Carl Lentz


Stephen Carl Lentz is an American pastor. He is the senior pastor of Hillsong Church NYC.

Biography

Carl Lentz was born on November 6, 1978, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. From 1998 to 2000, he attended North Carolina State University and was a walk-on basketball player on the school's men's basketball team. As an adult, he moved to Los Angeles to study at The King's College and Seminary. He then went on to study at Hillsong International Leadership College of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia. It was during his studies, at the age of 20, that he and Joel Houston, Brian Houston's son, had the idea to plant a campus of Hillsong Church in New York City. He graduated in theology in 2003, then returned to Virginia Beach, Virginia. He then became a youth pastor after being ordained.

Ministry

In 2010, he co-founded Hillsong NYC in New York City with Joel Houston. Hillsong NYC currently has about 9,000 attendees among its 6 weekly services held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan and the Welmont Theatre in Montclair, New Jersey. In 2017, Hillsong NYC expanded to campuses in Connecticut and Boston.
Lentz baptized Justin Bieber, was present at the baptism of Kevin Durant, and has befriended various other well-known people.
Lentz has also been heavily criticized for having celebrity friends who have claimed to be "Christians". Lentz was also heavily criticized by many evangelicals for drinking alcohol with Justin Bieber and other claims that abortion and infidelity aren't sin.

Personal views

On October 30, 2017, while on The View, Lentz was asked if he believed abortion was a sin; he did not answer the question directly, instead saying that "The cultural, religious norm right now is that if you and I disagree, we’re done. I don’t believe that’s the case." Eight days later, Lentz released a statement via Twitter saying "I do believe abortion is sinful." In January 2019 he strongly opposed the passage of the Reproductive Health Act the State of New York, which allows abortion after 24 weeks when a fetus is unviable or the pregnancy poses a risk to the mother's health, saying it was "evil, shameful and demonic".

Published works