Former pastor Carl Lentz has made waves again by taking a position at Tusla’s Transformation Church as a strategist. Lentz had been the pastor at Hillsong until 2020, when he was sacked due to an adulterous affair.
Carl Lentz has lately started attending Michael Todd’s (an influential YouTube personality) church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The church also issued a statement praising Lentz’s appointment.
The statement read, “We gladly welcome Carl Lentz to our Transformation Church staff, helping TC with strategy as we continue to move forward in our vast vision.”
Carl Lentz, Former Pastor Of Hillsong, Hired By Church After Scandal
According to New York Post, Former Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Lentz has joined the staff of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, led by pastor, author, and prominent YouTuber Michael Todd. Transformation Church is a largely black, nondenominational megachurch.
After being let off from Hillsong in 2020 due to an adulterous affair, Lentz has joined the staff at Transformation, a behemoth in a city full of megachurches.
Tammy McQuarters, the church’s executive pastor of operations, wrote in an email to Religion News Service on Monday, “We gladly welcome Carl Lentz to our Transformation Church staff, helping TC with strategy as we continue to move forward in our vast vision.”
While rumors and ongoing charges have hounded Lentz, 44, and his former church ever since his dismissal, he has remained mainly silent. GQ Magazine once called him a “hypepriest” for his trendy clothes and ministering to NBA stars and celebrities like Justin Bieber.
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It was revealed on Tuesday that Carl and Laura Lentz would give their first interviews since Carl’s dismissal from Hillsong on May 19 for an FX documentary series about the issues at the church.
“After two years of Carl being in his own discovery and healing process, he has shown readiness to use his God-given gifts towards the local church again. We believe in Carl, his marriage, his skill set, and his restoration,” McQuarters said.
McQuarters said that the church’s vision to re-present God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ includes restoration. She referred to the Book of Galatians, which encourages believers to “restore one another” following acts of sin, mistake, and repentance, and claimed the two go “hand in hand.”
“We are called to provide a secure space for people to evolve and transform,” she continued.
The church that owns the 4,500-capacity SpiritBank Event Center in the Tulsa suburb of Bixby was created in 1999 in the city’s historically black Greenwood District, site of the city’s 1921 race tragedy.
In 2019, Transformation paid $10.5 million for the arena, one of almost $67 million worth of real estate purchases made by the church in the area over the previous four years.
As part of a $1 million donation given by the church to commemorate the atrocity on its centennial, Todd and Transformation Church have become well-known in Tulsa for their community donations, including $200,000 to each of the three living survivors of the race massacre.
Lentz, a native of North Carolina, attended Hillsong College in Sydney, Australia, and in 2010 he was moved to Manhattan by the Pentecostal powerhouse to establish a Hillsong outpost there.
The church, known as Hillsong NYC, attracted as many as 10,000 people to its services each weekend, the most of whom were young professionals. You may see the official tweet by Adara Sherron below.
Carl Lentz and Mike Todd together was not on my bingo card. This is something. pic.twitter.com/aWccxjMkTU
— Adara Sherron, M.A. (@adarathexplorer) March 31, 2023
However, since Lentz was fired in November 2020, both the New York City location and Hillsong Global have been involved in parallel scandals, with Brian Houston, the founding pastor of Hillsong, resigning last year after revelations of indiscretions with women, and ongoing allegations of financial misconduct by the church.
Ranin Karim, a Brooklyn jewelry designer, spoke about her friendship with Lentz on “Good Morning America” shortly after Lentz’s dismissal.
A few months later, Leona Kimes, Lentz’s ex-nanny, came out with charges that Lentz had subjected her to “bullying, misuse of power, and se*ual abuse,” all of which were denied by Lentz’s legal representation at the time. A confidential assessment commissioned by Hillsong Global depicted a picture of abuse, sexual misbehavior, and secrecy inside the leadership of Hillsong East Coast.
McQuarters said that people at Transformation Church are praying for Lentz and his family to find healing and help others do the same by using their successes and failures to make resources for the whole body of Christ.
As far as we know, that’s all there is to know about hillsong church pastor Carl Lentz. Keep checking serveupdate.com for the most up-to-date information.