Carl Lentz

Stephen Carl Lentz is an American pastor. He was the lead pastor of Hillsong NYC until November 4, 2020, when he was fired by Hillsong Global Pastor Brian Houston for "leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures."
Early life and education.
Carl Lentz was born 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, Hillsong founder Brian Houston's son, had the idea to plant a campus of Hillsong Church in New York City. He graduated in theology in 2003 and returned to Virginia Beach. He then became a youth pastor after being ordained.
Ministry.
In 2010, he co-founded Hillsong NYC in New York City with Joel Houston. In 2017, Hillsong NYC expanded to campuses in Connecticut and Boston.
Hillsong NYC had about 9,000 attendees among its 6 weekly services held at the United Palace Theater in Manhattan and the Welmont Theatre in Montclair, New Jersey before 2020 Covid-19 restrictions forced all of these services to move online.
Lentz baptized Justin Bieber, was present at the baptism of Kevin Durant, and has befriended various other well-known people.
Controversy.
On November 4, 2020, Brian Houston, Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong announced through member wide email list that he fired Lentz. The reason for Lentz's removal was cited as "leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures." Lentz revealed on his Instagram page he was unfaithful to his wife and he was held accountable for that action. His wife, who worked at the church, was also fired.
Views on abortion.
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 in 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, calling it "evil, shameful and demonic".