Carl Lentz says he’s not back in ministry, reveals new chapter is podcast
Two days after teasing his audience with a “new chapter” that he plans to reveal on June 4, former Hillsong NYC Pastor Carl Lentz said that new chapter doesn't involve returning to the pulpit, but he will be back in the limelight with a new podcast called “Lights On.”
“No, I’m not back. That guy is gone,” Lentz announced in a video on Instagram Thursday night, in which he appears smiling with his wife, Laura.
He also noted that “Lights On” will be available on all platforms starting on June 4.
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“My choices and the road toward recovery taught me how helpful it is to have people share vulnerably the impact of their bad choices, the pain they caused, and the pain they suffered that led them to make those choices, and what they’ve discovered can be helpful and healing,” he wrote.
“My hope is that in sharing those things from my story and asking others to share theirs, it will be helpful, hopeful and healing. I’m thankful for where we are today. To be confident of the future, content in the present and healed enough to speak to the past is miraculous. If we can make it, anybody can … thank you for all the love and support!”
Lentz was fired from his post at Hillsong NYC in November 2020 over “leadership issues” and moral failures, including being unfaithful to his wife with multiple women, including a staff member at Hillsong NYC. Details from an internal investigation shared with The Christian Post in 2022 that was conducted on behalf of Hillsong Church by the New York City law firm Zukerman Gore Brandeis & Crossman, LLP, alleged, among other things, that he manipulated some former staff and volunteers so badly it caused them to suffer mental illness.
His message clarifying his new chapter had more than 14,000 likes on Instagram as of Friday morning and mixed comments, including from popular Christian YouTuber Ruslan KD.
“Well, that was a relief,” Ruslan replied to Lentz’s post with laughing emojis.
Others, like former Saints Church pastor in New York, Chris Durso, appeared more supportive.
“Beautiful. Love you!” he replied to Lentz.
Since he re-emerged in public ministry a year ago as a “strategist” at Transformation Church, led by Pastor Michael Todd in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Lentz has had to repeatedly assure the Christian community that he isn’t returning to the pulpit despite what appears to be a willingness by his ministry friends to see his “gifts” being used in the local church again.
"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,” Transformation Church’s Executive Pastor Tammy McQuarters said in a statement reported by CP at the time.
“We pray that Carl, Laura, and their family experience not only their own restoration, but help others experience restoration by using their triumphs and failures to create resources for the body of Christ at large. We believe that this is part of what it looks like for the church to be the church,” she added.
In May 2023, Carl Lentz insisted in a public letter that he was “no longer in ministry” and admitted that his sins led him to some “dark places.”
“I’m not preaching, not overseeing people, my role is to help give perspective and insight where I can,” he said.
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