When a celebrity needs to pray, this is the altar of choice, we are looking at celebrities like Beyonce and Jay-z, Oprah, Justine Bieber, and the ‘first level’celebrities.
Speaking of Justin Bieber’s, the abrupt cancellation of his Purpose World Tour, rumours have swirled of a religious awakening shepherded by his spiritual confidantes, Pastors Carl and Laura Lentz of Hillsong New York. With its own record label and smartphone app.
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1. Hillsong was founded Down Under.
While it seems like Hillsong is a covenant made for famous people, the church was founded in the early 80s in New South Wales, Australia by Brian and Bobbie Houston, the latter of whom comes from a powerful religious family.
Today, with 100,000 parishioners in Australia attending services each week and locations dotting urban
A fast-growing stream of Christianity, contemporary Pentecostalism is Bible-based (specifically, Hillsong considers the tome “accurate, authoritative and applicable” to modern-day life) and there is a focus on individual relationships with Jesus through baptism.
2. Today, one of the Church’s best-known pastors is Carl Lentz.
A dozen pastors call Hillsong home, but Carl Lentz seems to be the most popular. He was born in Virginia, 32-year-old Carl Lentz studied at the Hillsong International Leadership College in Australia, where he befriended Brian and Bobbie Houston’s son Joel and met his wife, Laura, a 38-year-old Aussie native.
Laura, who grew up attending Hillsong, shares the workload with her husband at the pulpit and leads the NY Sisterhood, a female-centred group that is part of the global Hillsong Color Collective and focuses on global conferences, bible study, volunteer work, philanthropy and prayer groups.
Together, the Lentz’s are the spiritual force behind Hillsong New York, launched in 2010 and now a 6,000-strong parish, a crowd Lentz estimates is mostly peeping in their 20s and 30s.
3. The Hillsong Pastor is a baller, literally.
Carl Lentz has deep roots in the sports world – he played basketball in college and, upon moving to New York, connected with several members of the Knicks (in 2015, he was helping the Knicks’ in-house pastor with chapel and prayer duties).
Hillsong’s popularity with celebrities didn’t take Lentz completely by surprise, as he told VICE in 2014, “We knew what we were getting into. We just believe that our church would be a home to everybody. The faceless and the famous.”
But why is Hillsong such an A-list magnet? Part empathy, part opportunity: Lentz said that the elite athletes are drawn to him because he understands the pressures and pitfalls of high-calibre play — and that he recognizes celebrities are often isolated and spiritually neglected.
4. And he’s a long-standing Bieber confidante.
Through Carl Lentz’s friendship with Judah Smith (the City Church pastor who counts Russell Wilson as a follower), he became more immersed in the sports and celebrity world, which led to him meeting Justin a decade ago.
On Oprah’s SuperSoul Sunday (Gayle insisted O have him on), Lentz recalled a late-night call from Bieber, who was anxious to be baptized. After being chased from four different spots by paparazzi, Lentz and Smith baptized Justin in NBA star Tyson Chandler’s bathtub (as Lentz explained to Oprah, the baller has custom 7-foot tubs). Since the recent Purpose World Tour cancellation, Justin and Carl have seemed inseparable.
While the spotlight is super hot right now, the two have been friends for a decade, meeting backstage at one of Justin’s concerts in 2007 – Justin was 14.
5. But Bieber isn’t the only celebrity Hillsong churchgoer.
JB has brought both his ex, singer/actress Selena Gomez, and his fiancée model Hailey Baldwin on dates to church. Since then, Selena’s covered the Hillsong UNITED’s “Transfiguration” in a teary-eyed tribute to the late The Voice artist Christina Grimmie back in 2016.
also, before Bieber and Baldwin even reconnected and got engaged, the model also posted a pic on Instagram with Kendall and Kylie Jenner, as well as the Lentz couple.
Nick Jonas was also spotted at a Hillsong service in 2012, and Vanessa Hudgens and her boyfriend Austin Butler have also been photographed with the Lentz’s.r2
6. Hillsong takes a postmodern approach to prayer.
In keeping with Hillsong’s rock star vibe, there’re no hard pews or stained glass windows. Instead, Hillsong NY uses a mix of locations, including a church on East 22nd Street, Irving Plaza in Union Square, an event space in New Jersey, and Sunday service at Hammerstein Ballroom. There’s VIP seating for celebs like Biebs and Nick Jonas (imagine how crowded it must have been when Kendall, Hailey Baldwin and Selena all showed up at the same service in early June).
For those without a Hillsong in their ‘hood, there’s an app, as well as a 24/7 digital channel with access to Sunday services around the world, acoustic recording sessions with Hillsong UNITED, BTS footage from Hillsong’s conferences, and even coffee time with a pastor via the online Café Theology.
7. Keeps things ~cool~ and youthful.
With boyfriend jeans considered “Sunday best,” many of the congregants in LA and NYC mirror Carl Lentz’s style – jeans, hats and casual tees (all the better to show off fresh ink) have replaced stuffy suits and gentile dresses. Forgot your bible on the nightstand? No worries – following along with psalms on an iPhone is the norm.
As churches all over the world see their parishes numbers dwindle, Hillsong is attracting large crowds of millennials with innovative ideas.
8. And the Church utilizes the power of music in its worship.
Music is a huge piece of Hillsong’s soul – the church also doubles as a de facto record company. There’s a yearly album (Hillsong Worship), a supergroup, as well as the Grammy-nominated group Young & Free, an Aussie collective that evolved out of youth ministry.