Former pastor of the famous megachurch Hillsong: LA, Carl Lentz, was fired from his position after cheating on his wife and mother of his three children. His wife and co-pastor of the church, Laura Lentz, was also let go due to his infidelity.
Lentz opened up about the news on Instagram.
Our time at HillsongNYC has come to an end. This is a hard ending to what has been the most amazing, impacting and special chapter of our lives. Leading this church has been an honor in every sense of the word and it is impossible to articulate how much we have loved and will always love the amazing people in this church. When you accept the calling of being a pastor, you must live in such a way that it honors the mandate. That it honors the church, and that it honors God. When that does not happen, a change needs to be made and has been made in this case to ensure that standard is upheld. Laura and I and our amazing children have given all that we have to serve and build this church and over the years I did not do an adequate job of protecting my own spirit, refilling my own soul and reaching out for the readily available help that is available. When you lead out of an empty place, you make choices that have real and painful consequences. I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that. This failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions. I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura and my children and taking real time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need. I am deeply sorry for breaking the trust of many people who we have loved serving and understand that this news can be very hard and confusing for people to hear and process. I would have liked to say this with my voice, to you, in person because you are owed that. But that opportunity I will not have. So to those people, I pray you can forgive me and that over time I can live a life where trust is earned again. To our pastors Brian and Bobbie, thank you for allowing us to lead, allowing us to thrive and giving us room to have a voice that you have never stifled or tried to silence. Thank you for your grace and kindness especially in this season, as you have done so much to protect and love us through this. We, the Lentz family, don’t know what this next chapter will look like, but we will walk into it together very hopeful and grateful for the grace of God..
Now, the 42-year old pastor’s former girlfriend has spoken up about their fiery, five-month pandemic romance and the hypocrisy of a man who she said was unable to practice what he preached.
NYC-based fashion designer Ranin Karim, 34, told the New York Post how she met Lentz and the nature of their affair.
“I’m here to tell the truth,” Karim said, “and maybe by doing that, other people will have the courage to speak up too.”
Karim said she met Lentz on a Friday in May, at Williamsburg’s Domino Park. She was with her dog, looking for somewhere to sit when Lentz offered her his circle. They got to talking. They left the park together.
“I was telling him everything,” she said. “I thought he’s single, he’s a good-looking man, why not?”
They parted ways, but he took her number — in the Notes application on his iPhone, not as a saved contact. “That, for me, was a red flag,” she said.
The next day he asked her to save him a circle in the park, she claimed.
“When I saw him, he asked me so many questions,” she said. Lentz, who famously baptized and was close friends with Justin Bieber (who has now unfollowed the pastor), repeatedly told her that he worked with celebrities. She asked if he was married. He said yes. “I still didn’t know who he was,” she added.
After he left, she paid an app to do a background check based on his phone number. “Everything came out,” she said. “It hit me so hard.”
Karim, who is Muslim, recalled visiting his Hillsong church about 7 years ago.
On Sunday that same weekend, he came to her house, she claimed they drank tequila and talked for hours. “We were sitting and he asked if he could put his hand on my thigh,” she said. “It was awkward, he didn’t know how to act at first. He was timid, acting like he was a virgin.”
He allegedly told the Palestinian fashionista that “the most beautiful women come from the Middle East.”
The started texting and FaceTiming each other, and begin developing feelings for one another.
He’d allegedly talk about how “amazing” his wife was and the guilt he felt about what he was doing to his family.
“He kept saying that we didn’t plan this, that this is life and we fell into it,” she said.
They repeatedly ended things.
“I kept walking away,” she said, but “he never knew how to say bye.”
Karim also said, “He’s a professional narcissist” and “lies too much.”
In September, they began seeing each other more, often twice a week. “We were obsessed with each other,” she said. “He was like a drug to me. I was a drug to him.”
Then, over the course of one weekend, his wife — and then his job — saw their texts. “All his messages are linked from the iCloud,” she said, and somebody from Hillsong saw them on his computer. “He’s not really a good cheater.”
Even after he was fired, they continued speaking — up until a final exchange this past Thursday, following his Instagram post.
“‘My life is over,’” he said, alleged Karim. “‘I usually am the one who is helping couples who are cheating, and now I’m in their shoes.’”
Karim said that she believes the product of their affair was due to the pandemic. He hadn’t been on stage or done anything exciting for months — but Karim also said now that she’s come forward, she’s expecting others to do the same.
