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With the lord as his swagger coach, Pastor Carl Lentz is turning Hillsong Church in into a pentecostal powerhouse and a destination for the in crowd. Drawn by his concertlike sermons and pop-idol looks, Lentz’s fast- growing flock of groupies includes Justin Bieber, NBA SUPERSTARS, and YOung Hollywood celebs. But whom, exactly, is this new apostle of cool seeking to glorify?

by howie kahn photographs

chris by robbie fimmano Jesus supers world, where people want everything but want one. But today he is leading only the last three to give up nothing. When it’s always only Jesus, services because he’s running on three hours you’re not the boss—He is.” of sleep, having just returned from the annual As Lentz paces the stage on this sweltering Hillsong Conference in Sydney, Australia. mid-July afternoon, balancing quick, sharp Hillsong NYC exudes a start-up vibe, but the movements with sudden moments of reflec- church is actually a franchise. It’s an extension tive stillness, he comes off as less feverish holy of the Australian Pentecostal megachurch and roller than cool Pentecostal populist—his mes- multimedia conglomerate Hillsong, which has sage being that of love, acceptance, and total more than 20,000 members in the Sydney area, surrender. Lentz delivers it in expressions of chart-topping musical acts, DVDs, books, and faith so pithy and catchy they play back in satellite churches in 11 countries—and took your head like a pop song: “You don’t have to in $58.3 million in 2012 (including $25.9 mil- believe to belong here.” “It’s not a feel-better lion from tithes). After initially receiving fi- message, it’s a be-better one.” “We don’t want nancial support from the mother ship, Lentz Carl Lentz steps into a cloud of silver-blue your money, but God wants everything.” They says, Hillsong NYC, which passes around black light and hits the stage at the venerable New drive his preaching style—what he calls his donation buckets at every service, is now self- York City concert venue Irving Plaza, primed “homiletical habitude.” Lentz, who was born sustaining. Lentz was educated in the early Cto bring the Word. The 34-year-old pastor of into a devout Christian family, spent his early 2000s at Hillsong International Leadership Hillsong Church NYC is wearing his Sunday years in a white-collar suburb of Chicago, but College, where he met his future Hillsong best: black YSL wing-tip boots, black Nudie when he was 11, his dad, a television-ad sales- NYC partners: Laura Lentz, his wife and fel- jeans, and a short-sleeved All Saints denim man for Pat Robertson’s Family Channel, took low pastor, and Joel Houston, the 33-year-old work shirt. He’s backed by an 11-piece rock band a job at the network’s headquarters in Virginia son of Hillsong’s cofounders, Brian and Bobbie that sounds like a born-again Coldplay and a Beach—that’s where Lentz picked up his slight Houston. But it’s Lentz, with his supernatural neon-lettered projection: always. only. jesus. southern twang, which intensifies when he magnetism, who is the face of Hillsong’s first Sweeping back his mohawk as shreds of rain- preaches. “I’m going to say things that dis- foray into American Christendom. “People bow disco-ball light pass across his bearded rupt you,” Lentz says, wrapping up his sermon. call New York the church-planting graveyard,” face, Lentz revs into his first 45-minute sermon “It’s the full Gospel—I have to do it. I owe you Lentz says. And yet, just three years after its of the day. “Going to church doesn’t make you that as the pastor of this church.” On cue, the launch, Hillsong NYC draws 6,000 people to its a Christian, just like going to Krispy Kreme house band strikes up, and Lentz quickens his services every Sunday and has just added two doesn’t make you a doughnut”; then, “If you cadence to match the building bass line. “We’re more at a chapel in the neigh- think I’m one of those weird stalker pastors going to sing our way out of here,” Lentz says. borhood. “I see our church taking ground in a . . . you’re right.” Lentz scans the two-tiered The crowd sways to the music, raising their major way,” Lentz says. “In five years, I want a auditorium packed with congregants—they’re hands in surrender. Lentz blesses them all, giant version of what it is now.” mostly in their twenties and thirties, with a then exits stage left. Lentz has already shared the pulpit with

smattering of recognizable actors and athletes. “He is going to be huge,” predicts today’s megapastors like Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes at But the range of true believers here also en- guest speaker, Priscilla Shirer, a 38-year-old Christian conferences. This month, he’ll preach compasses suburbanites, hurricane-devastated minister. A rising star in her own right, Shirer to sellout crowds at Hillsong’s debut confer- families from the Rockaway section of , was flown in from Dallas to lighten Lentz’s ences in America, first at New York’s Radio and people praying to beat cancer or to find load. He normally preaches at all six Irving City Music Hall, then at the Nokia Theatre in financial stability. They hang on Lentz’s every Plaza services, beginning at 10 a.m., with lines Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Lentz’s digital per- word: “We’re in the control-freak capital of the of devotees wrapped around the block for each sona is going viral. He has 65,000 Instagram

Nondenominational judaism Atheism sunni islam Southern Baptist FAITH’S Christianity Yehuda and michael Chris Stedman, 26 usama canon, 36 Steven Furtick, 33 NEW Rob Bell, 43 Berg, 41 and 40 House of Worship: House of Worship: House of Worship: WAVE House of Worship: N/A House of Worship: The Harvard University, Cam- Ta’leef Collective, San Elevation Church, Five next- A recent Los Angeles Kabbalah Centre, L.A. bridge, Massachusetts Francisco Charlotte, North Carolina gen gurus transplant, Bell—the The deceptively schlubby An ex–evangelical Chris- After embracing the Koran Since launching his who are founder and former pastor sons of founders Rav tian turned openly gay in 1996, this square-jawed church in 2006, Furtick disrupting of Mars Hill Bible Church and Karen Berg serve atheist, this tat-sleeved former Christian with a has expanded his flock to in Grandville, Michigan—is as codirectors of the lightning rod is leading the fondness for natty duds seven campuses of nearly religion’s now a roving, skinny-tie- A-list-packed organiza- charge—through his fre- began reaching out to 15,000 evangelicals com- status wearing preacher. He’s tion. Yehuda is a spiritual quent panel appearances, converts as an in-demand bined. Congregants love quo. questioned whether hell adviser to Ashton Kutcher, his 2012 memoir, Faitheist, lecturer. In 2005, he his boy-band good looks is real, lectured at L.A.’s while Michael is the co- and his activism against founded his nonprofit and can be seen wearing Viper Room, and been an founder—with Madonna— religious intolerance—to educational center—a the church’s black rubber outspoken supporter of the charity organization include his fellow faithless “safe space” for exploring rings and toting Greater,

of gay marriage. Raising Malawi. in interfaith dialogues. the boundaries of Islam. his 2012 best seller. see management. at enrico mariotti grooming by sarah schussheim. sittings editor: detwiler. todd by illustrations

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october 2013 143 THE CIRCLE OF LOVE 4 5 Carl Lentz HAS A KNACK FOR MAKING FAMOUS FRIENDS, from true bElievers to adoring admirers.

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 AnnaSophia Kevin Scooter Damon Jeremy Vanessa Justin Tyson Robb Durant Braun Dash Lin Hudgens Bieber Chandler

The Colorado- Lentz bap- Braun’s first The Roc-a- When he’s The Spring Last year, With his wife, raised Carrie tized the NBA reaction Fella Records back in New Breakers Lentz and the Kimberly, the Diaries star uses superstar and to Lentz? cofounder York, the for- co-star and her King of Teen Knicks’ star Hillsong NYC serves as his “That guy is recently visited mer Knicks actor boyfriend, Pop bonded center trav- as a cure for spiritual coun- definitely not Hillsong NYC, and current Austin Butler, over pickup eled with the homesickness selor; the two a pastor!” Now telling Lentz: Houston are Hillsong b-ball; now Lentzes to this and now lives hit the gym Lentz has “That was Rockets point NYC regulars they exchange year’s Hillsong in the same together when- the full trust like a rock guard often at- and friends texts about Conference apartment build- ever they’re in of Bieber’s concert with a tends Lentz’s with Lentz’s Scripture in Sydney, ing as Lentz. the same city. Svengali. message.” services. whole family. every day. Australia.

followers, who “like” it when he mugs beside you don’t think about the brand.” year,” Lentz says, “breaking up fights, signing a tank-topped Justin Bieber (the two trade Lentz is aware that endorsements from guys out of jail.” But he left the team during Scripture-based texts daily) or poses with the Bieber and Durant, especially when tweeted his sophomore season. “Something in my heart newly baptized—by Lentz—NBA superstar Kevin and Instagrammed, pay dividends. “I’m an ad- shifted,” he continues. “I felt like if I stayed, I Durant and Jay-Z (snapped on the day Durant, vertiser,” Lentz reasons. “You are God’s ambas- couldn’t serve God. I felt like I was going to die.” with Lentz’s spiritual counsel, signed with Roc sador—as if He is making his appeal through At age 20, Lentz lit out for California, where Nation Sports). Lentz conveys a hip, iconoclas- you. We’re essentially His commercial.” he attended King’s Seminary in Van Nuys tic image: religion in a designer wrapper. while working part-time at the Gucci store “It’s a reaction against the fundamentalist In the Pentecostal worldview Carl Lentz on Rodeo Drive. His pastor in Virginia Beach, evangelical culture of the eighties and nine- subscribes to, all human talents are expressions Wave Church’s Steve Kelly, suggested that Lentz ties,” says Brett McCracken, the author of of the Holy Spirit. Lentz believes his swift as- check out Hillsong International Leadership Hipster Christianity: When Church & Cool Collide. cent is part of God’s plan, his past full of por- College. Attending Hillsong after King’s, “Dynamic speakers have always risen to the tent. His earliest memories involve working in a Lentz says, summoning a basketball analogy, top, from Charles Spurgeon to Billy Graham. soup kitchen and ministering to prisoners with was “like going to UNLV instead of Princeton. The difference now is pastors like Lentz wear his father. As a teenager, he says, he gradually Princeton wins with backdoor cuts, whereas skinny jeans and beards and quote Jay-Z. They turned away from God—toward basketball, UNLV is running, gunning, getting dunks, and gain authenticity from caring about the same earning a walk-on spot as a shooting guard at popping their jerseys on the way back up the

things as you do. Part of the brand is saying North Carolina State. “I was teammate of the floor. That’s the way I wanted to relate to Jesus.” F ineberg. T ina AP P hoto/ (8); images getty left: clockwise from bottom photographs, “I see our church taking ground in a major way,”

144 details october 2013 After marrying Laura and graduating in 2003, What some people call swagger, Carl Lentz “Jesus,” Lentz says, bathed again in silver- Lentz moved back to Virginia Beach and jumped calls the grace of God. Justin Bieber’s longtime blue light, “I pray tonight you have your way. into the ministry at Wave Church, where he rap- manager, Scooter Braun, says Lentz “has that There will not be one of us who leaves here as idly built a following with his hip-hop-infused X-factor, that thing you’re born with that we walked in.” “Soul Central” services. Then, on New Year’s makes people gravitate toward you. I’m a Eve 2009, Lentz flew to New York to meet Joel proud, practicing Jew, but you don’t have to be four days later, Lentz hits the road: Houston—who was already well known as the Christian to be moved by Carl’s words and his There’s Hillsong’s European conference at Lon- frontman of the Christian-rock band Hillsong passion.” When Braun and Bieber met Lentz for don’s O2 Arena; an event in Joplin, Missouri, United—to discuss a scenario that the two had the first time—introduced by a mutual friend, called Project Restoration, to which Lentz was dreamed about in Sydney: a Hillsong church the Seattle pastor Judah Smith, backstage at a personally invited by a woman who’d driven to in . A couple of months later, when Bieber concert in New Jersey—Braun was wary. New York just to ask him to heal her tornado- they got the go-ahead from Joel’s parents, Lentz “I’d had bad experiences with people claim- ravaged town; and a trip to preach in New jumped at the opportunity, which he views as a ing they were all about God,” Braun says. “My Zealand. On the day Lentz returns to New York, manifestation of God’s plan. The night Lentz, his reaction was just to get him out.” But when nearly three weeks later, he heads to to wife, and their three young children pulled into they met again at a pickup basketball game at coach his church’s basketball team in a game , he says, the family car was broken Shaquille O’Neal’s house in L.A., the two men at storied Rucker Park. He rolls uptown in a into. “We couldn’t find a place to live, because bonded. “Carl has never asked for anything caravan of Chevy Tahoes filled with former you have to prove you make, like, 900 grand a other than friendship,” Braun says, “and has and current NBA talent, including the Golden year,” Lentz says. “So by God’s grace, some real- given nothing but friendship in return.” State Warriors’ All-Star forward David Lee. estate agent, who just loved us, found us a spot Lentz has earned the trust of many young Justin Bieber’s onetime “swagger coach” Ryan in Williamsburg. It was a brand-new building, famous Christians. At that same 5 p.m. service Aldred, a.k.a. Ryan Good, sits in the back of one and the dude cut us a deal. We have a doorman, in mid-July, the 24-year-old actress Vanessa SUV. “All the other teams are sponsored by rap which was all my wife wanted to feel safe.” Hudgens and her 21-year-old boyfriend, Austin labels and drug dealers,” Lentz says. “We’re the In the beginning, Hillsong NYC was less a Butler, were seated in the front row, with only church team in the history of the league.” church than a series of informal meetings on Butler’s costar in The Carrie Diaries, AnnaSophia During the game, Lentz, in a loose-fitting park benches and in pizza joints. Lentz recalls Robb, 19, a row back. As Lentz began to preach Ksubi Baddies tank top and a camouflage base- canvassing the streets with Houston, talking the Word, Robb tapped out notes on her iPhone. ball cap, sits anxiously on the bench, eyes nar- to whomever they could about Christ. The size When the pastor left the stage, Robb, who re- rowed, turning his cap forward then backward. of their meetings grew, and after one attendee cently moved into the same apartment building He appears even more intense than he does in fainted in an overcrowded TriBeCa apartment, as the Lentzes, turned to me and said, “You can church. By the fourth quarter, Lentz’s squad Lentz decided it was time to seek a larger venue. feel the favor of God in this church.” of ringers, the Hillsong NYC Hustlers, have a A Hillsong contact who works for the concert- After his sermon, upstairs in Irving Plaza’s 15-point lead. When Lee seals the deal with his promoting group Live Nation helped Lentz greenroom, Lentz meets with a grieving couple third dunk in a row, Lentz shoots up off the secure Irving Plaza, and Hillsong NYC held the who just lost their 4-year-old son in a car ac- bench and exchanges a flying body bump with first of its weekly services there in February 2011. cident. Lentz prays with them, huddling in a his Warrior. His commitment to winning is total. As his church grows in numbers and no- tight circle, finishing just in time to change That was made clear four Sundays earlier, toriety, Lentz knows he’ll be subjected to in- back into his stage clothes and deliver again during his final sermon of the night. Wiping tense scrutiny—not least because of Hillsong at the seven o’clock service. When Lentz hauls sweat from his brow under the disco ball, Lentz HQ’s controversial past. There was the admis- himself back to the greenroom 45 minutes later, cited John 6:53 and spoke of a total commit- sion from Joel Houston’s grandfather Frank he’s gutted. He shuts the door and sits gingerly ment to Christ: “Unless you eat the flesh of Houston, a leader in the Australian Pentecostal on a couch, alone, brushing his hair back. He the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have movement and Hillsong’s patriarch, that he leans forward, elbows on knees, hands joined, no life in you.” He then explained the mean- had sexually abused a boy in New Zealand. eyes closed. He’s sweating and sniffling; a tear ing of Jesus’ words: “When you take a bite of Hillsong Church is also the target of wide- runs down his cheek. One more service to go. me, when you really follow me, everything in me spread allegations of homophobia. Lentz says Lentz quickly collects himself and opens the goes in you—you can’t pick and choose.” Lentz gays are welcome at Hillsong NYC, but he de- door to find Roc-A-Fella Records cofounder leaned out over the edge of the stage, his voice clines to address the topic of same-sex mar- Damon Dash waiting, unannounced, with an rising. “You have to be consumed with this. I’m riage with me. It’s clearly not worth the risk. entourage of two. talking about flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, Lentz maintains that his job is more about “That was like a rock concert with a mes- everything in me, in you, and if you’re not about uniting people than dividing them. “It’s harder sage,” Dash says, introducing Lentz to some- that, you need to go follow somebody else.” to feel welcome in some local churches than one he refers to as “the biggest DJ in China.” Lentz was ostensibly talking about his it is to meet Jesus,” Lentz says elliptically. “If “You mind if I get your details?” Lentz asks. savior, but it almost sounded like he meant Jesus walked into New York City, he wouldn’t “Give you a holler? Grab a coffee?” The two ex- himself. “Because this is not a game. I am not be able to get into some of the places they pro- change numbers, and Lentz heads back down- a circus. I am not just traveling around doing fess to worship him in.” stairs to preach his final sermon of the night. cool things. I am after followers.”  Lentz says. “I want a giant version of what it is now.”

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