The streaming service Discovery+ will feature a documentary series that will look into the controversies of the Hillsong Church and its former pastor, Carl Lentz.
According to Deadline, "Breaking Hillsong" is a three-part documentary series about the Australian megachurch with thousands of members worldwide.
The project was announced on Monday.
"The project will chronicle the headline-making world of global star-studded megachurch Hillsong and the downfall of its ultra-hip, celebrity senior pastor, Carl Lentz," the streaming company stated in a press release.
The documentary will present the articles of Hannah Frishberg, New York Post's investigative journalist. Frishberg covered a number of Hillsong's issues by writing stories and conducting exclusive interviews, such as with Ranin Karim, the Palestinian Muslim fashion designer who got involved with Lentz.
The show will also feature revelations of former and current congregants who have experienced various problems within the church, including homophobia, abuse, trauma, racism, as well as financial and labor exploitation. Additionally, it will investigate corruption inside the megachurches.
The series was produced by Breaklight Pictures, in partnership with the New York Post.
Karim came forward last November and confessed about her five-month affair with Lentz, whom she met in a park near her home in New York. She said that the former pastor did not tell her who he was initially but she later found out about him through a reverse Google search. Though Lentz disclosed that he was married, they continued to meet and even had an intimate relationship. The pair only parted ways when his wife found out about the affair and he got terminated from his post at Hillsong's branch in New York.
In May, Leona Kimes, a co-pastor at Hillsong Boston, revealed that she was "emotionally and sexually abused" by the former minister when she was working for the family as a nanny. Kimes also shared that when Lentz's wife learned about the abuse in 2016, she was blamed and told not to tell anyone about it. Moreover, she was made to work as much as 19 hours a day at Lentz's home. In 2017, Kimes was fired from her job at the family. She only told her husband and Hillsong management about the abuse after Lentz's termination, the time she said she felt safe.
Hillsong had been battling a number of controversies since last year, including about pastors who were using tithes to fund lavish lifestyles in New York and Dallas, rent problems in Hillsong Connecticut, lawsuit over defective housing units in Australia, a staffer who was caught sharing inappropriate photos to a female church member and reinstatement of a church employee who assaulted the daughter of a Pennsylvanian pastor.
To restore trust in the organization, Hillsong founder Brian Houston apologized for the failings and announced the implementation of reforms to address the issues.
In an email to congregants in March, the founder conveyed his sorrow over the revelations but assured the members of bringing back the church to "biblical standards."
"...I fully understand that new leadership is only one step in the process of rebuilding trust, and I want to assure you that we are not afraid to do the hard work of bringing our culture back into alignment with the biblical standards and Kingdom culture that has been the heart of Hillsong Church from its beginning," Houston wrote at that time.
