The church’s leaders and their families have at times seemed to operate under a more fluid set of standards. He separated from the church a while ago. 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. In the months after the Lentz affair broke, the church came under new media scrutiny. In class, Lentz established himself as a brash and discursive presence. According to sources, the church sent a staffer to surveil the Joneses’ connect meetings. As they were leaving, the man who tried to intervene asked her not to tell anyone what had happened. Exiting Irving Plaza following one Sunday service, Lentz and Mary struck up a conversation. Scroll on to read the message she posted on their 18th wedding … “I will fail you. The OG “We’re not a regular church, we’re a cool … Volunteers with jobs farthest from the backstage areas occupy the lowest rungs of the Hillsong hierarchy, which, leaders often remind, is scalable. And at least some bad moral behavior had gone back historically.”, That afternoon, Lentz’s publicists said he enrolled in a 28-day outpatient program for “pastoral burnout.” A few weeks later, The New York Times reported that Hillsong NYC volunteers had complained to church officials about rumors of Lentz acting inappropriately with women in 2017. A 2009 Virginian-Pilot report noted that the service, Soul Central, kicked off at 8 p.m., just as happy hours wound down. (A Hillsong spokesperson said Keatinge has been suspended pending an investigation and would not answer Vanity Fair’s questions on his behalf. Days later, a Lentz insider told The Sun that Carl wants to use all the attention he’s received to boost his post-scandal career, maybe land a faith-based Netflix reality series. He and Joel grew a joint reputation for their nightlife exploits. A royal commission in Australia found in 2015 that Brian Houston failed to notify authorities about the allegations upon learning of them. ), The circumstances surrounding William’s exile from Hillsong eventually reached another volunteer. Strobe lights and stage smoke filled the church lobby. “When God blesses a business person it’s for God’s 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.”). As Lentz’s celebrity and the church’s profile grew, his congregants developed a tortured relationship with fame. Vanity Fair reports that a flood of accusations have come in portraying Hillson as a sheer factory of sexual exploitation under Carl Lentz’s unconventional leadership. (A church spokesperson acknowledged the accusation and said: “This claim was investigated thoroughly by senior Hillsong East Coast staff and internal legal counsel, but remained unsubstantiated claims only, lacking evidence or proof. But I can point you to a person that never will.”. (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 Crenshaw’s allegations became known. (Keatinge’s email was obtained by V.F.) “I prayed about it and I was heartbroken,” she says. The church has 131 locations across the world, mostly in large cities. “My counselor encouraged me to report the assault instead of letting Jason just ignore it,” she says. One Hillsong NYC congregant, Ashley Jones (right), stuck with the church for years despite misgivings. Lentz’s famous followers included Justin and Hailey Bieber. Houston contacted his New York pastor right away. 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 … Keatinge also brought two affidavits, William says, asserting that he had lied. In his last year of school, Lentz interned for Houston, washing his car and picking up his dry cleaning. They joined a pool club and hosted cookouts with plenty to drink. Carl Lentz was fired from Hillsong in November, and later admitted to cheating on his wife, whom he married in 2003 and with whom he shares three children By Rachel DeSantis May 05, … Lentz didn’t get to know too many of his flock of thousands. In 2017, a New York connect group leader caught word of some troubling claims. On November 4, Hillsong’s 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. to the church’s spokesperson. “I’ve heard so much about you.” A few weeks later, Jones told Lentz she arrived at the venue 90 minutes before Sunday services to ensure she got a seat. Alex French , Dan Adler Vanity Fair … The email summed up what he had heard over weeks and months. Then Lentz told the assembly, This idea came to us from our one and only Kane Keatinge. Houston and Hillsong have falsely claimed that Frank Houston, who retired with a pension, didn’t preach after his son learned of the abuse. Jones’s supervisor was pastor Kane Keatinge, a longtime friend of Lentz and Joel Houston’s from Australia who had moved to New York. Early on, Hillsong derived its largely working-class and left-wing ethos from the Assemblies of God Pentecostal tradition Frank Houston had worked in, Bullock told The Sydney Morning Herald. He’s worked with the youth ministry for years, driving all over the state to pick kids up to bring them to meetings. “That felt like a nonanswer.” (A church spokesperson said, “We are unaware of this situation occurring.”). Early life and education. Over months of follow-up meetings, William says, his character was continually attacked and he was called a liar. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. But when a cheating scandal blew up the pastor’s life, congregants were left to question their relationship with a church that cultivated its own kind of fame. ... told Vanity Fair that she and Lentz … The volunteer said that leadership already knew about Lentz’s actions from previous reports but failed to act. ), “If you complain, you’ll keep cleaning toilets. “What’s happening with the payment I was promised?” Brett Sengstock, who was allegedly abused between ages 7 and 12, asked the younger Houston. The drivers made sure crowds didn’t mob him on city streets. COVID slowed its expansion efforts, but it has laid plans for a church in Atlanta and another in South Africa. ), “When there are problems in the flock, you bring it to the shepherds,” the letter’s authors wrote. Gossip blogs noted the shots were the first time Lentz had been spotted in public since entering rehab. She’d get angry when Brian Houston would praise Mays on the stage.
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