The former Hillsong Church pastor has been accused of causing mental anguish among the megachurch's staff and volunteers.
It has been more than a year after Hillsong Church fired its former pastor, Carl Lentz, who led the New York city congregation that he started in Manhattan in 2010. In 2020, Lentz was let go by Hillsong amidst accusations of "leadership issues and breaches of trust," as well as "moral failures." Now, reports are shedding light on how the former pastor's manipulative leadership "caused mental illness" among the megachurch's staff and volunteers.
According to the Christian Post, a new report titled "Internal Investigation Report Regarding Carl Lentz and Other Matters" was released following the New York City law firm Zukerman Gore Brandeis & Crossman internal investigation into Lentz. The law firm conducted the investigation on behalf of Hillsong Church after he was fired in November 2020 amidst "leadership issues" and a scandal that he was unfaithful to his wife, Laura. Zukerman Gore Brandeis & Crossman, LLP submitted the report to Hillsong Church on January 11, 2021.
The 51-page report addressed the mishandling of spiritual care of one vulnerable parishioner who was plagued with an eating disorder and eventually passed away. The report also addressed several incidents of "consensual or non-consensual sexual interaction between church leaders and congregants," and other members, volunteers, and non-churchgoers.
The report also presented Lentz as a "a lying, massage-loving, adulterer" who "answered to no one" in Hillsong Church. It alleged that the former pastor acted with so much freedom in spearheading Hillsong NYC that it appeared that the Australian board did not have any control over him.
"Lentz's ability to lead so poorly was itself the result of insufficient supervision and accountability applied to Lentz himself," the report said. "Indeed, it appears that effective management and accountability of Lentz was nonexistent."
Several witnesses said that Lentz repeatedly pushed the idea that Hillsong New York was independent from Hillsong Australia, allegedly saying "Australia is dead to us" and other such comments." But investigators said that the former pastor was "not credible when defending his demands for cultural isolationism from the Australian parent church." They added that there was a "lack" of "effective oversight and accountability" for Lentz.
Investigators reported that multiple staffers and volunteers felt that Lentz and other top leadership officials at Hillsong NYC exhibited manipulative behavior that allegedly "caused" them to suffer from mental illness. The report read, "It was not uncommon for volunteers and staff who had frequent interaction with Carl Lentz to report that such interaction had 'caused' them to suffer from mental illness."
Hillsong NYC's chief operating officer Tolu Badders was one of the many people who complained to Australian Hillsong officials about Lentz's behavior. They acknowledged that Lentz was a "challenging person" but told her that "should stay in it and Lentz would change." The report also shed light on Lentz's sexual misconduct, as well as the incidents of a cover up of the circulation of explicit photos of his private parts to staffers and volunteers.
According to Religion News Service, however, a legal representative confirmed that some aspects of the report were untrue and correct. The legal representative said, "Laura and Carl Lentz are aggressively moving forward with legal action due to these libelous claims that are rooted in lies and misinformation."
