In the mid-2010s, reporters began to cover a new celebrity haunt where New York and LA’s rich and famous gathered every week. But this was no 1 OAK — this was a church service run by Hillsong, an Australian neo-Pentecostal megachurch. From a massive stage, “hypepriests” clad in Jordans and Off-White preached about loving yourself over Chainsmokers-esque beats.

Hillsong lured in enough celebrity congregants to fill an issue of People: Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Tyler Perry, Hailee Steinfeld, Vanessa Hudgens, Kourtney Kardashian, Nick Jonas, Chris Pratt, Hailey Baldwin, and Bono were all linked to Hillsong over the course of the 2010s. And Hillsong wasn’t just popular with celebrities; at its peak, 150,000 people in thirty countries attended in-person Hillsong services every week. Its musical division, Hillsong United, even won a Grammy for its modern spin on Christian rock, and its 2019 album People debuted at the top of the US charts.

But it would turn out that Hillsong was beset by old-school problems. An investigation into the New York City chapter revealed a culture of sexual predation, where male staffers targeted female interns and volunteers. Carl Lentz, the high-profile pastor who led the chapter and functioned as its unofficial celebrity liaison, was accused of sexual harassment and assault. The father of Hillsong founder Brian Houston had allegedly sexually abused nine children, and Brian was accused of covering it up. In light of these scandals, further publicized by a documentary in 2021, US Hillsong chapters disaffiliated en masse. Only seven out of sixteen American locations remain active. Hillsong fired Lentz for his “moral failures” in 2020, and the celebrities left with him.