The Christian community has singled out Hillsong Church for its ability to draw in the popular crowd—from singers Justin Bieber to Selena Gomez, and even reality star Kendall Jenner and actress Vanessa Hudgens.
Lead Pastor Carl Lentz says they are simply trying to get people from all walks of life closer to God.
The only thing different about them, according to Lentz, is their approach on religion. "I think everyone's sentiment is the same—religion, yeah, we are religious, and Christianity is a religion, and religion within and of itself isn't bad, because we believe what Jesus said about religion," he told The Gospel Herald.
"But, when people hear 'religion', they're not thinking about the kind of religion we're talking about, which is loving the poor and helping those in need and being totally devoted to God. They think of like, you know, what their grandma said they had to be and codes they had to follow," he said.
What Hillsong tries to promote is not a strict set of rules that people should follow, but rather the strengthening of people's relationship with God.
"You don't have to do it; you get to do it. When people start to hear that language, their ears perk up a little bit, because maybe they were raised in a church where you had to do this, or you had to go there. We're saying, 'No, let me tell you about Jesus first and what the Gospel is about.' This isn't about bad people getting good, it's about dead people coming to life. Who's not interested in that?" he said.
For Lentz, the fundamental principle of Hillsong Church is pretty simple: "We're going to love God, we're going to love life, we're going to love people."
