God may be forgiving, but Hillsong Church may be less so.
A day after it was revealed that celebrity pastor Carl Lentz was fired from star-studded Hillsong for “leadership issues and breaches of trust,” the specifics of his “moral failures” have come to light: Lentz cheated on his wife.
“I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that,” Lentz wrote of his affair to his 680,000 followers in an Instagram post of his family Thursday, which had already accrued over 43,000 likes as of this writing.
“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.”
On Wednesday, Religion News Service first revealed the scandal via an email to members of Megachurch Hillsong regarding his dismissal.
The founding pastors, Brian and Bobbie Houston, took Lentz’s termination as a church ‘hypepriest‘ personally, with Brian writing in his email: “While I have no doubt in my heart that this is the right course of action, I must mention Bobbie’s and my personal sadness, as we have known Laura her entire life and Carl for well over 20 years.”
The email omitted any adulterous details; Brian stated that specifying the act would be improper.
“Please understand that it would not be appropriate for us to go into detail about the events that led to this decision. 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,” Houston wrote.