Insider Reveals Toxic Culture at Hillsong

Show Transcript With churches in 28 countries, attracting hundreds of thousands of regular attenders, Hillsong Global has become one of the most influential evangelical movements in the world. But lately, the church has been rocked by scandal. And in this episode of The Roys Report, you’ll begin to understand why. Joining Julie is Janis Lagata—a writer, spoken word artist, and podcaster. But what’s most relevant to our conversation is that Janis was part of the team that launched Hillsong New York City. She was part of the elite, inner circle that Janice claims is a hallmark of the privileged, secretive, and toxic culture that pervades Hillsong. In this podcast, Lagata talks about the “frat-boy” leadership style of former Hillsong celebrity pastor, Carl Lentz. And she explains how she was pre-conditioned to overlook, and even expect, the kind of outrageous behavior she witnessed. Show Transcript SPEAKERS JULIE ROYS, JANICE LAGATA JULIE ROYS  00:04 With churches in 28 countries, attracting hundreds of thousands of regular attenders, Hillsong Global has become one of the most influential evangelical movements in the world. But lately the church has been rocked by scandal and my guest today helps explain why. Welcome to The Roys Report, a podcast dedicated to reporting the truth and restoring the church. I’m Julie Roys. And joining me today is Janice Lagata. Janice is a writer, a spoken word artist and a podcaster. But what’s most relevant to our conversation today is that Janice was part of the team that launched Hillsong, New York City. And a couple of months ago, she wrote this extremely revealing blog about her time at Hillsong, revealing this toxic underbelly of the church. If you’ve followed the unfolding scandal at Hillsong, you know that it started in New York with the pastor there, Carl Lentz. In November Hillsong, founding Pastor Brian Houston, fired Lentz for breaches of trust and moral failures. Lentz then publicly admitted to an affair. And now sources have come forward saying they reported sexual misconduct by staff members at Hillsong, New York City years ago, but nothing was done. Hillsong has launched a supposed independent investigation into what happened at Hillsong, New York City. But as you’ll hear, that investigation isn’t so independent. And as if this all isn’t bad enough, now we have an exodus of pastors from Hillsong. Two of them, Blaze and Deseret Robertson, resigned without any announcement from Hillsong, Connecticut. Now it appears they’ve been hired by another church in Greenwich, Connecticut. And the Robertson’s have scrubbed their entire social media accounts of any mentions of their years at Hillsong. Similarly, Reed and Jess Bogard, the lead pastors of Hillsong, Dallas, resigned earlier this month. In their brief announcement to the church, the Bogard’s said that 10 years of church planting had taken a toll on them and their family. And they added that they needed to transition off staff to get healthy. Friends, churches are supposed to be places where sick people go to get healthy, not places they flee, to get healthy. So what’s going on at Hillsong? Is the culture there so toxic that people need to leave the movement? Can it be redeemed or does this particular mega church movement need to die? Well, I’m very much looking forward to my conversation with Janice today as I’m sure you are as well. But first let me just take a minute to thank my sponsors, Judson University and Marquardt of Barrington. Judson is a top ranked Christian university providing a caring community and an excellent college experience. Plus the school offers more than 60 majors, great leadership opportunities and strong financial aid. Judson is located on a beautiful 90 acre campus just 36 miles northwest of Chicago. For more information, or to schedule a visit, just go to Judsonu.edu/visit. Also, if