Former Hillsong Church pastor Carl Lentz and his wife Laura recently posted a video to social media teasing a “new chapter” on June 4. The video, posted to their Instagram account, featured a montage of scenes on the New York City subway, footage of Carl Lentz’s shadow, ominous clouds, burning trees and moving cars. At the end of the video, the words “June 4th… A New Chapter” appeared.
Lentz was fired in November 2020 for “leadership issues” and moral failings, including having affairs with multiple women, including Hillsong NYC staff members. An internal investigation into Hillsong Church conducted by New York City law firm Zukerman Gore Brandeis & Crossman LLP in 2022 and obtained by The Christian Post, found that Lentz manipulated some former staff and volunteers to the point where they suffered from mental illness. Last year, Lentz Came back He serves as a “strategist” at Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, led by Pastor Michael Todd.
“After two years of self-discovery and healing, Carl has demonstrated that he is ready to use his God-given talents again for the good of his local church. We believe in Carl, his marriage, his skills and his recovery,” Transformation Church senior pastor Tammy McQuarters said in a statement reported by CP at the time.
“We pray that Carl, Laura and their family will not only experience their own recovery, but that they will help others experience recovery by using their successes and failures as resources for the entire body of Christ. We believe this is part of who the church is,” she added.
However, in May 2023, Pastor Lentz wrote an open letter stating that he was “no longer a pastor” and confessing that his sin had led him to a “dark place.” He and his wife also appeared in a four-part FX documentary series, “Hillsong’s SecretLast year, I started “ ” as part of my healing process.
“As we recover from that heartache, we have come to the decision to appear in a documentary that we had no control over, no say in, and have not yet seen, but will see when the world sees. We are not interested in shifting blame or avoiding responsibility and are focused on my mistake and the context of what happened,” Lentz said.
“Honestly, when you get to a place in your life where you’re honest and free and you’ve been through hell and you realize that God is still with you, it’s so liberating. It’s a freedom I wish for so many people I know who have been called by God and who struggle with secrets and feelings of unworthiness. Trust me, it’s led me to some dark places.”
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/Charley Gallay / Stringer
