Pop star Justin Bieber makes strong Hillsong connection

THE TEEN pop star Justin Bieber recently attended the Hillsong Conference in Sydney, Australia, and subsequently declared that the church's New York City pastor Carl Lentz had made a major impact on his life. In 2012 a book was published, Belieber!: Faith, Fame And The Heart Of Justin Bieber, which chronicled Bieber's Christian origins but the pop star's subsequent highly publicised behaviour caused many in the Church to doubt the authenticity of his faith. Said Hillsong Church pastor Brian Houston in a TV interview, "No doubt he'd probably be the first to say he lost his way in a whole lot of ways and, yeah, I think he realises that it's now-or-never time to try to build better foundations into his life." Last month Bieber posted a playful video on Instagram of himself, Lentz and Trinity Church pastor Rich Wilkerson singing the Rich Mullins worship song "Awesome God".