Josh McPherson is the lead pastor of Grace City Church in Wenatchee, Washington, and the founder of Stronger Man Nation—a testosterone-soaked men’s ministry brand built on merch drops, bravado, and self-styled “alpha male” coaching.

He has carved out a niche as the loud, muscular, gospel-adjacent voice calling men to “lead their families,” though his theology often wobbles under the weight of his own theatrics. Known for fiery rants, swaggering stage presence, and a habit of confusing spiritual leadership with motivational coaching, McPherson has become something of a regional celebrity among men who want their Christianity served with camo-print intensity and a side of protein powder.

Well, now McPherson has officially crossed the line from “ill-advised pastor with a flair for macho branding” into full-blown Paula White cosplay, and a recent sermon clip proves it. You could practically hear the gears grinding as he dragged 1 Corinthians 6 across the stage like a carcass, slicing out whatever pieces he needed to club his congregation over the head with a giving envelope.

He starts by reading Paul’s vice list—sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, homosexual practice, thievery, greed, drunkenness, slander, swindling—and within seconds decides that what Paul really meant was: “Men, if you don’t tithe to my church, God puts you in the same category as gay sex men.”

Not the same general category of “people who sin.” No—McPherson explicitly, aggressively, theatrically insists that God views the faithful-but-non-tithing man exactly like the man committing homosexual acts. All because someone didn’t drop a check in the offering plate.

Watch:

This is the prosperity-gospel guilt-trip grift, wrapped in Carhartt and dipped in testosterone branding. He even charges at them like a budget Andrew Tate: “If you’re an alpha male looking down on those gay sex men…” It’s embarrassing. Scripture doesn’t need his weird theatrics to do its work.

But the real tell is what he does next. He openly admits he’s trying to shame his people—“A thousand percent I’m trying to shame you”—and then claims the Bible endorses his tactic because Paul once said, “I say this to your shame.” Because, apparently, Paul’s rebuke about dragging believers before pagan courts is somehow God’s stamp of approval for McPherson to weaponize a vice list into a fundraising cudgel.

This is the exact hermeneutical gymnastics Paula White uses every time she promises a “supernatural breakthrough” in exchange for a seed offering. McPherson may not share her hair, but he sure shares her heresy.

He treats greed the way a prosperity preacher treats every sin—a convenient placeholder for “give me more money.” Forget biblical categories. Forget authorial intent. Forget the gospel. The only thing that matters is funneling enough masculine guilt and spiritual pressure to bump the giving metrics.

He thunders about “stronger men” while parroting the weakest, most manipulative theology on the market. He scolds men for looking down on homosexual sin—while he himself looks down on his own congregation with a condescension so thick you could bottle it as cologne. He insists God sees the unrepentant homosexual and the guy who didn’t tithe “as one and the same”—a theological faceplant so massive it deserves its own crater.

If Josh McPherson wants to run a men’s brand, sell merch, and film dramatic YouTube monologues about “alpha leadership,” he’s welcome to join the crowded field. But the moment he twists Scripture into a financial cattle-prod and equates negligent givers with those committing sexual immorality, he stops preaching Christ and starts preaching Mammon.

He is just one more loud, performative voice in the ever-growing choir of pastors who mistake guilt for conviction, shame for sanctification, and fiscal loyalty for spiritual maturity. And the saddest part? He thinks this is boldness. He thinks this is strength.

But real strength doesn’t need a performance. Real preaching doesn’t need manipulation. And real men are not forged by pastors who sound like Paula White with a beard.