Grace City Church in Lakeland no longer affiliated with Hillsong. Here's why

Andrew Gard, co-pastor at Grace City Church, did not shy away from watching the three-part Discovery+ documentary "Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed." He said he wanted to be able to “have conversations intelligently and with knowledge.”

The documentary, released March 24, examined several alleged controversies within the Hillsong organization, including allegations of misconduct, manipulation and infidelity by church pastor Carl Lentz.

“It impacted us in that these are people I love. Carl Lentz was and is a friend. So it’s devastating, it’s heartbreaking,” said Gard. “We feel bad for everyone that is involved.”

Although Grace City Church, where Gard co-pastors with his wife, Christina, was not a Hillsong church, they were part of the Hillsong family.

“We’ve always been our own nondenominational church,” Gard said.

Gard describes Hillsong Church’s role as an emergency contact.

“If I had a moral failure, our local church council could have gone to Hillsong to see if this is restorative or does Andrew need to be fired," Gard explained. "Or number two if my wife and I were killed in a car accident and they had to find new senior pastors, our council could have worked with Hillsong to help us in that.”

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Brian Houston resigned as global senior pastor in January after allegations of misconduct surfaced related to two women who said he displayed inappropriate behavior toward them. As of May 2, Houston and his wife are still listed on the Hillsong church website as global senior pastors.

Grace City opened its doors as a Hillsong family church September 2015. As of April 1, the Grace City Church website had removed the statement that they are a Hillsong family church.

“For us, it wasn’t really about the documentary," Gard said. "It was about the news that came out about Pastor Brian.”

Gard emphasizes that these events are not reflective of churches as a whole.

“We’re heartbroken and sad like everybody," Gard said. "I don’t think it’s reflective of not just our church but churches in general. I think there's a lot of amazing people doing a lot of amazing work.”

“Decisions have consequences, and we understand that," he added. "Character matters in what we do, and rightfully so. Our church for the last few years has operated in a way that’s above reproach and above board.”

Breanna A. Rittman writes news features for The Ledger. Send your feature ideas to [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland's Grace City Church severs ties with Hillsong