Carl Lentz, the pastor who baptised Hailey and Justin Bieber and then officiated their wedding, has dozens of high-end celeb friends, and co-founded Hillsong’s New York City outpost back in 2010, has been sacked from the megachurch. Hillsong’s founder Brian Houston confirmed the former NYC Hillsong pastor had been terminated from his role as the East Coast pastor in an email to members and staff today.
In the email that was sent out to Hillsong members on the US east coast, Houston confirmed that 41-year-old Lentz was dismissed from his role in the evangelical megachurch due to recent “leadership issues”, “breaches of trust”, and “a revelation of moral failures”. Houston said that it would be inappropriate to comment on direct events or incidents that led to Lentz’s firing, but noted that it was the result of “ongoing discussions”.
Carl Lentz has been fired by Hillsong for “a recent revelation of moral failures” writes Brian Houston in an email to church members. pic.twitter.com/Q653Qd4YvB
— Andrew Beck (@AndrewBeckUSA) November 4, 2020
Houston also acknowledged that this announcement would be a shock to many of the church’s members, as Lentz was a highly popular pastor of the church’s East Coast faction, but it was “not a shock to God” (assumedly because he knows everything before it happens, or whatever).
Alongside being Justin Bieber’s friend and supposed spiritual mentor (and spending time with him and Hailey as recently as last month), Lentz also has connections with celebs like NBL icons Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant, Jay-Z, and Drake.
Lentz first got involved with the megachurch in the early 00s when he attended the Hillsong International Leadership College in Sydney until 2003, where he met Houston’s son Joel Houston and decided to launch a campus in New York City.
Though the church nor Lentz are yet to explicitly comment on the “moral failures” leading to his sacking, people on Twitter are desperately trying to find the communal tea, noting that Lentz has previously been outspoken on the Black Lives Matter movement, and soft on his comments around LGBTQIA+ issues.
Hillsong firing Carl Lentz out of the nowhere and then telling it’s congregation to not look to slander/rumors for answers but still not giving TRANSPARENCY to their reasoning makes me do one thing… look to Twitter for reasoning
— Mary Liz Adams (@MaryLiz_Adams) November 4, 2020
https://twitter.com/brikliam/status/1324148589896093706?s=20
wondering whether Carl Lentz’s recently revealed “moral failures” were a political disagreement with Hillsong hmmmm
— Abard (@abard_who) November 4, 2020
Neither Hillsong nor Carl Lentz have made further comments on the sacking, but we’ll keep you updated.
