Justin Bieber is clearing up some rumors about his faith.
The singer, who often shares uplifting Christian principles on social media, took to his Instagram Stories on Monday (Jan. 4) to debunk a Page Six story claiming that he is studying to be a minister for Hillsong Church. “I’m not studying to be a minister or anything even close to that,” he wrote over a screenshot of the article. “Have no desire for that this is fake news.”
He followed up with another post, revealing that “Hillsong is not my church… For clarity I am a part of Churchome.” Churchome’s website notes that its lead pastors are Judah and Chelsea Smith, the former of which officiated Justin and Hailey Bieber’s 2019 nupitals.
“Church is not a place,” he concluded. “We are the church. We don’t need a building to connect with God. God is with us wherever we are.”
The singer has a years-long history with Hillsong Church, and has been seen attending services throughout his Journals and Purpose eras. In 2013, he posted a photo with the organization’s high-profile pastor Carl Lentz with the caption, “Love you bro.”
Lentz had been a pastor at the Manhattan Hillsong church since 2010 and famously baptized Bieber — whom the pastor referred to by the nickname “Buckaroo” — in the bathtub of New York Knicks star Tyson Chandler’s Manhattan home according to a 2015 GQ profile, which also noted that Bieber briefly moved in with Lentz in 2014.
The duo reportedly had a falling out in 2018.
In November 2020, news broke that Lentz was fired for “leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.”
In his own apologetic post, Lentz shared, “I was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that,” he shared. “This failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions. I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura and my children and taking real time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need.”
