Bieber’s Houston Church Visit Reopens Questions About His Pastors

Church spokesperson Don Iloff told the Houston Chronicle that Smith was at Lakewood to record an interview with Joel Osteen for an upcoming Netflix series. Smith had not told church officials Bieber would join him. The singer reportedly took photos with a handful of fans in the otherwise empty auditorium. Smith officiated Bieber’s wedding to Hailey in 2019.

Bieber’s relationship with Lentz, who baptized him in a friend’s bathtub in 2014 after a week of “intense Bible study,” later soured. Hillsong dismissed Lentz amid revelations about infidelity and other controversies; he acknowledged affairs with multiple women and later reconciled with his wife, Laura. In their book Overcoming Infidelity, the couple recalled living in Bieber’s New York apartment when the scandal broke. They said someone on the singer’s team told them to leave within 24 hours. Bieber subsequently distanced himself from Lentz.

A separate dispute reportedly involved Ryan Good, Bieber’s former friend and creative director of the singer’s Drew House clothing brand. The Blast reported in 2025 that Good and Bieber had not spoken for more than a year after Good left Churchome, where Smith was pastor. Good reportedly viewed the church as a cult and objected when Bieber appointed Smith to the company’s executive board. An insider called the appointment “weird,” while sources close to Smith said he had no issue with Good and wished him well.

Smith addressed the cult allegation in a sermon, recalling that a woman had asked him about it after paparazzi approached him. “If we’re a cult, we’re the worst cult in [the history] of all cults,” he told the congregation. Bieber had promoted Churchome’s prayer app in March 2024. In 2022, he clarified that Hillsong was no longer his church, writing that he was part of Churchome.