For practically a decade, the celebrity-friendly megachurch Hillsong was the toast of latest evangelical Christianity in America. Fronted by a horny and hyper-charismatic pastor in Carl Lentz and primarily based within the media mecca of New York, Hillsong was the stuff of shiny journal profiles, daytime-talk-show hits, and tabloid fascination. Congregants flocked to Lentz and his protégés’ weekly providers within the 1000’s—none extra seen than the church’s most-celebrated follower, Justin Bieber, who briefly lived with Lentz and his household following a interval of profession and private turmoil. Having saved Bieber’s soul, Hillsong skyrocketed in reputation for a lot of the 2010s.
Then it went to hell. As Self-importance Truthful contributing editor Alex French and employees author Dan Adler reported in their definitive account of Hillsong’s Lentz saga, printed in February 2021, church founder and international head Brian Houston fired Lentz and his spouse, Laura, days earlier than Lentz’s trysts with a Brooklyn-based jewellery designer grew to become a full-on gossip cyclone.
However there was a lot extra to the story than a single pastor behaving poorly, as French and Adler discovered. The pair documented a long-running tradition of impunity among the many church’s management, who typically requested every thing of their congregants whereas demonstrating little to no accountability themselves. Even because the story went to press, scandals continued to subsume the church and Lentz’s mentor-master, Houston, who’s presently awaiting his destiny in his native Australia in a prison case surrounding his alleged concealment of his personal father Frank’s predatory abuse. (Frank was by no means charged with against the law.)
Two years later, and with a wealth of latest reporting gathered within the meantime, Self-importance Truthful Studios and Scout Productions are set to premiere The Secrets and techniques of Hillsong, a four-part investigative docuseries, on Friday, Could 19, solely on FX at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Directed by Stacey Lee (Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Dwelling 2 U; Underplayed), the collection options the primary interviews with former pastors Carl and Laura Lentz since their public ouster from the church in addition to poignant conversations with most of the congregants left within the wake of a still-unfolding international reckoning because the church faces a rash of contemporary revelations.
With the church at an existential crossroads, The Secrets and techniques of Hillsong goes past the sensational headlines and examines its humble beginnings, meteoric rise, and troubling sample of masking up misconduct to guard itself. The portrait that emerges—via interviews with former leaders, victims, and consultants together with ex-worship pastor Geoff Bullock, writer Tanya Levin, congregants Ashley and Mary Jones and Janice Lagata, Frank Houston survivor David Cowdrey, onetime Hillsong NYC choir director Josh Canfield, and Australian senator David Shoebridge—reveals a cornerstone of worldwide evangelicalism that was typically as compromised because it was influential.
“Uncovering tales that cope with energy and the individuals who maintain it’s core to Self-importance Truthful’s mission,” says Agnes Chu, president of Condé Nast Leisure. “Due to stellar reporting by Alex French and Dan Adler, and the braveness of those that stepped ahead to share their experiences, we all know that energy—and its systemic abuse over individuals looking for religion and neighborhood—is central to the Hillsong collapse. I’m grateful to our companions at Scout Productions, and to FX for serving to us carry this eye-opening story to gentle.”
Says Joel Chiodi, govt producer and head of documentary for Scout Productions, “With the depth and readability of this mission owed to the superb reporting of Self-importance Truthful, and the views of these talking out for the very first time, now we have been dedicated to telling a well-rounded and definitive story of Hillsong. Due to these voices, together with unprecedented entry to Carl and Laura Lentz, The Secrets and techniques of Hillsong provides new insights into how many years of scandal and corruption went unchecked inside the church, and extra importantly, what it meant for the neighborhood left of their rubble.”
The Could 19 premiere will embody the primary two episodes, with the ultimate two episodes airing Could 26. All episodes will stream the following day on Hulu. The Secrets and techniques of Hillsong is produced by Scout Productions and Self-importance Truthful Studios. Government producers embody David Collins, Joel Chiodi, Michael Williams, Rob Eric, Agnes Chu, Dan Adler, Sarah Amos, and Alex French.
