Bieber, 23, attended a Hillsong conference in Sydney, Australia
THE pastor of a powerful and controversial Australian Christian movement caught up in a child sex abuse scandal has denied pop superstar Justin Bieber was paid to appear at church events.
Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz, a friend of the 23-year-old Canadian singer, says Bieber was not given cash to appear at three different Hillsong Church conferences.
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New York-based Lentz, 38, told Sunrise: "We don't pay him to attend. He comes on his own."
Bieber turned to religion in 2015 and was baptised into the Hillsong Church by Lentz at the Manhattan apartment of professional basketball player Tyson Chandler.
But the Hillsong Church – a pentecostal movement that aims to appeal to young people and has grown in popularity throughout the world – came under fire when it was revealed the founder did not go to cops after his own father admitted he abused children.
In 1999 Brian Houston confronted his father Frank over child sex abuse allegations and the older preacher admitted sexually abusing a seven-year-old boy three decades earlier.
Frank Houston was never allowed to preach again and died in 2004.
In March Brian Houston told a child sex abuse royal commission that his global church has zero tolerance for paedophiles.
There is no suggestion Bieber is in any way involved in the investigation.
Lentz added: "I think that Justin is a good Christian.
"I don't think his problems are behind him, but we all have to deal with other stuff to come.
"His relationship with Jesus is changing his life daily. It is one of those things where you never really get it, it takes a while to keep growing as a person.
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"Every day he is getting older, and with each chapter comes new growth... This is what conference is all about."
In the past Bieber had run ins with the law due to driving incidents – including one allegation of drag racing while in Miami.
The star has drawn complaints and the wrong kind of publicity for a number of other incidents – including the apparent 'abandonment' of a monkey, and throwing eggs at a neighbour's house near his home in California.
The Baby singer previously attended a five-day Hillsong conference in Sydney, where the church was founded in June 2015.
Houston told the royal commision that new child protection policies and procedures have been rolled out across the whole church, including setting up a safe church office.
He said: "We have been very, very supportive of the goal to make sure our church is as safe a church as it could possibly be."
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