Disgraced former pastor, Carl Lentz, is speaking out about his life after stepping down from Hillsong East Coast and the regrets he’s had to face. Lentz joined the “Mighty Pursuit” podcast to speak about his life after stepping down from the church in 2020. Lentz had founded the church in 2010 and was known as the pastor to a number of celebrities such as Selena Gomez, Kevin Durant, and Justin Bieber. All that came to an abrupt halt, however, after it was revealed that Lentz had had an affair. He was fired for “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.” Lentz quietly moved out of the spotlight and has accepted a position with Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Lentz’s relationship with Bieber was well-documented during his time at Hillsong, with Lentz baptizing Bieber in NBA star Tyson Chandler’s bathtub after he became a believer. Lentz admitted betraying Bieber’s trust after the truth of his affair came out. “I feel like what people like Justin that supported us and trusted us, when you are at a certain level of fame, the only thing you have with somebody is trust—that’s all you have. They don’t need money. People don’t need your opportunities, and so when that trust is violated, it’s times 10, because that’s all we had,” he said.

He said he “hated” that Bieber got dragged into the drama of his downfall and that he likes to keep responses to Bieber “general.” “We had a great relationship. I knew him since he was kind of like a young, up-and-coming teenager. And to watch him now flourish as a man is awesome. But, you know, it’s sad. I’m sad that I broke that trust with him and everybody, really, but our relationship was special, and I’m grateful that I had a chance to be a part of that chapter with him,” he added. In a 2021 interview with Vanity Fair, although never specifically mentioning Lentz, Bieber criticized pastors who “put themselves on this pedestal.” “I think so many pastors put themselves on this pedestal. And it’s basically, church can be surrounded around the man, the pastor, the guy, and it’s like, ‘This guy has this ultimate relationship with God that we all want but we can’t get because we’re not this guy.’ That’s not the reality, though. The reality is, every human being has the same access to God,” he said.

Another person Lentz has acknowledged hurting is his wife, Laura Lentz. In a post in 2023, Carl acknowledged, “It would have been so easy and understandable for her to have walked out and ended our marriage.” He added, however, “Yet she chose the harder road. The one that has included so much pain as she has had to endure the consequences of my decisions.” He later added, “People have asked Laura why she stayed with me. Including me! And I’ll let her tell her own story and give her own reasons and all of it is gonna help a lot [of] people. …”