Lentz recently touched on this philosophy during an appearance at Pastor Craig Groeschel's LifeChurch.tv in Oklahoma, where the NYC pastor talked about embracing who he is and how God honors that.
"For me, I've never really sought a particular type of person," Lentz told Groeschel. "For me, God handles what the fruit of stuff is, but faithfulness is my job. … The beautiful thing of Jesus is, he's so appealing that he'll work out the street, he'll work out what you see. But for me, I've always just tried to stay faithful to what God's called me to do and be who I am."
Lentz, 34, went on to reveal that he wasn't always comfortable with being himself.
"I'm kind of like not your typical pastor in some regards," he explained. "I used to be ashamed of some of that stuff, but then I realized, well I actually do get along with guys who play basketball and video games. I get along a lot better with a dude in a club than I do in a pastor's green room, being that guy. I think it's encouraging to be a part of churches like ours that champion who you are. Whatever you're good at, whatever you love, God needs you there."
He added, "Pastors used to make fun of me, they used to say, 'You need to start playing golf because that's where the influencers are.' And I was like, 'Really? Well, I'd rather die than play golf.' I actually thought about that, and you know, that's just not who I am, so I'm just gonna play ball."
Lentz, trained for ministry at the main Hillsong Church's college in Australia, started weekly services for Hillsong NYC in Feb. 2011 with Joel Houston of praise band Hillsong United, who is also son of the Pentecostal ministry's founding pastor, Brian C. Houston. Pastor Lentz, often described as "unconventional," holds church at a local concert venue that keeps much of its concert vibe during the six services that draw about 5,500 worshippers every Sunday. The NYC megachurch, which seems to mostly attract 20- and 30-somethings (including celebrities like Justin Bieber and Kevin Durant), has proven so popular with locals that it recently launched morning Sunday services at another concert venue in nearby Montclair, N.J.
In addition to preaching positivity to 45,000 worshippers every week at Lakewood Church, Osteen, who became senior pastor after the death of his father, Pastor John Osteen in 1999, has his messages transmitted to 200 million U.S. households and countless others around the world. The Texas mega-pastor also has about 5.2 million followers across his social networks. One of his most popular tweets, re-tweeted more than 11,000 times, reads: "God will always bring the right people into your life, but you have to let the wrong people walk away." One of the top responses? – "Amen! Love your consistent positive words."
No comments:
Post a Comment