Carl Lentz, a disgraced former pastor of Hillsong Church, is speaking out ahead of the release of a new docuseries about the celebrity-favorite megachurch, which is set to feature his first interview since his firing.
Lentz, 44, gave an update about his personal life on Instagram May 9, more than two and a half years after he was terminated as lead pastor of Hillsong New York City for what the parent organization called "leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures." Following his ousting, he admitted to cheating on his wife, Laura.
"For the last 3 years, my entire focus has been fighting for my wife and my kids," Lentz, a father of three, wrote in his post. "My family has been my only priority. In order to do that, seeking sobriety and healing had to run parallel with these goals. Honestly nothing else mattered."
Lentz said he and his wife recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary "in the purest way," adding, "Unfortunately that came through a lot of humiliation, embarrassment and heartache. Part of the healing from that heartache led us to the decision to be a part of a documentary that we do not control, that we don't have any say in and that we haven't even seen yet. We'll see it when the world does."
The Secrets of Hillsong, a four-part docuseries, will premiere on FX May 19. According to the cable network, the project, directed by Stacey Lee, "features the first interviews with former pastors Carl and Laura Lentz since their public ouster from the church, which for years counted musicians, actors, athletes and other celebrities among its flock."
In his Instagram post, Lentz wrote, "We were not interested in blame shifting or responsibility deflection, we focus on my mistakes and the context for what transpired. I can honestly tell you that when you get to a place of honesty and freedom in your life, when you've gone through hell and you realize God is still with you.. It is so freeing."
Lentz recently joined the staff of Transformation Church, a predominantly Black, nondenominational megachurch in Tulsa, Okla., Religion News Service reported in March. "Even though I'm at an amazing church that loves and supports us, I'm no longer in ministry," Lentz said in his Instagram post. "I'm not preaching, not overseeing people, my role is to help give perspective and insight where I can."
He continued, "I'm not the first man to be in this situation and I won't be the last, but I can promise you I'll be the guy standing with his arms open wide for anyone who's been on this path of addiction and destruction."
Lentz' extramarital affair is not the only scandal he's dealt with over the years. In May 2021, former Hillsong Church Boston co-pastor Leona Kimes alleged in a Medium essay that she was "subjected to manipulation, control, bullying, abuse of power, and sexual abuse" in Lentz's home while working for his family as a nanny. Through his lawyer, Lentz told the outlet that he denied the allegations. In April 2022, Kimes announced she had resigned from the church, RNS reported.
Other former members of Hillsong, Australia's biggest evangelical church, have also been accused of misconduct during their time working for the multimillion-dollar group.
In August 2021, Hillsong's global senior pastor Brian Houston was charged with concealing child sex abuse by his late father in the 1970s. Houston temporarily stepped down from his position in January 2022 to defend against the charges and pleaded not guilty the following December, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The case is pending and a hearing is scheduled for this June.
Hillsong said in a statement in March 2022 that Houston had fully resigned from the church following an internal investigation that found that he behaved inappropriately toward two women. The following November, Houston said in an Instagram video, "I didn't resign because of my mistakes. I resigned because of the announcements and statements that had been made, which [my wife] Bobbie and I felt made my position untenable."