Celeb Pastor John Gray III Reacts To Marvin Sapp’s Viral Church Donation Request

Pastor to the stars John Gray III is reacting to Marvin Sapp‘s viral Church donation request — telling ushers to close the doors until the congregation coughs up $40,000 — and he says culture and context are key.

John tells TMZ … Marvin is a good friend of his and he’s seen a lot worse donation requests in other churches.

Pastor Gray says he understands why folks who weren’t at the service are upset with the way Marvin went about raising money — asking everyone in the crowd for $20 — and he tells us why culture and context are being left out of the conversation in sole favor of optics.

Tons of celebs follow Pastor Gray … Kourtney Kardashian, Ivanka Trump, Chris Pratt, Russell Wilson and Patrick Schwarzenegger just to name a few … and he tells us his church does reverse offerings where they put baskets of cash out and tell worshipers to take what they need to pay bills.

John says that’s what churches should be doing but he says fundraising is still a big part of lots of churches and he’s not going to bash Marvin like lots of folks are doing.