Music

Justin Bieber’s hipster pastor: ‘I’m praying for this boy to make it’

Pastor Carl Lentz remembers the first time he met Justin Bieber.

The troubled pop star was playing a concert in New Jersey back in 2008, and Lentz was a guest of another pastor, Seattle-based Judah Smith, with whom the singer is close.

“I remember being involved in this preservice prayer [backstage] and just looking at him and going, ‘This is going to be a challenge,’ ” says Lentz, who was overwhelmed by the commotion surrounding the then-14-year-old. “And that day being like, ‘I’m going to pray for this boy to make it.’ ”

Lentz, 36, has done more than just pray for Bieber.

In the last few years, the so-called “hipster pastor,” who sports a mohawk, 10 tattoos and YSL sneakers, has become one of the singer’s best friends — and his spiritual guide.

“I have a special role in Justin’s life, spiritually, but … I’m not a life-motivational guy,” says Lentz, who preaches at Hillsong NYC, a spinoff of the Australian Evangelical megachurch Hillsong. “We’re talking about making sure his life remains a blessing, not a burden.”

In the past two weeks alone, 20-year-old Bieber has been spotted with Lentz everywhere from a pregame prayer with the Pittsburgh Steelers to the 40/40 Club, where Lentz celebrated his birthday last Thursday.

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sure do love my friends @ryangood24 @justinbieber ..discussing things such as: sometimes it SEEMS like although all us "Christians" live in GLASS HOUSES, people(especially social media "Christians") still develop an uncanny propensity to be olympian level expert rock throwers and criticism/foolish judgement is far to prevalent..the TRUTH is that Jesus outweighs em all.. there is so much GOOD, so many GRACE FILLED/KIND/HUMBLE people in this world that our job is to simply "tune out the noise" from the world and "turn up the volume" on the voice from HEAVEN..life is GOOD when you can hear from GOD! #occupyallstreets #churchinthewild #leavemymanJBaloneandcleanupyourownife #shouldkeepyousobusy #loveyoueitherway #twerk?

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The pair was also photographed together at a playground in Glen Ridge, NJ, where Lentz lives with his wife and three children, and Bieber even brought celeb pals Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin to sit front row at Lentz’s service last Sunday.

“When he’s with me, he rolls with me,” says Lentz, who’s had Bieber stay at his home. “He’s like a member of our team . . . He fits in like a piece of furniture.”

Needless to say, when that piece of furniture tweets about you to his 56.7 million followers, as Bieber has done countless times, you become a bit of a celebrity yourself.

In fairness, Lentz, who has the word “hustler” in his e-mail address, has been making waves since he started his church at Irving Plaza, a downtown concert venue, in 2011 (it’s since moved to the grand ballroom at Midtown’s Manhattan Center). His club-like services — he leads six each Sunday — boast stage lighting and an 11-piece rock band.

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I love these four men. (Repost @justinbieber)

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Lentz, who sermonizes in leather vests and jeans, says Hillsong NYC draws up to 8,000 congregants each week, including celebs such as Bono, Vanessa Hudgens and Stephen Baldwin, the latter a close friend. Group baptisms are held at the Grace hotel in Times Square.

“He’s not expecting anybody to be perfect, and that’s what draws people in,” says NBA star Kevin Durant, a Hillsong NYC regular (and occasional Lentz b-ball opponent) who notes you “can just feel the love that [Lentz] has for Justin.” Bieber even tweeted that he “broke down” during his pal’s sermon last September.

The controversial crooner can use all the holy help he can get.

Last November, Bieber was photographed leaving a Rio de Janeiro brothel. In January, he was arrested for DUI in Miami and charged with misdemeanor vandalism for egging his neighbor’s house that same month.

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Guys night @scooterbraun @carllentz @justinbieber

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In June, videos were leaked of Bieber spewing racial slurs. Weeks later, Orlando Bloom threw a punch at the singer after Bieber reportedly made a lewd comment about Bloom’s ex, Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr.

When asked if Bieber’s friends are a bad influence on the Canadian star, Lentz scrunches his face. “I think relationships in your life come and go,” he says. “And I think what defines you is how you gauge who needs to stay and who needs to go.”

The pastor maintains that he’s not worried about Bieber despite the 20-year-old’s ups and downs.

He’s on a journey. If he’s not doing good, should we abandon him?

 - Pastor Carl Lentz, on Justin Bieber and his troubles

“He’s on a journey,” explains Lentz, who is rumored to have baptized Bieber this past June in a friend’s bathtub (Lentz wouldn’t comment). “If he’s not doing good, should we abandon him?”

It was Lentz’s own “journey” that brought him to Hillsong NYC. The pastor was raised in Virginia (his father was a television-ad salesman). He studied criminal justice at North Carolina State, where a 6-foot-2 Lentz walked on to the basketball team. He dropped out his sophomore year because, as Lentz puts it, “I was off course in a major way.”

“I don’t think I was following Jesus,” says the pastor over coffee at Le Parker Meridien’s espresso bar, Knave. (Midway through the interview, Lentz had his assistant grab him a “triple grande” from Starbucks.)

“I was doing my own thing, being my own god,” says Lentz, who says he partied, but never hit rock bottom.

He picked up and moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a greeter at the Gucci store on Rodeo Drive while attending King’s College and Seminary in Van Nuys. He then headed to Australia for Hillsong International Leadership college.

After graduating in 2003 (and meeting his wife, Laura, there), Lentz moved back to Virginia Beach, where he got ordained and worked as an assistant pastor at a youth ministry.

In early 2010, he moved to Williamsburg (where he lived in the same building as Hillsong-goer and actress AnnaSophia Robb) and got Hillsong NYC off the ground.

The church has been soaring ever since, even if Lentz, at times, finds NYC a challenging city.

“Everyone says everyone should have the right to an opinion, unless your opinion doesn’t match up with what New York says, and then all of a sudden you’re confrontational,” says Lentz.

When asked about his stance on abortion and gay marriage, he clams up. “I wasn’t thinking we were going to talk about views,” he replies. (When pressed, he says: “Our stance is that we believe that life is absolutely sacred and that there’s hope for everybody in that stance.”)

Still, NYC is responding well to Lentz’s theatrical services.

Even once-skeptics, like Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun, have come around. “His approach is very refreshing,” says Braun. “If you treat somebody like a celebrity, they’re going to act like a celebrity. And if you treat them like a person, they’re going to act like a person. And he treats them like people.”

And Bieber — well, he treats Lentz like any other buddy, too.

“He calls me ‘old’ here and there,” says Lentz, who says he still dominates Bieber in basketball — and video games. “I’m better than him at every video game,” Lentz says with a smile, adding, ever selfless, “but he’d kill me in some hockey.”