Get ready to dive into the world of the Hillsong Church. In class, Lentz established himself as a brash and discursive presence. (A church spokesperson said John Mays was recused from the matter due to his conflict of interest and that it was unaware of any incidents of Houston praising Mays onstage from the time Crenshaws allegations became known. Ad Choices. Her friendship with Lentz and her self-possession made Mary Jones a person to be respected but came with extra attention. A version of this story appears in the 2021 Hollywood issue. The writers bccd the Houstons. Tweet. Leona Kimes and her husband, Josh, both worked under Lentz at Hillsong NYC and are currently pastors at Hillsong Boston. The ex-president is expected to enter a plea of not guilty later today, after having his fingerprints and possibly his mug shot taken. One, a Nigerian student who attended Hillsong while studying at NYU, says William made her feel particularly welcome. But the wounds from Sydney remained. After firing Lentz, Brian Houston announced an independent investigation into the inner workings of Hillsong East Coast. Church officials de-rostered her daughter from her weekly volunteer commitments. The members of the group were then given a simple choice: William or the church. I prayed about it and I was heartbroken, she says. Kimes wrote that she felt guilty about her discomfort and ashamed, and that she questioned whether anyone would believe her. Although she did not mention. Omar Abreu was in high school when they found Hillsong. In its 2017 annual report, without naming the family connection, Hillsong East Coast explained how it had purchased a new Manhattan headquarters at 363 Lafayette Street. Sofia Richie Reveals She Converted to Judaism Ahead of Wedding to Elliot Grainge. Ranin Karim, a woman who alleges she had a relationship with Lentz earlier this year, recently spoke out to Vanity Fair in an interview. If you dont complain, you can climb the ladder.. ), 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. Lentz, an alumnus of Houston car wash duties, extended the tradition by elevating preferred members of his drive team to leadership roles. Carl Lentz is a former Hillsong pastor who was previously involved in an adultery scandal. [6] Early life and education Carl Lentz was born in Williamsburg, Virginia. Days later, a Lentz insider told The Sun that Carl wants to use all the attention hes received to boost his post-scandal career, maybe land a faith-based Netflix reality series. Lentz moved his family to the Williamsburg waterfront. Hillsong NYC Pastor Carl Lentz stands backstage at the Hillsong Conference at Allphones Arena in Sydney, New South Wales, July 3, 2015. After she had been attending Hillsong for some time, Mary Jones says she shared an idea with Keatinge. (He later deleted the tweet and apologized for it. Roxanne Stone. William doesnt have a sister. One Hillsong NYC congregant, Ashley Jones (right), stuck with the church for years despite misgivings. When Lentz returned Stateside in 2005, he brought his wife with him. All rights reserved. Hillsong permitted Canfield, who declined an interview request for this story, to remain a coach but banned him from singing. Jasons actions have resulted in pain not only for Anna but also his wife Ashley not to mention other family members., Around the same time Crenshaws report was playing out in Australia, several whistleblowers brought complaints to church leadership about the culture at Hillsong NYC. (A church spokesperson said the church did not encourage multiple baptisms but said it was not uncommon for some Christians as a means of recommitting themselves.) We are now aware of the scope of changes that need to be made and are addressing those immediately., In 2011, with his New York flock outgrowing smaller venues, Lentz began holding services at 1,200-seat Irving Plaza. The pastor, a former real estate broker, is the developer Abram Shnays son-in-law. Meghan and Harrys Revelations About Racism, the Rift Between Prince William and Prince Harry, Three-Way Sex Has Made Me a Better Person. In six years I never came face-to-face with [Carl], says one former congregant and volunteer. She wrote in a statement on Medium that during the seven years she spent as a nanny for Lentz and his wife, Laura, I was subjected to manipulation, control, bullying, abuse of power, and sexual abuse., I felt trapped and silenced. Lentz, who garnered fame for himself and Hillsong via his friendships with celebrities, led the churchs locations on the East Coast until his firing in November. The presence of Lauras wedding ring also registered as significant. Ad Choices. January 5, 2021 In case it wasn't already obvious when Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey Baldwin unfollowed their former pastor Carl Lentz on Instagram in November, the pop star kicked off. Zoe Church / Chad and Julia Veach. And then he leaves. When Elisabeth Finch met Jennifer Beyer in 2019, the two women forged a fiercely loyal friendship, and eventually got married. Our pastoral team will continue to care for Anna as they have been, but we also have an obligation to care for Jason, his wife and family as a church, he wrote in part. Abreu summed up their experience as a queer Hillsong attendee: How do we get people to come to the church and make them feel safe and still remind them that they suck and are headed to hell?, Other congregants and their family members told similar stories of acceptance only on the churchs steeply qualified terms. William thought it would be a one-on-one, but other church leaders showed. Carl Lentz pastors Hillsong Church NYC, a thriving Christian congregation with locations in Manhattan and New Jersey. The person was a youth leader, not a youth pastor. The Hollywood Fix featured a video of the singer bonding with his new church Churchome. While working for the Lentzes, V.F. Over months of follow-up meetings, William says, his character was continually attacked and he was called a liar. When Jesus went up the mountain, he only brought two disciples, she said. They call it the Hillsong hangover, she says. (Keatinges email was obtained by V.F.) He was ultimately accused of abusing nine young boys at his ministries. 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 Churchs four locations in the American Northeast. As they were leaving, the man who tried to intervene asked her not to tell anyone what had happened. Whistleblower documents show Hillsong paid Gray $18,000 in 2014 and $38,649 in 2015. (It's unclear whether these amounts were AUD or USD). 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. During a visit home before his sophomore year, his parents brought him to a service at the newly established Wave Church. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the role of the person who abused Anna Crenshaw when she was a child. advisers believed his return began with three months out of public view, followed by a news cycle dominating mea maxima culpaperhaps, as suggested for a time, in this magazine. The lights, the rock show, the smoke. She froze. 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. At age twenty, he discovered his calling and enrolled in . Tens of thousands of urban evangelical professionals followed Lentz for his soaring sermons at weekly services that resembled rock concerts. Shed get angry when Brian Houston would praise Mays on the stage. In the meantime, Crenshaw says, Mayss wife became Crenshaws volunteer group leader. 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. In 2010 filings he claimed that he earned $300,000 a year. 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. Also pictured were Terminis brother Joe and Joes wife, the star professional surfer Kelia Moniz. Australia-based megachurch Hillsong has been engulfed in scandal since November when celebrity-beloved Carl Lentz was fired from his position as the NYC branc As a child she was abused by a youth leader, and after the assault in Sydney, she went to a counselor to work through it all. V.F. Carl Lentz's Hillsong Replacement Is Starting a New Church in Hawaii A few months after Lentz was fired and the megachurch's scandals cascaded, John Termini confirmed his departure. November 7, 2014: The first time Hailey and Justin are seen one on one, they're leaving a birthday party for Lentz. Of all the ARC pastors invited to Hillsong, Gray seems to have commanded the largest honorarium. In casting Lentz out, Houston exiled not only the leading avatar of the culture he built, but something of a son as well. As Ashley and Mary Jones graduated to become volunteer leaders, they were given their own connect group. At large churches like Hillsong, smaller groups such as these often serve as the elemental links in the greater social chain. Hillsong was approached by a developer to lease office space and have a multi-use venue at a 50% discount to the market due to benefits that the developer would receive by having a community facility within the tenancy, the report said. Missing the community Hillsong provided, William organized his own prayer meeting. ), The circumstances surrounding Williams exile from Hillsong eventually reached another volunteer. A former volunteer in New York wrote to church leadership in 2017 about allegations of sexual harassment within Hillsong, including Lentzs own alleged inappropriate sexual behavior. Vanity Fair reported in February that the volunteer said he was told by Termini that he needed to defend the church the way that Termini would defend his wife. 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.). In September 2022, Laura shared a relationship update. Where is Carl Lentz now? Some congregants poked fun at the protective measures. He added that he wasnt aware of the moral failures until late last year. Houston recently tweeted that the assault by Jason Mays was a sad story and that the victim had been previously abused at her fathers church in Pennsylvania. Then Lentzs former dog walker went public about a 2014 incident in which he stumbled in on Lentz making sex noises with a younger star. By Andrew White/The New York Times/Redux. Crenshaw says the church notified Mays three months after her first report and took no action for two months after that. 2023 Cond Nast. Mayss wife had just had a baby, and he told his lawyer that Crenshaw went out of her way to be around his family. PUBLISHED: January 5, 2021 at 8:31 a.m. | UPDATED: January 5, 2021 at 8:50 a.m. 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. Later, he said that Williams voice lost meaning to him. (The New York Post first reported the letters existence. In the months after Lentzs ouster, former congregants and volunteers spoke out about scores of experiences of exploitation at the church. Then he goes onstage. (In my opinion theyre just looking for dirt on Carl, says one. Chief among them was Justin Bieber, whom Lentz baptized, and whose association with the pastor became the subject of scores of tabloid stories. In January, Reed and Jess Bogard, who helped found Hillsong NYC, announced their departure. In leaving Hillsong, Termini joins a growing group of Lentz-connected pastors. Crenshaw felt she couldnt take her complaint to human resources. The effects of the split between the churchs founder and his most famous acolyte went far beyond the two mens relationship. News of the relocation shocked Hillsong NYC congregants, who felt the Lentzes had just picked up and left. On November 4, Hillsongs global senior pastor and founder, Brian Houston, publicly fired Lentz and his wife of 17 years, Laura, pointing to leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures. On Instagram the next day, Carl Lentz paired a photo of his family decked out in formal attire at the Biebers wedding with a confession: When you lead out of an empty place, you make choices that have real and painful consequences. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. One Sunday, Lentz informed the congregation of the new course. Then, on December 3, audio surfaced of Houston explaining Lentzs firing in an internal meeting: These issues were more than one affair, they were significant. their relationship was consensual.) A rumor spread that Lentz had sex with Williams sister. June 23, 2021. Kimess allegations add to a growing portrait of Lentzs alleged misconduct as well as of Hillsongs record of abuse. Vanity Fair reported in February that Jason Mays, a Hillsong staffer who is the son of the churchs head of human resources, indecently assaulted a Hillsong College student in 2016. The 92-year-old media mogul announced his engagement to the 66-year-old former dental hygienist a scant two weeks ago, following last years divorce from his fourth wife, Jerry Hall. 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. Archive Footage: Code Orange Revival. Left, by Andres Kudacki/AP Photo; right, courtesy of Ashley Jones. When she showed up uninvited, she says she discovered a plan for a blue-eyed, blond-haired woman who has a reputation for singing Black to perform Amazing Grace backed up by Black singers in the shadows. In December the board of Hillsong Church Australia wrote an email to congregants dismissing the stories, some of which included allegations of exploitation and discrimination, primarily as gossip. Sometimes, exhausted from her weekend volunteer work, Austen had to move her day off at her paying job. If you dont complain, you can climb the ladder. former Hillsong staffer, One year Joness superiors excluded her, the only Black woman leader on the worship team, from planning meetings for a Black History Monththemed tribute. 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. Lentz implored her to stay. He returned wearing the loudest shirts we had ever seen, Bullock, who left Hillsong in 1995, has said. As college students, Crenshaw and her friend couldnt drink alcohol, but some of the men could. Net worth: $3 Million Carl Lentz founded the New York City branch of Hillsong Church in 2010. Where Is Carl Lentz Now 2022? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. The woman confided that after the experiencewhich she said included the threat of a lawsuitshe quit her volunteer role and hadnt come back to church, ignoring emails from Lentz and Keatinge asking her to return. The New York Post Claims Carl Now Lives in Florida. I also felt so ashamed and I had been told not to say anything or tell anyone, Kimes told Religion News Service, which first reported the allegations. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. This broker sells houses and God, too. Lentz found himself in rarefied territory for a Hillsong student, hanging out at the Houston family home and in Brians ultraprivate church greenroom. V.F. For a few weeks it seemed as if redemption might be possible. Pictures of the family appeared on gossip sites: Carl, shirtless in cornrows, performing Sun Salutations on the beach; Laura beelining into a tanning salon. Brian and his wife, Bobbie, worked at SCLC until 1983, when they founded Hills Christian Life Centre in the suburbs of Sydney. Ashleys mother, Mary Jones, grew up in segregation-era Baltimore and lived an entire lifetime before arriving at Hillsong in 2010, several years after her daughter moved to New York. My turning point came one night after church at Serendipity, when one of my friends said to me, I just wanna meet Carl, I just wanna touch his coat.. 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. We were hoping to share this update with you this weekend, Houston wrote.). They are from the Bronx, identify as queer and nonbinary, and in New York evangelical circles had grown to expect homophobia but thought of Hillsongs policy as akin to dont ask, dont tell. At the school, Lentz made fast friends with Brian Houstons son Joel. The church offers a version of the gospel that can cohere with the rest of your urban professional life. When reached for comment, Keatinge referred V.F. A few years ago, Shnays company, SK Development, along with two other firms, began constructing an office building at 363 Lafayette Street in NoHo that opened in 2018. As Lentzs celebrity and the churchs profile grew, his congregants developed a tortured relationship with fame. Now, Leona Kimes, a pastor at Hillsong Boston, is coming forward about the abuse, bullying, and exploitation she faced while working for a Hillsong New York pastor. On Sundays Lentz sometimes delivered six sermons a day, ducking out between services to minister to the homeless. Volunteers with jobs farthest from the backstage areas occupy the lowest rungs of the Hillsong hierarchy, which, leaders often remind, is scalable. Ex-Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz is one of the main characters in the show. He also met Laura, a native Australian whose parents are longtime friends of the Houstons. 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. He attended a school in Australia run by Hillsong in his youth, interned for church founder Brian Houston, and eventually moved to New York with his wife and Houston's family to help them open and run the first American Hillsong church in 2010 (via New York Times). Lentz, the pastor from global megachurch Hillsong, who once ministered to Justin Bieber and a bevy of other celebrities. The Secret to Owen Wilsons Infinite Chill? But Lentzs infidelity, the apparent cause of his ouster, also led to broader scrutiny of Hillsong as congregants and volunteers recounted a pattern of exploitation and alienation within the church. Crenshaw felt frozen out of the service role shed held for three years. The choir revealed other fault lines too. The letters authors accused a former Hillsong intern under Keatinge of multiple inappropriate sexual relationships with several female leaders and volunteers in church and said he was verbally, emotionally, and according to one woman, physically abusive in his relationships with these women. (A Hillsong spokesperson said the former intern was asked to leave the church after leadership found out about his behavior. It was really difficult calling people a few hours before theyre supposed to sing on the platform to tell them theres been a last-minute change because a pastors new girlfriend wants to sing onstage, Jones says. Lentz, the pastor from global megachurch Hillsong, who once ministered to Justin Bieber and a bevy of other . Since. Inside Wealth-Conference Con Man Anthony Ritossas Wild Web of Lies, Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 2. An avid sports fan, Houston loved Lentzs basketball stories and his aptitude for name-dropping while telling them. The church attracted A-list celebrities like Justin Bieber. February 5, 2023. There are others that seem to be a mix of opinion and judgment that is premature and one-sided and that too is understandable. A story arose that William had accused Lentz of rape and had video evidence, claims William says he hadnt made. The first two rows at church were reserved every week for VIPs and close friends. She noticed a staff administrator and volunteer singer named Jason Mays, son of the Australian churchs human resources head, John Mays, drinking heavily. After the celebrity-friendly megachurch Hillsong fired embattled pastor Carl Lentz in November, his initial replacement as the head of the churchs East Coast locations was executive pastor John Termini. The wife of former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz is speaking out for the first time since her husband was fired from the megachurch amid a sex scandal. Hillsong told V.F. For several years of his Hillsong tenure, Termini was a central presence at what congregants and volunteers came to call the compound. Lentz and other Hillsong NYC pastors lived, worked, and partied at the building, a converted warehouse of luxury condos along the Williamsburg waterfront. Frank Houston, Brian Houstons father, started Sydney Christian Life Centre, the forerunner to Hillsong Church, in 1977. in February that Kane Keatinge, an Australian pastor under Lentz who allegedly bullied volunteers, had been suspended pending an investigation, but didnt answer a recent inquiry about his current status. If you step out in faith and make that first step with a donation, you will be rewarded and it will come back to you, she says. What do you do when you discover the shepherds are part of the problem? 2018 letter from concerned Hillsong NYC congregants, From the moment Pastor Brian discovered this shocking news, around 20 years ago, the email said, he has always been very open and clear about the circumstances around this, and our church has stood with him and his family.. COVID slowed its expansion efforts, but it has laid plans for a church in Atlanta and another in South Africa. 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). A former Hillsong staffer who worked closely with Houston remembers one of his credos regarding Sydney: We need you to catch the culture from here. Houstons preferred personnel hold positions of power throughout the global church. 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. Keatinge eventually emailed William, who had at one point sought legal advice, to inform him that no one had confirmed his letters claims. 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. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. The church has made Brian Houston wealthy and well-connected. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. Unfortunately, the Hillsong church in New York, which has found itself in controversy in the last few years, just exploded again. Abreu left Sydney 11 months after arriving. Mary Jones and Lentz became close. The Grammy-winning group Hillsong Worship, one of the churchs three musical acts, recently broke the record for a Hillsong streaming debut in the U.S. Hillsong founder Brian Houston fired Lentz over what he said were moral failuresincluding, most explosively, Lentzs cheatingand has claimed in public statements and a recent interview on the Today show that Lentzs behavior was an aberration for the church. In 2019 it opened new outposts in Indonesia, Brussels, Edinburgh, Milan, Dallas, Kansas City, and Monterrey, Mexico, as well as a college campus in Phoenix. Pastor Carl Lentz and his wife, Laura, seen with their three children, Ava, Charlie and Roman on March 22,. Days after the meeting, the Nigerian student attended a special dinner party for Hillsong congregants who tithe above 10 percent. The celebrity-beloved religious couple's new $700,00. The Daily Mail reported that the Lentzes were in intense couples therapy. 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. After a decade working at the Australia-based church, John Termini who temporarily served as lead pastor for Hillsong's NYC branch in the wake of Carl Lentz's adulterous fall from grace is. It looks sleazy as he avoided the question on sin and . The churchs doors were still open to him, Keatinge wrote, if he were to contact Hillsong on his own. John Termini, Lentzs successor at Hillsong NYC, told William that he needed to defend the church the way that Termini would defend his wife. Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 1, Its Not So Black and White: Gisele Bndchen, Self-Professed Witch of Love, Talks About It All, The supermodel is super ready for her next act, as she enjoys the, Ezra Millers Messiah Delusions: Inside. While the source suggested that Termini had grown tired of Hillsongs controversies, the pastor struck a more sanguine tone when reached by text message. His elevated status made me feel like he had all the power, and I had no voice.. One pastor routinely asked Jones to replace singers, who had rehearsed, with celebrities (including, once, Vanessa Hudgens) and potential paramours. (A church spokesperson said it was unaware if this occurred. Kimes later confirmed that her statement was about Lentz. Disgraced Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz and his wife have broken their silence about his scandalous affairs in a new documentary about the secret church. Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now. The crew team unloads trucks. Rumors of Lentz sleeping around were nothing new, but William says he didnt think they could be true. I will fail you. You know, its your fault all of this happened. 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. 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. Whats happening with the payment I was promised? Brett Sengstock, who was allegedly abused between ages 7 and 12, asked the younger Houston.
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