‘Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed’ Lays Out Ungodly Act After Ungodly Act

Not long after these devastating revelations that proved this supposed man of God was living a double life were made public, Lentz announced his departure from Hillsong. He did so with an Instagram post featuring a wholesome family photo of his smiling wife and three kids, all dressed in their Sunday best, exuding the picturesque view of a modern Christian family. From a PR standpoint, the staging was perfect.

Behind the scenes though, Hillsong interestingly positions Brian Houston’s reaction to his main man’s shameful ouster as suspicious, hinting that the Hillsong founder may have blackmailed Lentz, and set him up to fail as a way of permanently tarnishing his reputation. The crown prince was becoming a bigger star than the king himself, and that needed to be curbed. But before the affair, the docuseries alleges Houston had been made aware of Lentz’s track record, including allegations of sexual misconduct brought against Lentz by two former volunteers, who claimed their accusations were dismissed by church leadership.

It’s now darkly ironic that almost two years after Lentz’s departure, Houston has also been forced to step down as senior global pastor. After years of spreading the Hillsong gospel far and wide, sporting million-dollar apparel and the deceitful smile of a scammer, he must face the punishment for willfully hiding his father’s alleged sex crimes. That brings us to today.

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Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed director Dan Johnstone is a master at steering the layered narrative of the famed megachurch’s bitter fall from grace. Viewers are transported to a world that they know exists but looks a lot different when the studio lights shine brightly on the villains with the precision of Hillsong’s aim. In an interview with Variety about the project, Johnstone talked about how he was reared in “a religious household.” His love for music and fashion as “a child of the ‘80s and ‘90s” attracted his attention to the “cultural phenomenon” that became the Hillsong brand: “And so I sort of followed Hillsong, and I just saw this church that had crossed through all of those barriers.”

Like Johnstone, I’m fixated on Hillsong and megachurches like it that are committed to exploiting the faith and loyalty of worshippers, who are simply following the traditions that shaped their youth. My childhood in Lagos, Nigeria, was entrenched in the teachings of Christ. I was bombarded with billboards advertising the lucrative business of Pentecostal gatherings at massive event halls. My adolescent years were spent at a boarding school that insisted on terrorizing students into submission with violent Christian films. Later on, when I moved to New York right after college graduation, I was invited by a young woman at a local Starbucks to check out her “church.” She perceived that I was relatively new to the city and wanted to offer a support system, which revolved around a smallish man with a bevy of young, attractive women at his beck and call. Needless to say, I was out of there.

In my experiences, I learned how religious groups cater to our vulnerabilities— particularly when they are governed by an absolute ruler, handpicked by God to lead the hopeless out of darkness and into the light. Their members share the commonality of wanting to belong, and this leader gives them a place to do it. Sometimes, a cultish sect, like the one I was invited to, grows into an empire.

The way I see it, the tragic fall of Hillsong was an inevitable collision of evil vs. righteousness. It was pre-ordained the moment its self-serving decision makers chose the cowardly, ungodly route at the expense of real victims, who deserve the spiritual guidance they pay for every Sunday. We’ve seen this same script play out at other houses of worship greedily constructed to be large enough to fit all the residents of a mid-sized town by so-called “men of God.”

The late pastor Eddie Long, a once-prominent megachurch leader of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church based in Georgia, faced allegations of sexual harassment brought on by four young men who accused their spiritual mentor of weaponizing his power for sexual favors. It’s also worth pointing out that Long tirelessly preached about the evils of homosexuality. The accusations didn’t go away until he was forced to settle the lawsuit in 2011. Six years later, Long, who had gained enough notoriety to rub shoulders with former President George W. Bush, passed away.

Joel Osteen is the shiny epitome of the trend that ushered in a slew of “Prosperity Preachers.” The very rich and well-coiffed showman was in danger of destroying the family business—Texas’s Lakewood megachurch—at the height of Hurricane Harvey, when he was accused of barricading its doors, as witnessed by those who came to seek refuge. Olsteen was quick to implement damage control and managed to come out of that controversy mostly unscathed. Perhaps future inquiries that won’t be so easily diminished.

Fast-talking performers wield bibles as a decoy, but the hypocrisy runs deep. At a critical time when millennials, who are the key demographic for recruitment by megachurches, are moving away from organized religion due to the ravages of a global pandemic and the real-life uncertainties it presents, there’s no doubt that Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed is a warning flare for the megachurch industry: Its most famous institution succumbed from an infestation too severe to keep under wraps.

As he battles the legal ramifications stemming from his late father’s reported child sex crimes, Houston issued an apology to Hillsong Church members. He did so in response to the misconduct allegations, not long after his resignation was confirmed by church leadership. What happens in the dark will come to light. Or at least, we’re supposed to believe the bad guys rarely get away with it. Despite the mountain of troubling evidence though, congregants are more likely to forgive and move on. Houston is out, but Hillsong the brand could survive all this. And this was very much in my thoughts as I soaked in the last moments of Hillsong, and wondered why the hypocrisy is not so obvious to most—why the combination of “mega” and “church” doesn’t create a monster in everyone’s mind that has to be vanquished.

Until it does, the most lucrative show on earth will keep trying to give the pearly gates of heaven a run for their money.