Hillsong Channel launches new series featuring celebrities talking about their faith
Hillsong Channel is gearing up to release a six-part series titled “Now With Natalie” hosted by wardrobe stylist Natalie Manuel Lee, who talks with Christian celebrities about their faith and purpose in life.
On Sunday, Hillsong announced that the new series was “coming soon.” Lee, who's a member of Hillsong church and sister of popular fashion and sneaker designer Jerry Lorenzo, also promoted the series on her Instagram account in a video that explained the premise behind the program.
“The purpose of this show is to nullify, dismantle, and pull back the veil to the counterfeits of identity and purpose being sold and consumed through popular culture,” Lee wrote.
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As seen in the series trailer, Lee will sit down with Hailey Bieber, Tyson Chandler, Kelly Rowland, Jerry Lorenzo, and Elaine Welteroth, among others.
“Our worth and value is not in things or our job title," said Lee. "It’s in who we are at our core. We are redeemed. We are accepted. We are complete in Christ. We are chosen. We are more than ENOUGH. We are FREE in Him. That’s OUR IDENTITY.
"As a generation, we tend to focus on ‘these things’ and ‘accolades’ that we miss why we are here. We glorify the POSITION more than the PURPOSE of the position,” she added.
Her She went on to say in the pos that post that the series will peel back the facade of happiness that fame and success falsely show. Her celebrity friends will share candidly about what really makes them authentic.
“Come along with me on this JOURNEY to discovering TRUE IDENTITY AND TRUE PUR[P]OSE. I grabbed a few of my friends and unpacked these topics,” she added.
In the video promo, supermodel and longtime Hillsong attendee Hallie Bieber says, “It’s a photograph, it’s hair and makeup, it’s a team of people, it’s lighting, it’s all fabricated.”
Lee and Bieber have been friends for some time and in November she took to social media to share of Bieber’s Christian faith.
“She is BOLD, COURAGEOUS and CONFIDENT because she knows who she is in Christ. She stands tall in the midst of a sea of people...Not because of her height.. but because of the CHRIST within her,” Lee said of Justin Bieber’s new bride.
NBA star Tyson Chandler will also be a guest on “Now With Natalie,” and in the clip he says, “People don’t understand that you could really lose yourself in fame.” He also goes to Hillsong and once allowed Pastor Carl Lentz to use his bathtub to baptize Justin Bieber.
Also featured on the series is former editor-in-chief of the controversial magazine Teen Vogue, Elaine Welteroth, who was the youngest person and the second African-American to hold an editor-in-chief title at Condé Nast.
“I am in this world but I am not of this world,” Welteroth says in the preview.
The magazine came under heavy criticism from parents and women's rights advocates for publishing an anal sex guide aimed at young teens.
Lee’s brother, the “Fear of God” designer, adds, “I think that it’s easy to come here (the industry) and get caught up. I like clothes but’s it’s really empty if that's what I came here to do.”
Kelly Rowland, who rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of Destiny's Child will also be a guest on the Hillsong original to share about her fame.
An official release date has not been set, but for more information on “Now With Natalie” visit the Hillsong Channel.
