Inside Disgraced, Disheveled Ex-Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz’s Downgraded House

Inside Disgraced, Disheveled Ex-Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz’s Downgraded House

(Link): Inside Disgraced, Disheveled Ex-Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz’s Downgraded House

March 9, 2022
By Hannah Frishberg

Ex-Hillsong megachurch pastor Carl Lentz is looking worse for the wear — as is his home.

Photos emerged this week of both Justin Bieber’s former spiritual advisor and his new house, both appearing to have fallen quite far from grace since the father of three was fired from the church for infidelity in late 2020.

The photos also come just weeks before Discovery Plus is set to release “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed,” a three-part docuseries on the controversial congregation.

The formerly chiseled Christian leader was pictured with long, unkempt curly hair and without his trademark glasses while at an airport ahead of check-in for a Friday morning flight, according to photos first published by The Sun.

Carl Lentz’s Alleged Mistress Speaks Out in Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed Trailer: ‘Toxic’

Carl Lentz’s Alleged Mistress Speaks Out in Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed Trailer: ‘Toxic’

Update Below

(Link): Carl Lentz’s Alleged Mistress Speaks Out in Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed Trailer: ‘Toxic’

February 16, 2022

The Discovery+ docuseries premieres on March 24

Hillsong Church was a star-studded house of worship, but scandal has overshadowed its charismatic brand of Christianity in recent years. Now a Discovery+ docuseries, Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed, delves deep into the headlines — including former pastor Carl Lentz.

Once a spiritual confidant of Justin Bieber, Lentz was ousted from Hillsong in November 2020, ending a 10-year tenure because of what the church described as “moral failures.”

Soon he publicly admitted to being unfaithful to his wife Laura, whom he married in 2003 and with whom he shares three children.

Amid the fallout, Ranin Karim, a New York woman who said she met Lentz at a Brooklyn park in May 2020, alleged she was his mistress.
“It was the most toxic thing I’ve ever had to deal with,” Karim says in the newly released trailer for Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed, which Discovery+ will stream in three parts.

Carl Lentz’s Wife Says She Suffered from Depression, PTSD After Cheating Scandal

Carl Lentz’s Wife Says She Suffered from Depression, PTSD After Cheating Scandal

I hope this lady improves soon. This is yet another news item dispelling a lot of the Christian mythos built up around marriage.

So many Christian books, sermons, etc, create this view of marriage that once married, a person will be complete and the married sex will be great and regular.

But then we sometimes see these stories where the wife of a well known pastor admit that her spouse was committing adultery.

I think it goes to show that marriage and married sex are not all that a lot of marriage-promoters in the faith make it out to be (not that I am opposed to marriage, only the very unrealistic depictions of it in the church).

(Link): Carl Lentz’s Wife Says She Suffered from Depression, PTSD After Cheating Scandal

Excerpts:

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor

Laura Lentz, the wife of former Hillsong NYC Pastor Carl Lentz, has opened up about how she suffered from worsening depression and PTSD after her husband was fired from the global megachurch due to alleged moral failures and infidelity last November.

…Lentz and her husband were the focus of many headlines following his cheating confession last November and termination by the Australia-based international church network.

Sex Abuse Allegations by Carl Lentz’s Former Nanny Put Spotlight on Hillsong (Church) Culture by R. Stone

 Sex Abuse Allegations by Carl Lentz’s Former Nanny Put Spotlight on Hillsong  (Church) Culture 

(Link): Sex Abuse Allegations by Carl Lentz’s Former Nanny Put Spotlight on Hillsong Culture

May 31, 2021
By Roxanne Stone

NEW YORK (RNS) — A former Hillsong NYC staff member has come forward with allegations that the megachurch’s former pastor Carl Lentz subjected her to “bullying, abuse of power and sexual abuse” over the course of seven years as she worked as a nanny in Lentz’s home.

“I felt trapped and silenced. I also felt so ashamed and I had been told not to say anything or tell anyone,” Leona Kimes, 37, told Religion News Service via email Sunday (May 30).

Tithe Money Funded Hillsong Pastors’ Luxury Lifestyles: Former Members, by H. Frishberg

Tithe Money Funded Hillsong Pastors’ Luxury Lifestyles: Former Members by H. Frishberg

Long article. Below are just a few excerpts. What a dreadful “church.”

(Link): Tithe Money Funded Hillsong Pastors’ Luxury Lifestyles: Former Members 

Jan. 26, 2021
by H. Frishberg

The pastors at scandalized Hillsong Church were anything but humble servants.

As the Australia-based institution continues to come under fire for allegations of “slave labor” and homophobia, ex-congregants and staff are now claiming that pastors used tithe money to help fuel their decadent lifestyles.

At Hillsong NYC, many pastors frequently splurged on fancy restaurant meals, designer clothes and weekly manicures while living in the same Kent Avenue Williamsburg high-rise and zipping around the neighborhood on ATVs, disgusted former members told The Post.

Pastors and staff apparently freely used debit-like “PEX” — or pre-paid expense — cards for whatever their hearts desired, several former members and staff told The Post. The source of the funds was money donated or “tithed” by members, said former Hillsong LA service pastor Nicole Herman, who personally loaded the funds onto the PEX cards.

Hillsong Church Rife with ‘Inappropriate’ Sex, Members Claimed

Hillsong Church Rife with ‘Inappropriate’ Sex, Members Claimed

As someone who is not totally opposed to the idea of churches setting up social functions so that single adults may meet other single people (in the quest to get married), I’ve never promoted, nor do I defend, any church that actually devolves into a seedy sex racket, where members are going about willy nilly sleeping with each other, and I sure do not approve of sexual harassment.

But I don’t want to see Christians or churches out there pointing to garbage like this news story at Hillsong (Link): to excuse NOT LIFTING A FINGER  to help single adults get married – at least the ones who’d like and appreciate the help.

But what is reported here is not acceptable – and it makes you really question that “be equally yoked” rule so many Christians cram down the throats of singles: if so many of the (usually MARRIED) Christian men at these churches are sexual predators, why do some Christians tell single Christian women that the best, safest place to “husband hunt” is at their local church?

(Link): Hillsong church was a ‘breeding ground’ for inappropriate sex and leaders ‘sent nudes to female volunteers while sleeping around’, claim whistleblowers after disgraced leader’s multiple affairs were exposed

(Link): Hillsong Church Rife with ‘Inappropriate’ Sex, Members Claimed

by Mara Siegler and O. Coleman
December 17, 2020

Hillsong staffers used the church like a seedy dating service, “sleeping around” with volunteers and asking them to send nude pictures — according to a group of volunteers who allegedly complained about the situation.

Hillsong’s Carl Lentz, Megachurch Pastor Who Ministered Justin Bieber, Fired and Admits Cheating on Wife

Hillsong’s Carl Lentz, Megachurch Pastor Who Ministered Justin Bieber, Fired and Admits Cheating on Wife

Many Christians claim that marriage will keep a person from sexually sinning. Many Christians claim that marriage will make a person more godly, mature, responsible, and ethical and that it is necessary to foster those qualities in a person.

But did being married, and being a parent, keep this guy from cheating on his wife? No. No it did not.

(Link): ‘He told me he wasn’t married’: Designer reveals Justin Bieber’s disgraced pastor Carl Lentz posed as an unmarried sports agent, says it was ‘love not just sex’ and they only broke up last week

(Link): Muslim woman claims she was in a relationship with Carl Lentz, unaware he was a pastor

(Link): Hillsong’s Carl Lentz, megachurch pastor who ministered Justin Bieber, fired and admits cheating on wife

Nob 6, 2020

BY LEANNE ITALIE / AP

Carl Lentz, the celebrity magnet of a pastor who brought the global megachurch Hillsong from Australia to the United States, has been fired, acknowledging on Instagram that he cheated on his wife.

The leader of HillsongNYC, who once ministered to Justin Bieber and a bevy of other celebrities and sports stars, wrote: “When you lead out of an empty place, you make choices that have real consequences. I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that.”