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Ex-Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz’s New Megachurch Accused of ‘Inappropriate’ Easter Service

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The megachurch that hired the ousted pastor of Hillsong New York City Carl Lentz has been accused of throwing an “inappropriate” Easter Service that saw performers twerk on stage. . .

Transformation Church, led by pastor and popular YouTuber Michael Todd, held a musical performance titled “Ransom” on April 9 — but fellow pastors slammed it for its lack of holiness and labeled it as “blasphemous.”

They claim that the performance showed how “God’s love conquered sin, death and the grave” after a female figure appeared on the cross while others danced around. . .

Frederick Clement, a pastor and the founder of “By The Book Ministries,” fumed the production was “nothing short of blasphemous.”

“Pastor Mike Todd never ceases to amaze me,” Clement said in a YouTube video. “Mike Todd’s Easter service was nothing short of blasphemous and it was a complete mockery of the resurrection of Jesus Christ! His remarks, the service, the performances were only meant to entertain the goats and mocked the sheep!” (Read more from “Ex-Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz’s New Megachurch Accused of ‘Inappropriate’ Easter Service” HERE)

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All Was Not Holy: Bombshell Hillsong Doc Details Scandals, Abuse, Church Cover Ups

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Under celebrity pastor Carl Lentz, international megachurch Hillsong became trendy and influential, garnering splashy profiles in outlets such as GQ, and attracting stars such as Chris Pratt, Kendall Jenner, Nick Jonas and Justin Bieber.

But all was not holy. “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed,” a new three-part docuseries premiering March 24 on Discovery+, dives into the jaw-dropping history of the religious institution and its founder Brian Houston, who has been accused of everything from embezzling church funds to covering up child sex abuse. Houston, 68, stepped down as the church’s director in January (amid a court case accusing Houston of hiding his late father’s sexual abuse of children — all of which the church has denied), and he resigned for good March 23, after an internal misconduct investigation, which found Houston had behaved inappropriately towards two women. . .

Hillsong originated in Australia in 1983, founded by Houston, who grew up in dad Frank Houston’s Sydney-based Pentecostal church. When Houston was looking to expand into America, charismatic young pastor Lentz, now 43, came to his attention in 2010. . .

Ranin Karim, 35, alleges she had a five-month-long affair with Lentz that eventually led to Hillsong ousting him in 2020, as she exclusively told The Post in November 2020. In the documentary, Karim describes how they met in a park and exchanged phone numbers. When she asked for his last name, “He was like, ‘When people Google people . . . it’s not a good look. It’s better to get to know the person before you look them up.’ That was the weirdest answer I had ever heard,” she says. . .

Lentz was fired from Hillsong in November 2020, with Houston citing his “moral failures.” (Read more from “All Was Not Holy: Bombshell Hillsong Doc Details Scandals, Abuse, Church Cover Ups” HERE)

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Hillsong Admits Church Was Aware of Disturbing Claims Against It

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For years, megachurch Hillsong has been doing damage control for appalling claims of member mistreatment — some of which, representatives have admitted to The Post, were found to be true.

“In February of 2018, Hillsong Church received a letter with serious allegations regarding specific members of the Hillsong NYC volunteer and staff teams,” a rep for the until recently celebrity-beloved institution told The Post in response to an exposé on former members, who called the Australia-born temple chain a “cult” and claimed they were made to perform unpaid “slave labor” while a part of it. “We were very concerned to learn that any church member, volunteer or staff member would feel unsafe. Immediately, we launched a comprehensive three-month inquiry into the claims made in the letter.”

The internal investigation (another one was launched in November) determined that there was indeed merit to some complaints, while others “were found to be inaccurate,” although the rep insisted Hillsong “realized that those situations required care and concern as well.”

“Sadly, we learned that some of the allegations were true,” the statement continued. In response, Hillsong’s “team took immediate action to address those allegations” by implementing an ethical standard code for all Hillsong East Coast volunteers and creating a department to enforce and “examine” all future alleged violations of it. A “confidential” Hillsong email was set up for the submission of complaints which, if “substantiated,” were submitted to review by another committee. (Read more from “Hillsong Admits Church Was Aware of Disturbing Claims Against It” HERE)

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