Stepping out to packed auditoriums wearing brands like Saint Laurent and Dries Van Noten, this new guard of swaggy preachers don’t just look different than the stereotypically buttoned-up men of God, they’re also reaching younger audiences in a way that their predecessors simply aren’t. The major cities where they speak—Miami, New York, and Seattle—host multiple Sunday services with packed houses full of attentive listeners. With a natural and genuine interest in popular style and culture, along with a more contemporary perspective, they’re changing how the current youth generation relates to Christianity.
Jerry Lorenzo, designer of Fear Of God, one of the most recognizable brands of the year, counts these pastors as both friends and advisors; Wilkerson Jr. officiated Lorenzo’s recent wedding, along with the wedding of their mutual friend, Kanye West. For him, their clear recognition of popular culture and fashion is a window into what they teach every Sunday.
“It’s important to be able to relate to your pastor on many levels; whether it’s style or whether it’s things happening in culture, [including] religion and your beliefs,” says Lorenzo. “Having this relatable, approachable appearance is a way to immediately tear down a lot of walls between you and the people you’re trying to reach.” Wilkerson Jr.’s sermons, which reference everything from Bob Ross paintings to Jay Z, endear him to a younger audience, as does his decidedly casual, if pricey wardrobe. “I don’t find myself wearing blazers and stuff much,” says Wilkerson Jr., “but on Sunday I just try to look sharp and try to hopefully not make it about an outfit.” Even though it’s not about an outfit for Wilkerson Jr.—a sentiment mirrored by Smith and Lentz—some question these pastor’s modern style choices. “These days it’s like, ‘You don’t look like a preacher,’” says Wilkerson Jr. “I’m like, ‘What is a preacher supposed to look like?’ I didn’t know we had a uniform, you know?”
Thirty-seven-year-old Judah Smith, sometimes referred to as “Justin Bieber’s pastor,” also understands the struggle of not looking the part. “I think sometimes we are a little misunderstood,” Smith says. “People could say, ‘Oh, it’s a huge advantage that you’re wearing stylish clothes,’ and I would say, ‘Yeah, sometimes. But sometimes it’s a challenge.’ Again, we didn’t sign up to wear fashionable clothes because we thought that would somehow give us a cool brand. That’s never crossed my mind.” As the voice behind the Seattle-area’s City Church, he’s always substance over style. “[Fashion is] just something that I enjoy. The last thing I want to do is make my fashion choices a distraction when I want to deliver the Greatest Story Ever Told.”
Wilkerson Jr. agrees. “The message is that everyone should be OK to be who they are, and to uniquely walk out to be who God called them to be,” he says. Lentz, a 37-year-old leader of the Hillsong Church community originally based out of Australia, serves the NYC area. Regularly holding Hillsong services around Manhattan and at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, N.J. he can also be spotted all over social media, with over 250,000 Instagram followers witnessing him hanging out with and counseling stars like Bieber and Kevin Durant. Lentz declined to be interviewed for this piece.
Lentz notes that when celebrities attend his Hillsong services, his church makes an effort to prevent impromptu paparazzi photos and protect everyone’s right to worship—famous or not. “Everybody deserves a chance to listen and grow without photos,” Lentz told Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club.” Whether that’s letting Bieber stay in his family’s home in New Jersey, as Lentz has, or simply sending Bible verses via text, like Smith, even one of pop’s biggest stars is just another face in the congregation—and that’s a good thing. (Lentz has welcomed several decidedly less famous followers to crash at his place, from a nightclub bouncer in need to a sequestered drug addict.)
