Stars Who Have Connections To Hillsong Church

Hillsong Church is a Pentecostal megachurch with branches all around the world. The church's flashy approach to worship rose to major prominence in the mid-2010s thanks to the charismatic pastor who ministered to celebs such as Justin Bieber, catching attention online for his fit physique and affinity for streetwear fashion. His name is Carl Lentz, and he admitted to GQ that Hillsong very much does intentionally make itself particularly attractive to stars. "People say we cater to celebrities. And I say, yes, we do," he explained. "Celebrities deserve a relationship with God. Celebrities deserve a place to pray."

That being said, celebrities who pray at Hillsong have found themselves at the center of controversies for their associations with the anti-gay church, not least because church leadership seems to be unable to avoid scandal. Lentz was let go in 2020 amid a highly-publicized affair; his celeb selfie-filled Instagram has not been updated since then, when he wrote, "I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and [have been] held accountable for that."

Senior pastor Brian Houston, son of the church's founder, has been hit with scandals of his own. He was charged in 2021 with concealing his father's child sexual abuse, and he was forced out in 2022 amid allegations of his own inappropriate behavior. As such, many celebs have quietly left the church or have simply stopped talking about attending; here's a refresher on who has been a Hillsong devotee in the past.

Hailey Bieber, née Baldwin, is a model who's married to Justin Bieber; just like her pop star husband, she was a devoted attendee of Hillsong. Hailey told Elle that she first found the church at age 16 while living in New York City, and that it appealed to her because it wasn't like other churches, which she said tended to be "boring." Hillsong, on the other hand, was exciting and appealed to young people. "It started to feel like my own little community of people who were also young and following God and just immersed in a church community," she said, adding, "Then I developed my own relationship to church and my own relationship with God, separate from being raised that way by my parents. That's been a cool journey for me."

In 2020, Justin shared photos on Instagram depicting a joint baptism, performed by Churchome pastor Judah Smith, though the singer was previously already baptized into Hillsong. "The moment @haileybieber my wife and I got baptized together!" the "Yummy" singer wrote alongside photos showing the Vogue cover model submerged in water. "This was one of most special moments of my life. Confessing our love and trust in Jesus publicly with our friends and family."

Like many other Hillsong celebs, Hailey has also appeared on The Hillsong Channel several times, discussing topics ranging from married life and shame to finding her purpose. Her husband no longer attends Hillsong as of 2021, so it's safe to assume Hailey has left as well.

Chris Pratt is one of Hillsong's best-known attendees, and his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger-Pratt, seems to have joined him. She is the daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, who is a member of the Kennedy political dynasty, who are famously Catholic. Shriver's uncle was John F. Kennedy, after all, America's first Catholic President! Though her action-star husband told Extra (via People) that the two met in church, it's unclear exactly which church he was referring to. The couple underwent Catholic counseling before marrying in that faith, Schwarzenegger-Pratt revealed on an episode of "Meaning Full Living," insisting that the Catholic Church's involvement was "just the most amazing gift."

However, now that the two are married, Katherine has increased her involvement in Hillsong along with her husband. The two have been spotted leaving Zoe Church — a Hillsong sister church — by paparazzi, and in 2020, she appeared on The Hillsong Channel on YouTube to promote her book "The Gift of Forgiveness: Inspiring Stories from Those Who Have Overcome the Unforgivable." Schwarzenegger-Pratt did, however, note that her book relayed stories from "different people of all ages, from all backgrounds, all walks of life, all faiths."

Vanessa Hudgens grew up Catholic, but she told The New York Times she didn't feel particularly "connected" to religion until she and her then-boyfriend, actor Austin Butler, found Hillsong. They attended the New York City branch of the Pentecostal church — Hudgens was starring in a Broadway production of "Gigi" — and she found herself won over by Hillsong's flashy concerts. "It feels like Arcade Fire — it's epic like that," she told the newspaper. However, it wasn't just the megachurch's theatrics that drew her back to religion after years spent, as she described herself, "mean" and "fed up" with fame. Instead, she clarified, she liked Hillsong's approach to spirituality. "They really focus on you having your own personal relationship with Jesus, which is wonderful," she added. 

Hudgens doesn't appear to have spoken publicly about Hillsong since that 2015 interview, and she and Butler broke up after almost a decade together. It's unclear whether she's still a member; Hillsong has gone through numerous scandals and public-relations disasters since those early days, so it may make sense for Hudgens to distance herself from the church she once loved. In 2018, she told StyleCaster that she gets a spiritual feeling from music festivals like Coachella. "...In this day and age, people are so preoccupied and so easily distracted, and at a festival is one time where everyone is centered and paying attention to the same thing for an extended amount of time, and I think that's magical."

Though Hillsong Church's most prominent members are American celebrities, the megachurch was actually founded in Australia. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was a member before he took office, according to former Hillsong pastor Joel A'Bell. "[Morrison and his wife] were in our church as part of our congregation for years before he was the prime minister," A'Bell said in a video obtained by Crikey. "I remember having breakfast with him. He said, 'Joel I really feel like this is what the Lord wants... [He] wants me to become prime minister.'"

When Morrison was invited to attend a White House state dinner by then-President Donald Trump, the PM asked the Trump admin to invite Hillsong pastor Brian Houston as his guest. "I've known Brian for a long time and Hillsong church has a very big network of churches all across the United States," Morrison explained when questioned about the request on a 2GB radio program (via The Guardian). Houston was ultimately not invited.

After Houston's combined scandals broke wide in 2022, PM Morrison distanced himself from the church, insisting that he hadn't attended services there in more than a decade. "I must admit we were very disappointed and shocked to hear the news," Morrison told reporters, according to The Canberra Times. However, The Guardian reported that he spoke at a Hillsong conference as recently as 2019, so it seems he was not as distanced as he would now like people to believe.

Carl Lentz, the pastor whose streetwear style GQ called "hypepriest," invited pop star Justin Bieber to live with him amid a string of public scandals. Lentz told GQ that one night, Bieber asked to be baptized. "Yes, buckaroo, let's do this," Lentz says he told the "Sorry" singer. He thought Bieber meant "sometime soon," but he apparently meant right then — at 2 a.m. Lentz needed a place to baptize a superstar, and when fans and paparazzi were crowding other venues, he decided to call on another superstar to help. "So I called my boy," Lentz said, referring to New York Knicks player Tyson Chandler. "I said, 'Bro, I'm in a jam here. I have JB with me, he wants to get baptized.' He's like, 'Done. Easy.'"

When they arrived at Chandler's Upper West Side building, the pool was closed, so they decided Bieber's spiritual salvation would have to take place in the 7-foot tall basketball player's custom-built bathtub. And it did! Lentz later told Oprah on "Super Soul Sunday (via Yahoo! News), "It was like, regular stuff for our type of church. And it was probably one of the most special things I've been a part of."

Chandler has been a public supporter of the megachurch, having appeared on The Hillsong Channel to talk about his relationship to faith. "I, my whole life, was afraid of God and thought he was literally in the sky to punish me," Chandler said, noting that now he sees connecting with people as his true purpose, not basketball.

Another basketball player who turned to Hillsong Church in a time of need was Kyrie Irving, who has played for teams such as the Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets. Back in 2017, Irving was unhappy with his career at the Cleveland Cavaliers and was considering asking for a trade, and Hillsong was there to advise him. TMZ reported that Irving and star pastor Carl Lentz had known one another for a long time, so when Irving needed guidance, he turned to the church. According to sources, Lentz didn't explicitly tell him to leave Cleveland, but merely heard him out, after which point Irving decided to go for it.

The outlet also obtained footage showing Irving and Lentz shooting hoops together at what appears to be an arcade, balling alongside fellow Hillsong protege Justin Bieber. Lentz told the Associated Press that it was simply a coincidence that Bieber had canceled his "Purpose" tour shortly before Irving left his team, insisting that Hillsong is not a cult. "It was really luck of the draw that I happened to be with Justin one day, Kyrie the next, and then we all went to Dave & Buster's together," Lentz said. "...It doesn't work like that. So, Kyrie is not coming to me, saying, 'What should I do with my life.' ...I had zero to do with Kyrie Irving having any trade desires, demands. My job is, 'I love you, brah.'"

Hillsong Church is controversial for numerous reasons, so many celebrity attendees tend to be pretty mum about their attendance. Still, that didn't stop several members of the Kardashian-Jenner family from going, or from posting about their experiences online. Back in 2014, pre-Justin, Hailey Bieber shared a selfie on Instagram, posing alongside Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz, and his wife Laura. "Great times with the best," she wrote.

When the KarJenners aren't posing with their Hillsong buddies for IG pics, they are frequently spotted by eagle-eyed paparazzi coming and going from the church's various locations around the country. Kendall was photographed attending a mid-week Hillsong service alongside her sister Kourtney Kardashian and her brother-in-law Kanye West, who The Mirror noted may have been inspired by Hillsong's music-centric approach to worship in starting his own Sunday Services concert series.

Kourtney seems to have taken a particular liking to Hillsong. People reported that she was attending church there in 2018 alongside a rumored boyfriend named Luka Sabbat, and early in her relationship with now-fiance Travis Barker, the two went to a late-night Hillsong session together (via the Daily Mail).