In an interview with the Baptist Press this week, his mother Pattie Mallette opened up about the Christian faith she shares with her son and how they live that out, despite the challenges of a life lived pretty much on the road.

When asked how she kept her son grounded, Mallette said: “Through prayer: By surrounding him with good people, people who will hold him accountable, and by constantly reminding him that he’s here for a reason. ’To whom much is given, much is required.’ So, we just have to keep him lifted up in prayer."

Pattie came to faith in Jesus at the age of 17, after a turbulent childhood in which she experienced sexual abuse, and a period of drug and alcohol abuse in her early teen years.

Bieber’s father is still a part of his life, but Pattie has raised her son as a single mum. In the interview, she explained that becoming a Christian was a decision Bieber made on his own.

“He was really young, around five or six … I told him it was his decision. He couldn’t make it because of mommy. It has to be because of your own heart. And he kept telling me that he understood. And when he was eight or nine, he wanted to be baptised. So, I let him," she said.

Since being introduced by Usher in 2009, Bieber has taken the charts and the world by storm.

If there is one down side to his success, it is the pressure on both of them.

“Justin is under a tremendous amount of pressure as a role model to an entire generation,” Mallette said told the Baptist Press.

“So many kids are looking to him. As teenagers, we all make mistakes. Fortunately and unfortunately, he’s in the public eye.”

With such an intense schedule touring and promoting and performing, his mum admitted that attending church on a regular basis is “impossible”.

Instead, Mallette and Bieber, who hail from Canada, have a church they go to whenever they are in Atlanta, their US base, and when they are on the road, they try and attend Sunday morning services whenever possible. At other times they watch the live webcasts being broadcast by churches from different parts of the country.

She also shared her thoughts on stars like Miley Cyrus who, while professing to be Christian, have drawn criticism because of their lifestyles and controversial aspects of their performances.

Rather than judging and casting them out, Pattie said Christians needed to be more protective of them.

She told the Baptist Press: “As Christians, we sometimes kick our brothers and sisters when they are down. We need, in this time more than ever, to lift them up in prayer. They are a mouthpiece for a generation. Let’s pray for them, let’s encourage them. Let’s spur them on to the Lord. Let’s stop judging them and casting them out.”