In a recent sit-down with Oprah, pastor Carl Lentz from New York City's Hillsong Church revealed that pop singer Justin Bieber is a serious Christian. The internationally famous singer was baptised in 2014, and the pastor detailed the experience on Oprah's show Super Soul Sunday.
As Christian Post reports, Lentz met Bieber when fellow pastor Judah Smith reached out to him and explained that he was 'working' with Bieber and wanted the two of them to connect.
"Through Judah, I was able to become a friend of Justin. To make a long story short, his baptism was a moment where he was going through it and he was pulling himself up," Lentz revealed.
Oprah admitted that she's surprised by the fact that Bieber, despite being a star at such a young age, has not fallen apart like so many of his peers. She reasoned that his resiliency was perhaps because of his friendship with Lentz.
When asked about what kind of trouble Bieber had been going through at that time, Lentz responded, "Whether trying to figure out who you are, the people in your life, the choices he had made. He got to a place where he was like, 'I want to start fresh, and I want to make this real. What is baptism, what does that mean in this context?'"
Oprah went on to question Lentz about whether or not Bieber had said that he wanted 'to know' Jesus. "He's known Jesus and has had a relationship with Jesus. His mum did a great job at planting the right seeds, but you get to a point as a man where it goes from being your mama's relationship or your grandmama's religious background to yours. And I think he got to a place where he was like, 'I wanna make this real,'" the pastor responded.
Following this exchange, he proceeded to describe the details of the day Bieber was baptised. Towards the end of the interview, Lentz concluded, "He's serious. People say, 'What does it mean to be a serious Christian?' Look at Justin, he's a work in progress. He's never said he's perfect, he's never said he is the representation of Christianity but I'm proud of him for admitting he's a Christian in the middle of and knowing he's going to have more problems. I love that about Justin."
