Hillsong Church Pastors Using Tithe Money To Fund Their Lavish Lifestyles, Former Members Reveal

Australia-headquartered Hillsong Church is facing allegations of financial abuse as former members accuse pastors of dispensing tithe money to fund their lavish lifestyles. After being on the spotlight of a scandal, the church pastors at Hillsong NYC are now under scrutiny for allegedly using tithe money to pay for weekly manicures, designer clothes and meals at expensive restaurants.

Former members including Hillsong LA Pastor Nicole Herman told the New York Post that many pastors at their NYC location are living in the same Kent Avenue high-rise in Williamsburg, Brooklyn averaging a monthly rent of $5,600 for a two-bedroom apartment.

According to Herman, pastors and staff are provided with PEX cards or prepaid expense debit cards that have been loaded with donated tithes from church members.

The cards are reloadable and given to pastors and staff volunteers to make purchases for the church. However, just like former Hillsong NYC Pastor Carl Lentz who swaggered in his costly kicks and living in a million dollar estate, NYC pastors seemed to have followed in his footsteps and freely used the debit cards to buy whatever they pleased.

Hillsong announced in November that it has launched an independent investigation "into the inner workings of Hillsong NYC/ East Coast" after hearing concerns from people affiliated with those churches. Since the scandal on celebrity pastor Lentz the NYC branch has been under fire, as investigators and lawyers even honed in on former congregants who had access to PEX cards.

Herman confirmed with the New York Post that the church does not normally seek reimbursement for personal use of the cards.

Former Hillsong congregant Jenna Babbit revealed that before every single Sunday service at Hillsong NYC, volunteers would buy large quantities of food for the pastors, from sushi spreads to Chipotle and roll out the carpet with purchases of designer purses gifted to visiting pastors.

Megan Phalon, another former member and volunteer staff at the NYC branch recalled once being made to charge $700 for a “brand-new iPhone without a plan” to a PEX card by pastor Kane Keatinge without stating whom it was for.

“Any time he’d meet with friends, or go out to lunch, so long as they’re talking about church, that’s considered a church expense”.

“The pastors bought four-wheeler ATVs to drive around Williamsburg,” she said of one particularly ridiculous PEX card transaction she saw.

Tithe money is by far the biggest funder of Hillsong. Of the $12.7 million that Hillsong East Coast made in 2019, 88% of it come from “tithes & offerings. And as a church, Hillsong is exempt from paying income tax in the U.S.

As of 2016, PEX cards were phased out from Hillsong LA after former pastor and head of finances Reed Bogard and his wife were found to be overusing them. It is unknown how many Hillsong chapters have discontinued the cards.