The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
How This Megachurch Pastor Became a Cartel Drug Mule
When a megachurch pastor with a flair for dramatic sermon illustrations spirals into drug addiction and becomes a cartel drug mule, we witness one of ministry's most shocking falls. John Bishop's journey from leading 20,000 people to federal prison offers crucial warnings for every church leader.
• Pastor John Bishop led Living Hope Church in Vancouver to 20,000 attendees and was known for edgy ministry including live tigers on stage
• His personal life unraveled when his son developed drug addiction issues
• In a misguided attempt to understand his son, Bishop began using drugs with him
• To fund growing addictions, Bishop became a drug mule for a Mexican cartel
• After multiple smuggling trips, he was caught and sentenced to federal prison
• Isolation is deadly - every leader needs people who can speak truth to them
• Pride is blinding - Bishop could lead thousands but couldn't lead himself
• Ministry at the expense of family isn't ministry—it's a mask
• Don't confuse ministry success with spiritual health
• Build accountability, stay close to family, and ask hard questions before it's too late
If you're struggling and need a confidential conversation, reach out to Todd at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com. At Chemistry Staffing, we're committed to helping you and your church become healthy and thriving.
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All right, what do you get when you have a megachurch pastor, a tiger, a Mexican drug cartel, walk into the same store? Well, you get one of the most jaw-dropping ministry scandals that I've heard of. So stick with me because you're going to hear something that could save your ministry or somebody else's on today's edition of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and today we're talking about John Bishop. Now, john Bishop wasn't your average preacher. He pastored Living Hope Church out in Vancouver, washington. It was a booming congregation at one time over up to about 20,000 people.
Speaker 1:I actually knew John back when the church was growing. I had a few opportunities to work with John over the years when I was in my previous role at Leadership Network, but I haven't had any contact with John for years. But just to kind of set the stage that I did know John back in the day and one thing about John was he wasn't shy about doing things differently or doing ministry big. Doing things differently or doing ministry big. Sermon illustrations a lot of times included everything from a python to an actual tiger on stage. Of course it was a little bit different time. No joke, he was known for being edgy back when churches were known for being edgy. He was dynamic, he was captivating.
Speaker 1:But underneath all of that kind of spectacle, something was brewing in John's life and I can say I knew John kind of at the point where the fall kind of happened and I could definitely tell that there was something going on there. There was something going on behind the scenes. But let's look at because it was a character issue with John as he rose in popularity, his personal life quietly began to fall apart. And this is not a story that is unique to John, right, it's unique to a lot of us that you know we have things going on in our lives. I always tell people that you don't know what somebody else is going through. You don't have a clue what somebody else is going through. It's very easy to judge, but sometimes we just don't have a clue. And that's what happened in John's life. Some of the things that were happening in his personal life that no one knew about quietly began to just tear his world apart. One of the things that happened was his son got involved in drug use, in meth and heroin, I mean you name it. It was really really bad and in kind of a shocking twist here, john Bishop said that he started using drugs with his son to better understand him. Okay, what? So? It wasn't long before the lines between empathy and enabling blurred and what started as a really misguided parenting tactic as a pastor especially it spiraled into a full-blown addiction for both John and his son. And you're like, how does this even happen? But this isn't, this is just the start of it. This is just the start of it, because then there's a cartel connection. What A cartel connection? Yeah, then came the cartel Bishop. John Bishop, trying to fund his son's own addiction, and maybe even his own, ended up. This is like unbelievable. They should make a movie about this. Matter of fact, they are making a movie about this, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:But John, in order to try and fund his addiction, or maybe his son's addiction, maybe his own addiction, ended up becoming a drug mule for the Mexican cartel. What was his job? Okay, well, it was pretty simple he would go down to Mexico and he would smuggle drugs across the border for cash. He just did it once to begin with, but eventually he did it many, many times and eventually he got caught, and it was. I remember when the story broke. It was just I couldn't believe it. It was. I forget it was. I should have done a little more research on the podcast, but it was. It was literally, I think, over a hundred pounds of drugs that were like up in the dashboards of this car. I mean, this was a legitimate cartel drug mule that he was doing that. He started just kind of one time and got pulled into it and probably a little bit of cartel blackmail and stuff going on there. But he got caught and eventually pled guilty and was sentenced to federal prison.
Speaker 1:Okay, how you're scratching your head and I'm scratching my head even more because I knew John a little bit. How does a church leader end up there? How do you go from preaching to being a drug mule? And honestly, the answer isn't simple. But it starts with a little bit of unchecked pride, it starts with isolation, it starts with the inability to kind of ask for help. So I'm not saying this story just to kind of bring up sensational things. What I like to do is I like to take stories that are just almost at surface level how in the world can you even believe this? And take this and say these things do happen and what can we learn from them? Okay, so I've pulled out three things that I think we can learn from this story. And if you think, todd, this can never happen to me, well, maybe this could never happen to you, but that sin, that thing that you compromise on, you think I'm only going to do it once, and then fast forward six months or a year and you're like neck deep in over your head in sin. That's how this happens. Okay, so let's look for three warning signs that I think, if you're a church leader, you should look at. And this is what we can learn from this horrible, horrible situation.
Speaker 1:First one is isolation is absolutely deadly. When pastors have no one that they can say no to them, bad things will happen. Who in your life has full access to speak truth to you? That's really important, because if you don't have anybody in your life has full access to speak truth to you, okay, that's really important, because if you don't have anybody in your life that will just say, hey, todd, hold it. Red flag here. You need somebody that can throw a flag, and if you don't, that isolation can be deadly.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's number one. Number two pride is blinding. Uh, john Bishop was leading thousands at his church, but he couldn't lead himself. And a lot of that came through pride, and I think John today would probably admit that as he looks back. But leadership without humility, man, it is a ticking time bomb. Okay, so isolation is deadly. Pride blinds you.
Speaker 1:And finally, family does matter, right? Ministry at the expense of your family isn't ministry, it's a mask. Okay, so his desire to help his son, it was just a poor decision and it ended up destroying both of them. So how can you, how can you protect yourself and your ministry? Because, listen, if it can happen to him, it can happen to any of us. Maybe not this specific situation, but, like I said, no one is above accountability and no one is immune to temptation. So what do you do? You need to build accountability. You need to stay close to your family, you need to ask the hard questions before it's too late. And if you have accountability, not only you should be asking those hard questions, but your accountability people, as they see things, they should be asking you those hard questions. You need to give them permission to ask those hard questions.
Speaker 1:And finally, and this is really important, don't ever confuse ministry success with spiritual health. Just think about some of the stories that we've heard in the past year of people that were seemingly very successful in ministry but they were spiritually just kind of decrepit right. There are some very high profile cases that just have happened just recently where every indicator was that everything was going great but behind the scenes it was a nightmare. So stories like these are tragic and I share them because I want to make sure that if you're on that trajectory, if you're on that path, it doesn't happen overnight. Every story I've ever heard like this it's a series of events and it happens over time. If you're on that trajectory and you know you're on that trajectory, maybe this podcast, maybe this video is a wake-up call for you. It's a warning, a wake-up call for every church leader.
Speaker 1:Ministry can be thrilling and it can be great, but if you don't have boundaries and if you don't have humility, it can also destroy you. You know the ministry is one of those areas where you can't make mistakes right. If I'm a plumber and I make a mistake, let's say I cheat on my wife, I still have my plumbing role right, I can still go to work tomorrow, I can get a divorce and get a. You know, I can find another job as a plumber. Nobody cares If I call a plumber, I want them to fix my toilet. I don't ask them what their marriage situation is or any of that. Ministry is totally different. If you make a mistake in ministry, you may not only lose your family, but you'll lose your job and you'll lose your career and a lot of times, you lose your faith as well.
Speaker 1:So if this is a wake-up call you need to have, if you need to have a confidential conversation, just reach out to me at podcastchemistrystaffingcom and just say Todd, I don't know who else to talk to, but I need to talk to somebody because your podcast today was a wake-up call for me. I need to make some changes or else this thing that I'm in the middle of is going to destroy me, if only one person. This is a wake-up call for you. This podcast is worth it. So reach out to me podcast at chemistrystaffingcom.
Speaker 1:Every day here on the podcast, we talk about things like this that, hopefully, will help you be a healthier and better staff person, and you can't be a healthy staff person if you're dealing with these personal demons. So if there's anything I can do to help, reach out podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. At Chemistry Staffing. We're here for you. We want to help you and your church become healthy and thriving in your community and to have a healthy team, a healthy staff, and to help you to be an absolutely healthy leader. So any way I can do to help you, please feel free to reach out to me and join me again tomorrow right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. You.
