Carl Lentz Opens Up about Preaching while Living in Sexual Sin: “I Couldn’t Do It”

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Former Hillsong East Coast Pastor Carl Lentz recently revealed how challenging it was for him to preach while he was involved in sexual sin.

Lentz, who founded Hillsong East Coast and pastored there, was terminated in 2020 after it was revealed that he was involved in an extramarital affair. He reemerged into the public eye in 2023 after he accepted a staff position at Mike Todd’s Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In an interview on “The Jesus People Podcast,” Lentz recalled to host Ryan Miller how the worship team was forced to play a 20-minute worship song because “I couldn’t do it. I just thought, I can’t do this.”

“The weight of that is severe. Anybody who is in sin and thinks they’re getting away with something — you’re in a pain nobody can know,” Lentz, who hosts his own podcast, “Lights on With Carl Lentz,” shared. “Nobody gets away with anything. Just because you haven’t been caught doesn’t mean you’re not paying the price.”

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“I remember that day vividly — thinking something has to give, because I’m going to go up and do my job, which is to deliver the gospel.” Lentz added, “Thank God he uses broken preachers, because we’re all broken, and he can still do that. But I was thinking in my own heart, I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

Regardless of his sin, Lentz noted that God still worked through his life and ministry, Church Leaders reported.

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“So yeah, I remember times where it was almost impossible to even preach because there was so much on fire in my own soul. And by the grace of God, he still used it all — and is still using it all. That’s the beautiful thing about reminding people on this side of the tracks: You’re not done unless you say you’re done, because God never is. That’s a promise. That’s what Jesus does. He redeems broken things,” the former pastor contended.

“So to pretend that anybody’s disqualified or marginalized because of what they’ve done — I don’t know what world they live in. I don’t live in that world. I serve Jesus,” he added. “And he’s telling me to follow him through rise, fall, public humiliation, public praise — whatever it may be. The consistent track in my life has always been Jesus. Never changed. Never, ever changed.”

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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.