{"id":49309,"date":"2026-02-20T11:30:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=49309"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:30:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:30:45","slug":"carl-lentz-hopes-to-help-others-with-new-book-on-overcoming-adultery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/02\/carl-lentz-hopes-to-help-others-with-new-book-on-overcoming-adultery.html","title":{"rendered":"Carl Lentz Hopes to Help Others With New Book on Overcoming Adultery"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_49312\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49312\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/02\/Carl-Lentz-and-Wife-02_credit-carllentz-Instagram.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-49312\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/02\/Carl-Lentz-and-Wife-02_credit-carllentz-Instagram.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49312\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">carllentz \/ Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>More than five years after stepping down from Hillsong Church, Carl Lentz is looking for redemption. On November 4, 2020, members of Hillsong NYC were notified that Lentz had been removed from his position as lead pastor due to \u201cleadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.\u201d On November 5, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CHONe5ODr9z\/?igshid=zoh8vx47dgr4\">Lentz revealed<\/a> he had been \u201cunfaithful\u201d in his marriage to Laura Lentz. \u201cI was unfaithful in my marriage, the most important relationship in my life and held accountable for that,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis failure is on me, and me alone and I take full responsibility for my actions. I now begin a journey of rebuilding trust with my wife, Laura and my children and taking real time to work on and heal my own life and seek out the help that I need.\u201d Following his dismissal, Lentz faced accusations of spiritual and sexual abuse from the couple\u2019s former nanny, Leona Kimes. Lentz has denied the charges. So far, none of the allegations have resulted in legal action.<\/p>\n<p>The couple remained largely quiet after stepping away from Hillsong, with Laura admitting she wasn\u2019t able to forgive Carl until 2023. \u201cIt&#8217;s been a lot for me to put that last guard down \u2026 because you put yourself out there again to be hurt. So, it&#8217;s been a process, but I&#8217;ve learned to take it one day at a time,\u201d she said in an interview. The two host the \u201cLights On\u201d podcast, where the two have spoken candidly about picking up the pieces of their family after the scandal. Publisher Simon and Schuster announced on February 11 that it would be releasing a new book from the couple, entitled, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/Overcoming-Infidelity\/Carl-Lentz\/9781668230497\"><em>Overcoming Infidelity: 10 Conversations to Help Heal the Hurt<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/a>The book is set to be released October 20.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are deeply hopeful this book helps people, because we\u2019re not writing from a place of arrival. The title is intentional. Overcoming infidelity is very different than claiming we\u2019ve overcome it,\u201d the Lentzes said in a statement to <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/carl-and-laura-lentz-overcoming-infidelity-cover-reveal-exclusive-11903931\"><em>People<\/em>.<\/a> In a video released with the announcement from Simon and Schuster, Laura described what the book means to her. \u201cI\u2019m really excited about [this book] personally, because I know it\u2019s going to help a lot of people. And it wasn\u2019t easy to write, but we\u2019re really excited for it,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have found that the worst chapter of your life doesn\u2019t have to be the defining one,\u201d the couple added. \u201cIn fact, this book gives you options to consider radically changing the direction of your life and help you move into a much healthier place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than five years after stepping down from Hillsong Church, Carl Lentz is looking for redemption. On November 4, 2020, members of Hillsong NYC were notified that Lentz had been removed from his position as lead pastor due to \u201cleadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.\u201d On November 5,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":49312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Carl Lentz Hopes to Help Others With New Book on Overcoming Adultery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Carl and Laura Lentz announce new book on healing after infidelity, sharing their journey years after Hillsong scandal.\" \/>\n<meta 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