Discovery+'s Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed explores the full, tangled history of the church that appealed to celebrities

Variety

Director Dan Johnstone says his three-part docuseries aimed to explore how the popular, scandal-plagued church founded in 1983 in Australia by Brian Houston -- who stepped down this week over allegations he engaged in inappropriate conduct of “serious concern” with two women -- had become “a cultural phenomenon" and "crossed over from religious culture into pop culture.” Johnstone wanted to delve into how Hillsong became appealing to celebrities like Justin and Hailey Bieber, Chris Pratt, Katherine Schwarzenegger, Kevin Durant, and Kylie and Kendall Jenner. “So it was two-fold,” Johnstone says. “It was explaining the superstructure of the church and their success story, and then this emotional story underneath that just came about as I was researching and talking to people." ALSO: Hillsong attempts to contextualize disgraced celebrity pastor Carl Lentz’s meteoric rise and swift downfall within the toxic, financially driven culture of Hillsong Church.