at the megachurch, who also worked as a nanny for the Lentz family, said that he threatened and belittled her when the two discussed his alleged abuse. (The New York Post first reported the letters existence. It is also a multimedia conglomerate that produces documentaries, books, and chart-topping musical acts. Hillsong used a nearby hotel to simulcast for overflow crowds. (It's unclear whether these amounts were AUD or USD). But the proposed rental eventually became a purchase. The popularity of the church Hillsong soared in the U.S. thanks in part to Carl Lentz, its New York lead pastor, whose ties to Justin Bieber and pro athletes made him a celebrity until he was. They hung out at neighborhood bars, getting drunk and once starting a fight. After selling their house in Montclair, New Jersey, Lentz and his wife Laura relocated to . In the months after Lentzs ouster, former congregants and volunteers spoke out about scores of experiences of exploitation at the church. Some congregants poked fun at the protective measures. Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. Im in the beginning stages of planning to start a church in Hawaii where my brother, his wife and baby live, Termini said, adding that Pastor Brian and I have a close relationship and he has given me his blessing. (Hillsong didnt return a request for comment, but following the publication of this story, Houston and Termini both announced Terminis departure from the church on Instagram. Since his days as a student at Hillsong College in the mid-2000s, Lentz had established himself as a golden child of the church with access to Houstons tight inner circle. Roxanne Stone. He frequently responded to her social media posts and invited her to staff meetings and special events. He never actually interacts with the people he ministers to., Although we have had very strong leadership in other countries, it is important to note that this tremendous growth has contributed to a lack of supporting infrastructure and oversight in the United States, Brian Houston said in a statement. The only people who need to know are me and your psychiatrist. (A spokesperson said the church was unaware of the incident.) Wed, 05 May 2021. I would ask that you simply add, even in your own processing right now, phrases like from what I know and in my opinion rather than this is the state of our church., In a meeting to address the contents of the letter, Lentz said, Youve got some guts bccing the Houstons.. According to the same report, however, many of Lentzs powerful celebrity allies had turned their backs. The ex-leader and the woman, who is now his girlfriend, told V.F. Before greeting guests and distributing literature, the host team checks the theater seats for vomit left over from the night before. In his last year of school, Lentz interned for Houston, washing his car and picking up his dry cleaning. In the Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed premiere, former Hillsong contestant Jaclyn Hayes opened up about Carl's alleged sex and dating rules. Former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz has been spotted for the first time since finishing his 30-day stint in rehab He spent Christmas and New Years Day in rehab in a program for 'depression,. Former congregants have described Termini as not only an integral player in Lentzs kingdomthey employ some of the same emotive style in their sermonsbut an avid protector of it. After she had been attending Hillsong for some time, Mary Jones says she shared an idea with Keatinge. Lentz was for years the New York pastor and face of Hillsong, a global megachurch that counted Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez among its followers at the peak of its cultural power. Cover Story: The Charming Billie Eilish Kobe Bryants Tragic Flight, One Year Later How the PGA Polished Off Donald Trump Could the Monarchy Go Over a Cliff After Queen Elizabeth Dies? 36 Essential Items for Recreating Iconic Billie Eilish Nail Moments Inside 2021s Celebrity-Gossip Renaissance What Will Melania Trumps Legacy Be? From the Archive: The Brant Brothers Quest to Conquer Manhattan Not a subscriber? In September 2016, Jones emailed Lentz asking that Hillsong address some of the things that bothered her about the church: its racial disparity, cliques, cronyism, overworked volunteers. Kane Keatinge responded to Williams report promptly, setting up a meeting. When I stood up, Jason grabbed me, putting his hand between my legs and his head on my stomach and began kissing my stomach, Crenshaw later wrote in a statement. Carl Lentz pastors Hillsong Church NYC, a thriving Christian congregation with locations in Manhattan and New Jersey. In an Instagram post that included photos of palm trees and a blue sky, Laura Lentz alluded to the backlash that their family faced following the ordeal. Met Gala 2023 Red Carpet: See All the Fashion, Outfits & Looks, Get Him Out of Here: Donald Trump Tossed NBC Reporters Phones During Tirade Aboard Campaign Plane, How to Watch the 2023 Met Gala Live Stream. Left, photograph by Danielle Levitt; right, by Wagner Az/Backgrid. Everyone Knows It Now. Exclusive Excerpt: An Icy Death at the Bottom of the World Lolita, Blake Bailey, and Me Kate Middleton and the Future of the Monarchy The Occasional Terror of Dating in the Digital Age The 13 Best Face Oils for Healthy, Balanced Skin From the Archive: Tinder and the Dawn of the Dating Apocalypse Sign up for the Royal Watch newsletter to receive all the chatter from Kensington Palace and beyond. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. (Lentz declined to comment for this story.). On January 3, Reed Bogard and his wife, Jess, the pastors who got Hillsong NYC off the ground a decade ago before moving on to lead the church in Dallas, announced their departure in a video message. In January 2020, Mays pleaded guilty to indecent assault and received two years probation and mandatory counseling. In mid-November 2020, a crisis manager from the public relations firm Sunshine Sachs took on a new client: Carl Lentz, former head of Hillsong Church's four locations in the American Northeast.. Missing the community Hillsong provided, William organized his own prayer meeting. He responded, in part, Im not sure if you realize this either: cliquism, [cronyism], overworking volunteersthese are subjective social constructs.. In 2010 filings he claimed that he earned $300,000 a year. Soon after, Harvest Time Church in Greenwich, Connecticut, announced that Blaze and Desiree Robertson, formerly of Hillsong Connecticut, were being considered as its new executive pastors. Theyre one of Hollywoods brightest starsand most troubled actors. In class, Lentz established himself as a brash and discursive presence. This is up from about one-quarter in 2021, . Carl Lentz has not publicly addressed his firing yet. The drivers made sure crowds didnt mob him on city streets. The Hillsong Church's global senior pastor Brian Houston released a statement on the church's website announcing that Lentz had been fired. Get ready to dive into the world of the Hillsong Church. It premieres Friday, May 19 at 10 p.m. on FX with two episodes before the final two air on May 26. The organization is led by pastor, author, and popular YouTuber Michael Todd. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Through tears, she challenged Williams account. Shed get angry when Brian Houston would praise Mays on the stage. Carl Lentz is a former Hillsong pastor who was previously involved in an adultery scandal. With the tabloids feasting on his humiliation, Lentzs new P.R. In September 2013, following two years forfeiting shifts at her paying job to serve on the host team, former volunteer Ashley Jones earned a promotion: spearheading the launch of Hillsong NYCs choir. According to the former Hillsong Sydney employee who worked with Houston, he viewed volunteers not as the called, but as laborers performing difficult, expensive work for free. The Lentzes loved Virginia BeachCarls parents lived there; they had a house and friends. Church officials de-rostered her daughter from her weekly volunteer commitments. The churchs leaders and their families have at times seemed to operate under a more fluid set of standards. Entering Montclairs Wellmont Theater for Sunday service, Lentzs three young children were gawked at like they were, one observer said, Jesus come down from heaven. Grown men and women aborted selfie attempts with the Lentz kids when security was called. ), Aspiring pastors, typically dressed in some permutation of the Lentz uniform, served as members of the drive team. Nominally, they ferried pastors to and from services on busy Sundays, but they were on call 24/7 for Lentz, former volunteers said. In 2010, the Sunday Telegraph found records of the Houstons multimillion-dollar beachfront properties, and that a million-dollar tax-free church expense account supported the couple and three others. Since. The Hollywood Fix featured a video of the singer bonding with his new church Churchome. She wrote that she told Carl that she would find a new job outside Hillsong, and that he responded by asking me who would possibly hire me. I wont forget how that made me feel, Kimes wrote, so alone, so worth absolutely nothing, so fearful of my future, so fearful for my husbands future. A year later, she said, Lentz told her he took full responsibility for taking advantage of me and putting me in a situation that was so heavy for me. According to Kimes, Lentz said that he discussed the matter with Laura and that the couple decided not to confess his conduct to church leadership. May 18, 202100:49. We just really feel that its time to transition off of our staff and take some time to remain healthy, get healthy, and to really see what the next season holds for us, Reed said. Newspix via Getty Images, FILE Karim described her connection with Lentz as one that is "hard to explain in words." She said Lentz's wife found out about the alleged affair in October. Though a volunteer, William ran a connect group populated by members who were fiercely devoted to him. The choir revealed other fault lines too. (Hillsong teachings reserve sex strictly for marriage.) When a cheating scandal blew up the pastors life, some Hillsong congregants were left to question their relationship with a church that cultivated its own kind of fameand the double standards that often came with it. You have to choose where your loyalty lies, she recalls him telling her. The case has continued to plague Hillsong. 2023 Cond Nast. Its contemporary spin on Christianity, embodied by Lentz, packed a thriving network of on-trend believers into services across the globe every week. Before Termini became Lentzs interim replacement at Hillsong, he held jobs as the churchs head of global real estate and director of business development. When Elisabeth Finch met Jennifer Beyer in 2019, the two women forged a fiercely loyal friendship, and eventually got married. Where Is Carl Lentz Now 2022? Lentz, an alumnus of Houston car wash duties, extended the tradition by elevating preferred members of his drive team to leadership roles. In the churchs early days, Brian Houston worked with the musician Geoff Bullock to develop the Hillsong sound. Shoebridge recalled on the Parliament floor what Brian Houston had once told an alleged victim, who had agreed to a $10,000 payment not to speak out. The upcoming four-part docuseries is based on Vanity Fair's expos of the firing of Carl Lentz from the megachurch after he admitted to having an affair.. FX states that "everything will come to light" in announcing the . After hearing Williams story, the volunteer reached out to the young woman at the center of the complaint and met her for coffee in December 2017. Hillsong, like many of its peers, recommends its congregants tithe 10 percent of their earnings. The ex-president is expected to enter a plea of not guilty later today, after having his fingerprints and possibly his mug shot taken. a Photo of The Disgraced Pastor with Wild, Long, Curly Hair Appeared Online in March 2022, Despite the fact that He Has Been Keeping a Low Profile Since Then. I felt his arms and hands wrapped around my legs making contact with my inner thigh, butt and crotch. She tried to make her way to the door, but Mays wouldnt let go. An Intimate View of a Young Queen Elizabeth II The Sacklers Launched OxyContin. Scott Morrison, prime minister of Australia, has described Houston as a mentor and suffered a minor scandal in 2019 after the White House denied his attempt to bring Houston to a state dinner. But Lentzs scandal and subsequent departure caused many of its congregants to reevaluate their relationship with the church. In November, Houston announced an investigation of the Hillsong East Coast locations that Lentz led, and in February, he said the investigation was complete, though the results were not publicly disclosed. Crenshaw felt frozen out of the service role shed held for three years. ), If you complain, youll keep cleaning toilets. November 7, 2014: The first time Hailey and Justin are seen one on one, they're leaving a birthday party for Lentz. . Lentz, who resides in Florida with his family, apparently wants to begin a career in entertainment Most likely, the Discovery+ documentary will show more about his affair with Ranin Karim In June 2021, the family's former nanny said that Lentz had sexually abused her The celebrity-beloved religious couple's new $700,00. Assistants answered his emails. When God blesses a business person its for Gods own purposes. (A Hillsong spokesperson said financial integrity is a value of the church, that it regularly audits its financial records and expenses, and that no staff member has unrestricted access to church funds.). One Sunday, Lentz informed the congregation of the new course. The New York Post Claims Carl Now Lives in Florida. Leadership met her protests with a favorite church aphorism: We dont call the qualified; we qualify the called. Eventually, Hillsong NYC scrapped the plan to have the white woman sing. Hed interrupt lectures from the back of the room to pose counterarguments at length. Although she did not mention. Austen texted, searching for answers, but received little response. Of all the ARC pastors invited to Hillsong, Gray seems to have commanded the largest honorarium. Liberally tattooed, elaborately coiffed, and often dressed like a teenage hypebeast, Lentz, 42, achieved mild mainstream fame based on his proximity and access to the millennial celebrities in his flock: Justin and Hailey Bieber, Vanessa Hudgens, Kevin Durant, Selena Gomez. Hillsong congregants had a habit of undergoing more than one baptism, and Jones proposed addressing the issue with a six-stage course for new congregants that could morph into a connect group at the end. According to a 2011 interview with Lentz in The Christian Post, as early 20-something students, Lentz and the younger Houston fantasized about someday teaming up to establish a Hillsong church in New York. I agreed to forgive your father., Yes, okay, Ill get the money to you, Houston responded. Crenshaw says the church notified Mays three months after her first report and took no action for two months after that. If you complain, youll keep cleaning toilets, says the staffer. Get the latest chatter, from Kensington Palace and beyond, straight to your inbox. Reporting what happened was the issue, not what happened to me, Crenshaw says. The volunteer said that leadership already knew about Lentzs actions from previous reports but failed to act. A church spokesperson said Mays served a 12-month ban from any ministry, was reinstated in his administration role, and occasionally volunteers as a singer. William doesnt have a sister. This church will fail you, he remembers the pastor promising. February 11, 2021 12:19pm AP/Tina Fineberg EXCLUSIVE: Hillsong, the church that has had celebrity worshippers including Justin Bieber, Kevin Durant, and Selena Gomez, has been mired in scandal. Lentz moved his family to the Williamsburg waterfront. I was told that if his reputation was ruined, Kimes wrote, my reputation would be too. Later, Kimes said, Laura told her she should repent and dismissed her from her household duties, and Kimes and her husband moved to Boston to lead its Hillsong church. She froze. Sometimes, exhausted from her weekend volunteer work, Austen had to move her day off at her paying job. Archive Footage: Code Orange Revival. Some have suggested that Lentz's missteps were a reflection of Houston and the culture he created . (Keatinges email was obtained by V.F.) I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that. During a visit home before his sophomore year, his parents brought him to a service at the newly established Wave Church. She said churchgoers were told, "You have to be together for a full year before you get your first kiss." Additionally, Carl demanded that they "don't say 'I love you' until you propose." He encourages the youth to always work for the benefit of the economy. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Brian Houston was not informed of these claims prior to the events of late 2020.). Kimes later confirmed that her statement was about Lentz. This broker sells houses and God, too. In January, Reed and Jess Bogard, who helped found Hillsong NYC, announced their departure. also reported that in 2017, one volunteer at Hillsong NYC confided in another New York congregant that Lentz had been extremely flirtatious with her and made her feel extremely uncomfortable, and that Lentz had been involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with multiple women. A version of this story appears in the 2021 Hollywood issue. Lentz became head pastor of Hillsongs New York outlet in 2010 and quickly grew its base of young urban professional Christians, working with his wife, Laura Lentz. Houston describes Hillsong as one house with many rooms; each is imprinted in his image in some way. Its a spiritual investment and a literal one. Every time, I froze. A legal representative for the Lentzes told RNS that the two vehemently deny the allegations and, in addition to that, have irrefutable proof the events did not happen as they are being described.. Back in New York, they tried going to services again; their best friends were and still are part of the church. Watching from her seat, Jones filled with anticipation. V.F. Ex-Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz Says His Family Is 'Together' After Facing a 'Challenging Road' The former pastor posted on Instagram for the first time since 2020, when he was fired from his . But after the other witnesses corroborated Crenshaws account, Hillsong placed Mays on paid leave. I dont know what happened to me, I mean Ive done that before, but something clicked, Lentz later said. Last month, Houston announced that the investigation was complete, and that while the church wouldnt release the results, its board of directors had learned that it needed to make changes at the branches Lentz had led (and, the announcement seemed to imply, only at those branches). Aside from its celebrity congregants, Hillsong, which was founded in Australia in the 1980s and now has 131 locations across the world, has bolstered its visibility with a vast multimedia operation. Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 2. Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston said former pastor Carl Lentz had leadership issues that included lying and narcissistic behavior in an exclusive interview with "Today." Houston sat . After the blowup over the attempted White House invitation brought Morrisons ties with Houston into the spotlight, the Australian member of Parliament David Shoebridge argued that Houston failed his fathers victims and pointed to a strong basis for prosecution. There are others that seem to be a mix of opinion and judgment that is premature and one-sided and that too is understandable. Brian and his wife, Bobbie, worked at SCLC until 1983, when they founded Hills Christian Life Centre in the suburbs of Sydney. Lentz implored her to stay. The churchs doors were still open to him, Keatinge wrote, if he were to contact Hillsong on his own. After joining Hillsong as head pastor of the New York outpost in 2010, Lentz quickly became the churchs most recognizable face.
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