Pastor John Gray trolled on social media for wearing $4,000 sneakers: 'The lord Jesus walked around in sandals'

The account — which was started by a man who goes by Tyler Jones, an alias — shares images of celebrity pastors, along with a closeup of their chosen footwear and the price tag of the kicks. Naturally, a person who has ever paid a tithe to their church of choice is bound to have some questions as to why a person leading a congregation is wearing thousand-dollar shoes.

According to Jones, he realized the account started to become bigger than a joke between friends when Chad Veach, founder of Zoe Church in Los Angeles, changed his Instagram handle (from @chadcveach to @chadveach) after responding to a post that pointed out a $1,980 Gucci backpack and a pair of $794 Rhude track pants that he was wearing.

“Wanna know what’s crazy? I legit did not pay for one thing i am wearing [sic].Is that wild to you? that’s wild to me… Thanks for the shout out tho. You’re a blessing,” Veach said in a comment, which was deleted before Jones had time to respond. 

“I’m not trying to cause a division; me and him both believe inherently the same things. I just think that if you’re in church you should know how your pastor is spending the money,” Jones, who said he thought he understood church salaries, as his wife works for a church, said of the short-lived social media confrontation.

And while Jones himself doesn’t troll his subjects, plenty of commenters do. Some choice quotes include:

The lord Jesus walked around in sandals. Somebody photoshop some of these on Jesus

Is it sad that he wears shoes worth as much as I paid for my car?

That’s more than my mortgage…

I keep thinking about how people from my church would go on about how you shouldn’t give money to homeless people because they might not spend it responsibly…

Jones was inspired to create the account after he looked up a song by the band Elevation Worship and noticed the lead singer was wearing an expensive pair of Yeezy 750 Boostsneakers, retailing for up to $1,800. Armed with his two passions, Christianity and sneaker culture, he started to browse popular pastor accounts that he was already following on Instagram and began to document the instances where he recognized designer gear.