Hillsong NYC is where all the hipsters, celebrities and cool kids go to church on Sundays. By now you probably know Pastor Carl Lentz and Justin Bieber are friends. If you didn’t know, then read this and this.
The former bad boy is turning a new leaf. For those of us who have made a 180 with life choices, you know this isn’t an easy and painless process. It can be pretty messy.
In a recent GQ article titled, ‘What Would Cool Jesus Do?‘, we get a sneak peak into the world of Justin Bieber, Carl Lentz, that cool church in New York and Jesus. Yes, GQ wrote about Jesus:
“But one day, according to Carl, Justin looked in the mirror and he was ravaged by feelings of loss. He got on his knees and he cried. “I want to know Jesus,” Justin Bieber sobbed to Pastor Carl. And so together they prayed. Suddenly, Justin was overcome by the Gospel, and he said, “Baptize me.” And Pastor Carl said, “Yes, buckaroo”—he really does call Bieber buckaroo, and now you should, too—“let’s do this. Let’s schedule a time.” But Justin Bieber couldn’t be Justin Bieber for one minute longer. “No, I want to do it now.” And Pastor Carl saw salvation in Justin’s eyes, and knew that his baptism couldn’t come quickly enough.”
So what do you do when you’re Carl Lentz and need a late night baptism pool? You go to the Manhattan Hotel where Hillsong likes to rent out the pool for baptisms. But the paparazzi were there waiting for them. So Carl Lentz called “his boy” Tyson Chandler, former NY Knicks player, for a ‘Plan B’.
Carl tells Chandler, “I said, ‘Bro, I’m in a jam here. I have JB with me, he wants to get baptized.’ Chandler says, ‘Done. Easy.’ ”
The pool was closed, but the 7-foot basketball player’s custom-made bathtub was open. So Chandler’s wife grabs some towels (and makes some snacks) while Bieber hopped in the tub.
Here’s what GQ wrote:
“And that is an image that will stick with you, let me tell you: Justin Bieber, on his knees in Tyson Chandler’s bathtub, wet and sobbing against Pastor Carl’s chest, so unable to cope with being himself that he has to be born anew, he has to be declared someone entirely different, in order to make it through the night.”
