Carl Lentz and Leadership

Recently, I stumbled across an old Christianity Today magazine from 2007.

 

As I thumbed through it, it seemed so quaint in what the American Church, specifically evangelicals, were wrestling with at the time—and in my humble opinion, how much more tragic and embarrassing the evangelical picture is now.

But what struck me most was a multi-page spread on Hillsong Church titled Taking Revival to the World. As you probably know, Hillsong is a non-denominational evangelical- charismatic church network birthed in Australia that includes a worship ministry with huge global impact. It was a worldwide movement growing like crazy, eventually peaking at over 125 churches in thirty countries.

Until it wasn’t.

Several high-profile moral failures in the past few years derailed the ministry; 11 of their 16 American churches pulled out and removed Hillsong from their name. All Russian Hillsong churches disassociated.

A few years after that splashy CT article, a young, brash pastor named Carl Lentz planted the New York Hillsong church. New and exciting, and eventually meeting in the Manhattan Center, it exploded; lines of millennials formed around city blocks to attend one of its eight services each weekend. Celebrities like Kevin Durant and Justin Bieber showed up. Carl was young, flashy, trendy, and all over social media.

Then he had the affairs.

It was a well-publicized, scandalous hot mess. Tabloid fodder. Hillsong founder and leader Brian Houston fired him and accused him of “lying,” “narcissistic behavior,” being “out of control,” and drug abuse.

Then Houston had his own reckoning, with highly publicized criminal and misconduct investigations. Hillsong’s own internal findings led to Houston resigning. Hillsong currently exists and has restructured, but is facing multiple lawsuits for abuse and financial malfeasance.

Carl went into rehab. Twice. He appears to be rebuilding the broken trust with his wife and kids and has disqualified himself from ministry.

Recently, in a fascinating interview with podcaster Carey Nieuwhof, he talked about his dysfunctional, destructive behavior and his journey toward responsibility, help, and some semblance of sanity. But what struck me was an astonishingly simple and profound remark about leadership.

Lentz was asked at the end if there was anything he believed then that he no longer believes now—presumably while he was at the height of his “success” as a pastor/leader—and his response caught my attention:

“I used to believe that being a strong leader was it (i.e. the most important thing). I no longer believe that. I believe being a kind leader is the most explosive attribute any church could have in a leader…because a kind leader will be strong. But it’s not a guarantee that a strong leader will ever be kind. And it’s kindness that is the conduit for this gospel.”

This is another reason why I follow—and love—Jesus.

I can’t think of a stronger, more courageous leader. To walk into the crowded court of Herod’s massive temple, overcrowded with pilgrims during an attendance-mandated festival, with booth after booth of profiteers and phonies, and then start flipping tables and shouting that holy conversation with his Father had been displaced with religious racketeering, is the height of fearlessness.

And the preface to his execution story.

But it was a sacred kindness that underlined his strength—in his parables, his actions, his affect.

The apostle Paul reminds us that it’s the kindness of God that leads us to repentance.

Leaders, I encourage you to teach your people that it’s not some Shakespearean “milk of human kindness” that we exercise, but rather a powerful, holy activity that reflects the Creator of the universe’s own heart and fuel. When kindness is done in the name of Jesus, it becomes something entirely other.

Kindness is the most underutilized power tool in the Church’s workshop.

Dave Workman | The Elemental Group

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