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What do Hailey Baldwin, Hailee Steinfeld, Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian and Vanessa Hudgens have in common – apart from their star power and big-bucks bank balances, of course?
It’s that they all like to spend their Sundays in church – Hillsong’s trendy New York chapter, to be exact.
So you can only wonder how the famous flock feels now that the church’s celebrity pastor, Carl Lentz, is being axed for “a recent revelation of moral failures”.
The 41-year-old has become known as the “rock-star pastor”, counselling celebrities on matters of faith when he’s not leading his come-as-you-are congregation.
Earlier this week a shocking email from Hillsong founder and senior pastor Brian Houston said the church was “very sad” to inform followers that Carl’s employment had been terminated.
“I know this will come as a shock to you, but please know that this action was not taken lightly and was done in the best interests of everyone, including Pastor Carl.“
This action has been taken following ongoing discussions in relation to leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures,” the message said of why the senior church leader was let go.
“However, you can be assured that this decision was made in order to honour God and pastorally care for you, our East Coast family, Pastor Carl and his family.” He added that he has “no doubt in my heart” that terminating Carl’s services was the “right course of action.
A day later Carl took to Instagram to reveal that the "moral failures" he was fired for included cheating on his wife of 17 years, Australian-born pastor Laura (42), with whom he shares kids Ava (16), Charlie (14), and Roman (11).
The religious leader wrote in a lengthy Instagram caption that his exit from the church was “a hard ending” to his and his family’s time there.
The Australian-based megachurch has nearly 1 100 locations all over the world but began gaining more traction after Carl’s involvement with celebrity attendees.
Most famously, Carl has been a trusted advisor to the Biebs, having baptised the Intentions singer in the bathtub of basketball player Tyson Chandler in 2014.
In fact, the two are so tight the Biebs even moved in with Carl's family in 2014 for an “informal detox” and spent several weeks “refocused on his religious faith”.
The 26-year-old musician also credited Carl for getting him through years of drug abuse.
"I found myself doing things that I was so ashamed of, being super-promiscuous and stuff, and I think I used Xanax because I was so ashamed,” Justin told Vogue last year.
"Drugs put a screen between me and what I was doing. It got pretty dark. I think there were times when my security was coming in late at night to check my pulse and see if I was still breathing.”
Justin added that since living with Carl he had not partaken in any drug use but still drank “socially”.
Just last month Justin and Hailey joined Carl and friends for a day at the beach in Santa Barbara, California.
In addition to the Biebers, Carl’s services have also been frequented by Oprah, Kylie Jenner and Jay-Z. Drake and many other stars have also popped up on the father-of-three’s Instagram profile – which often boasts his famous friends.
Sources: usmagazine.com, vogue.com, tmz.com
