Justin Bieber took to Twitter this weekend and publicly admitted he “broke down” in a New York City church on Sunday (September 8).
Still on a break from his mammoth Believe world tour, the teen star was spotted at various New York Fashion Week events throughout Sunday. At some point, Justin told his over 44 million Twitter followers he attended a church service earlier that morning.
“Great Sunday so far,” he wrote, before revealing his emotional experience.
“Love to my guy @carllentzNYC for the amazing sermon at church this morning. Love you man. I broke down today. Thank u )”
Bieber’s heartfelt shout-out was directed to Pastor Carl Lentz — alternatively known on the neo-Christian circuit as the “Punk Pastor” — due to his half-shaved, Mohawk hairstyle, tattooed arms, and lively sermons that mix contemporary music, colloquial language, and Bible verse.
The 34-year-old preacher holds a Sunday service at New York’s Hillsong Church and is its newest pastor. As Blaze noted, he is part of “Hillsong’s unofficial mission to attract young, vibrant, broken people who share a common passion for God.”
Lentz crops up every now and again on Bieber’s Instagram when the pair meet to talk about God, faith , and possibly tattoos.
The pop star uploaded an Instagram picture taken with Lentz on Sunday. It was captioned, “Love u bro.”
Bieber didn’t go into details on Twitter about his break down, but it’s likely or at least possible that his eventful year — which recently saw a male clubgoer attack him in a Toronto nightclub — had a part to play.
Or, maybe he just liked Lentz’s sermon.
Back in March, the 19-year-old’s “worst week” during the London leg of his tour quickly turned into a worst year following concerning incidents both on and off the trek.
These have included fainting backstage at London’s 02 Arena, brief hospitalization, an expletive-filled run-in with a Brit paparazzo, accusations of assault, battery, reckless driving, raucous partying in his Calabasas, CA neighborhood, condemnation after an innocently intended but inarticulate guestbook entry at the Anne Frank Museum, a Monty Python-esque monkey saga after the singer’s former pet capuchin was seized by customs officials in Munich, and a pile-up of police investigations and lawsuits related to either paparazzo claims or allegations of criminality.
That laundry list isn’t exhaustive, but maybe the teen singer is.
While noting most of the accusations against Justin are at an allegation stage, over recent months the singer’s camp has repeatedly claimed a significant proportion of the media’s reporting on the Canadian is either inflated, skewed, or fictional .
A seemingly more reflective Bieber recently revealed he taped a three hour interview on Saturday for his forthcoming Believe documentary with its director Jon M. Chu. On the same day, a secret screening of Believe was shown to a group of Bieber fans and buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The upcoming movie-docu — a mix of Believe world tour footage, candid material and interviews with those in the teen star’s circle — is the follow up to the also Chu-helmed 2011 concert-biopic Never Say Never, which traced Justin’s ascent and is currently the highest grossing concert-biopic after taking over $98 million worldwide.
After taping the interview on Saturday, the singer tweeted,
Just gave the most important and honest interview of my life. 3 hours of everything. Thank u @jonmchu . #Believe
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) September 8, 2013
For a young man who’s certainly made missteps this year but, equally, has also been subjected to unrelenting levels of media criticism and wider comment , it’s impressive that he felt able to publicly admit to a break down. Surely knowing many will scoff, Bieber gave thanks to his friend anyway.
Love to my guy @carllentzNYC for the amazing sermon at church this morning. Love you man. I broke down today. Thank u ? — Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) September 9, 2013
In any case it seems there’s no lasting cause for alarm, the teen’s final tweet on Sunday simply read, “Smile.”
[ Image via Justin Bieber Instagram ]