Justin Bieber's Pastor on How the Famous Deal With Faith
Justin Bieber, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving all turn to Hillsong’s Carl Lentz for spiritual guidance. The pastor, who has more than 500,000 followers across all of his social media accounts, joined Cheddar to discuss his new book “Own The Moment," attracting millennials to the faith, and his star-studded church.
“Celebrities are really not that much different than the regular among us,” the pastor said Monday.
Hillsong’s churchgoers are not what you might think of as typical Sunday parishioners -- Lentz caters to hip and fashion-forward millennials. The service itself is more like a party than a sermon: lines outside are more reminiscent of what you’d see during a new product release at Supreme or the Apple Store. And all four of the Sunday services usually pack their portion of the 12,000-square-foot space in New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom. There are lights everywhere and the music is booming.
But how is Hillsong’s fandom possible during a time that millennials are, overall, less faith-oriented?
Pew Research has reported that, compared with their elders, young people are much less likely to affiliate with any religious tradition or to identify themselves as part of a Christian denomination. Fully one in four adults under the age of 30 describe themselves as “atheist,” “agnostic,” or “nothing in particular.” Pew says Americans aged 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans.
Lentz says that millennials who gravitate towards him are seeking relatability in a world that’s becoming more and more cynical. He says that he wrote his book to give clarity to those who don’t know whether they should believe in God.
“People want genuine, authentic people,” he said, calling surveys like Pew’s “weird.” “I’ve never been interviewed by one,” he points out.
Hillsong is a Pentecostal “megachurch” affiliated with the Australian Christian Churches group. There are almost 1,100 institutions within the organization and more than 250,000 members.
Lentz, who’s the lead pastor at the NYC location, credits the city with drawing in celebrities to his church.
“If I was in Montana, we would have cattle ranchers in our church,” he said. “We live right here in the
Mecca of the entertainment industry.”
Lentz says that the concept of faith to those like Bieber and Durant is no different than it is for the average American.
Crystal Etienne, Founder and CEO of period apparel company Ruby Love and Co-Founder of VC firm CaJE, joins ChedHER to discuss her experience bootstrapping her company to $10 million, and how she's creating a new era of venture capital and empowering Black women with 'soil' funding to start and grow their businesses.
E-commerce platform for construction and building materials RenoRun has raised $142 million in a Series B round, which the company says is the fourth largest Series B round in Canadian history. RenoRun’s platform offers same-day delivery of construction materials to job sites in Canada and the United States. The company aims to revolutionize the construction industry by maximizing productivity and efficiency. RenoRun co-founder and CEO Eamonn O’Rourke joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Like so many other cities, Miami experienced a tourism boom over the summer after vaccines were distributed. But, the Omicron variant has thrown the travel industry for a loop. David Whitaker, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, joined Cheddar to discuss the city as a tourist destination, and how it has handled headwinds from the pandemic.
Rockstar Energy, a subsidiary of Pepsico, unveiled its new beverage brand, Rockstar Unplugged, changing up the energy drink formula with hemp seed oil as an ingredient. PepsiCo Energy CMO Fabiola Torres joined Cheddar News to talk about how the product promotes “good vibes” and allows consumers to unwind and discuss partnering with "MTV Unplugged" for a concert series. "We couldn't find a better partnership that MTV," she said. "MTV Unplugged has been such an iconic proposition … and we believe that we're the right partners because the insight of our proposition for Rockstar Unplugged comes from music.
Eight months after the National Football League announced $1 million in research into cannabinoids, the NFL-NFLPA Joint Pain Management Committee has awarded the funding to two teams of medical researchers at the University of California San Diego and the University of Regina. The NFL says the studies will investigate the effects of cannabinoids on pain management and neuroprotection from concussion in elite football players, respectively. Cheddar correspondent Chloe Ailello spoke with Jeff Miller, the executive vice president of communications, public affairs, and policy for the NFL, about the studies, as well as the recent lawsuit filed against the NFL by former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores. "Maybe we can learn things from other alternative pain approaches that are going to benefit our player population and then sports medicine as a whole," Miller said.
Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, NJ and Ayana Morris, co-director of the documentary 'Why Is We Americans?,' join Cheddar News to discuss the new documentary highlighting the impact of the Baraka family.
Former New York City mayor and lawyer to Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani made his singing debut on a taping of Fox’s The Masked Singer. However, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke, two judges on the competition show, reportedly left in protest when Giuliani was unmasked upon being eliminated.
All Hands celebrates Black History Month by highlighting achievements in inclusivity and paying homage to those who have fought for equal rights. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) joins Cheddar News to discuss voter suppression; Damali Peterman, CEO of Breakthrough ADR, elaborates on the biggest barriers for Black professionals; Andre Perry, senior fellow of Brookings Institution, dives into student loans and the racial wealth divide; and lastly, BET CEO Scott Mills discusses the company's initiatives for 2022.
Hinge users who have children can opt-in to a $100 stipend up to $25,000 for childcare. Logan Ury, the director of relationship science for the online dating platform, noted the issue as an obstacle for single parents who want to go out on dates. "We have heard that singles with children have a hard time going on dates for one of the reasons being that it's just hard to find childcare and it's hard to be able to afford it," she said. Ury also said that the hot topic among Hinge's users is mental health and the prioritizing of mental health.
