After the pastor was confirmed positive with a post on his Instagram page which is no longer available to share his ordeal. Hoped to encourage and calm the fear of people looking as if being tested positive is like a death sentence.
But people should however take the matter serious but, at the same time, also try to get people to take it seriously.”
“Because the longer people won’t take it seriously, the longer this is going to go on,” he said.
Lentz described his symptoms as “kind of like a flu, but heavier,” with extreme body aches. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most common symptoms of the coronavirus are cough, fever and shortness of breath.
Worship service of Hillsong NYC have been moved online since March 15, in order to curtail the spread of COVID-19 after which he started feeling poorly last week and got tested. “Our whole team probably got hit pretty hard with it. New York in general seems to be a little bit of an incubator,” he said.
The pastor has been quarantined and safe in a place where he can maintain six feet between himself and others as he continued to encourage people not be afraid or get distracted in controlling the outbreak of epidemic, “fill your mind with as much good news as you can find and don’t let it become something that weighs your whole life down.”
“We’re all gonna get through this. We’re praying that obviously we get a solution that involves medicine, that we can eradicate this,” he said.
Lentz, one of a number of pastors GQ Magazine has described as “hypepriests” who lead churches frequented by celebrities, is one of several prominent U.S. faith leaders who reportedly have tested positive for the coronavirus, including Roman Catholic Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, former EWTN News President Dan Burke and Shaykh Hatem Al-Haj.
Over 25,600 cases have been reported in NYC with total number of 210 on Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, John Termini, an Hillsong pastor also posted of self-isolating since he was tested for COVID-19 and told he likely has it.
Termini posted that he believes in “prayer and the practical.”
“If we do them both, we will overcome this with certainty. This virus is not bigger than us,” he said.
Hillsong NYC is part of a global network of Hillsong churches founded by Brian and Bobbie Houston in 1983 in suburban Sydney, Australia. Hillsong has an average attendance of 150,000 people each week in 28 countries, according to its website.
Aphorism CITY 