Disgraced former Hillsong NYC pastor, Carl Lentz, made clear on Instagram Tuesday (May 9) that he is “no longer in ministry” despite recently joining Pastor Mike Todd’s staff at Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a strategist—an announcement that was made this past March.
Lentz hasn’t been in ministry since he was fired in the fall of 2020 from the church he cofounded in 2010 (Hillsong NYC) for what was described by Hillsong’s then-global senior pastor, Brian Houston, as “moral failure.”
After Lentz was fired, Ranin Karim, a designer he met in Brooklyn, New York, came forward with details about a secret affair she and Lentz had been having while he was the pastor at Hillsong NYC.
RELATED: Carl Lentz, Pastor of Hillsong East Coast, Fired for ‘Moral Failure’
Later, in a leaked phone call obtained by The Daily Mail, Houston said Lentz was fired due to his “general narcissistic behavior. Manipulating, mistreating people. Breaches of trust and constant lying.”
In the months to follow, the Lentzes’ former nanny claimed that the Carl had bullied and sexually abused her throughout her seven years working in their home.
Carl Lentz: ‘I’m Not Preaching, I’m Not Overseeing People’
Carl Lentz started off his Instagram post sharing that since being removed as Hillsong NYC’s pastor, his only priority has been his family: “For the last 3 years my entire focus has been fighting for my wife and my kids.”
“Seeking sobriety and healing had to run parallel” with the goals of fighting for his family these past three years, he said. “Honestly nothing else mattered. None of the noise, the lies, none of the half truths that were said about me and or us, mattered. All I wanted was to prove to my wife and kids that I could show up for them like I had never done before.”
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