IRS agents raided the home and media company of Tennessee Pastor Greg Locke as part of a federal investigation into alleged misappropriation of church funds, and a former staffer says the finances were never transparent.

Federal agents descended on Locke's property in Lebanon, Tennessee, before dawn, executing two search warrants on the pastor's residence and his company, Locke Media. Locke told his congregation on July 12 that roughly 60 agents spent three hours combing through his home, seizing phones, computers, and other devices. They searched library books, drawers, cabinets, beds, the attic, a chicken coop, and a shed on the property, he said. When they left, Locke claimed, they carried out "a little tiny box of literally a few bank statements."

The raid, which occurred about three weeks into a six-week sabbatical Locke had taken after his 20-year-old son Evan died from a drug overdose in May, is part of an ongoing probe by the IRS and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. Wilson County Sheriff Robert Bryan confirmed IRS involvement in a statement to The Tennessean. A spokesman for the Wilson County Sheriff's Office, Capt. Scott Moore, told The Christian Post that the U.S. Attorney's Office has an open investigation but that no information would be released.

Steve Stanley, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said on July 15 that his office could not comment on the investigation "at this time." The IRS did not respond to a request for comment.

Former staffer says church had "absolutely zero" financial transparency

Justin Greenwell, who served as a pastor of Locke's online ministry at Global Vision Bible Church for four years before resigning with his wife Kasey on December 9, 2025, painted a picture of a church where one man controlled every dollar and answered to no one. Greenwell told The Christian Post that IRS investigators had interviewed him and his wife multiple times and that the probe had been running for more than a year and a half.

Greenwell said investigators already knew details he did not, asking him about names he had never heard. He said the IRS investigation began "well before" the Greenwells went public with their concerns, a timeline that undercuts Locke's suggestion that his critics triggered the probe.

On the question of church finances, Greenwell was blunt:

"There was no transparency in the financials of the church. Absolutely zero. There were times where we were asked for there to be transparency; [he said] it was none of our business. It was, 'Well, if you can't trust your pastor, then you don't need to be here,' kind of thing."

Greenwell said only Locke and his wife Tai could see what came in from online donations. When he asked who handled the church's taxes, he said Tai Locke told him she did them herself. No board meetings, no meeting minutes, no collective financial decisions, Greenwell said none of those basic governance structures existed at Global Vision Bible Church.

Across the globe, governments have increasingly turned their attention to religious organizations and leaders. In one recent case, Chinese authorities raided a house church service and detained pastors and children. The Locke investigation, however, centers not on religious expression but on how church money was handled.

Greenwell alleges Locke wrote large checks to other ministries while his own church lacked running water

The former staffer described a pattern he called self-serving. Locke, he said, wrote large checks to outside ministries while Global Vision Bible Church still held services in a tent without running water or electricity, relying on portable toilets and generators.

"We're renting port-a-potties and running electricity off generators, while he's stroking humongous checks to these other ministries, and doing it all [while] saying he's benevolent. But gathering people onto themselves is what he was doing, and getting people to like him and getting people to allow him to go and speak at their event, make his name very well known throughout [the] religious world."

Greenwell argued that million-dollar decisions should require documented board approval, deacon meetings, and minutes, standard practices for religious nonprofits. He said Locke met none of those standards and spent tithers' money however he chose.

When asked whether a forensic audit would vindicate Locke, Greenwell called it "highly unlikely." He also warned that Locke's congregation might not have a building within a month if Locke cannot pay the rent.

Locke says his books are clean and blames critics for the investigation

Locke, for his part, told his congregation he has nothing to hide. He said the church has IRS paperwork, lawyers, and a CPA who confirm the books are "squeaky clean." He offered to look up any donor's giving record and return every dollar.

"If you think we abscond with money, then we can look up your giving record, and I'll give it all back to you tomorrow. No matter how much you've ever given to this church, you can have it [because] it's there."

Locke attributed the investigation to a Facebook page that had been critical of his ministry and to a book published by the Greenwells in January 2026 titled Pulpit of Leaves: Deception in Plain Sight. He noted the book had since been taken down from Amazon, Justin Greenwell confirmed he unpublished it for personal reasons, and framed the removal as vindication. But the timeline Greenwell relayed from investigators suggests the federal probe predates any public criticism by the former staffers.

Locke also pushed back on allegations that he used building-fund money to buy a $1.6 million house. He said the actual house cost $625,000 and that he separately purchased 28 acres for $1 million, calling it "a good investment." He said the money came from five businessmen and his personal savings, and he noted that six acres near the church had cost $1.2 million about three years earlier. His wife and daughter had purchased new cars, he acknowledged, but said all were financed.

Questions about pastoral accountability and the legal boundaries of church leadership have surfaced in other contexts as well. In Northern Ireland, a pastor recently appealed a conviction related to his preaching activities near an abortion clinic, raising separate but overlapping concerns about how governments interact with clergy.

A failed $5.5 million property deal and a retracted refund offer

The financial questions swirling around Locke are not new. Public dissent over his stewardship erupted in October 2024, when church members openly challenged how building-fund donations were being spent. Locke had contracted to purchase the Love's Way Church property at 310 Coles Ferry Pike in Lebanon for $5.5 million. He told his congregation the building fund was $5 million short of the purchase price.

On October 30, 2024, Love's Way Pastor Johan McGregor confirmed that Global Vision Bible Church could not close on the sale. Locke, during that same period, offered to refund donations to the building fund and appeared to suggest the church was operating in accordance with IRS guidelines.

By November 2024, Locke reversed course. He reneged on the refund offer, and his attorney allegedly threatened at least one donor who asked for the money back. That reversal deepened suspicion among congregants and former members.

Locke had also stated in 2022 that he ended the church's section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, the classification that exempts churches from federal income tax, so he could speak freely about politics. Whether that change affected the church's financial reporting obligations or the scope of the current IRS probe remains unclear.

Cases involving religious leaders facing legal scrutiny continue to draw public attention. In another recent case, a retired pastor in Northern Ireland was convicted for preaching Scripture near a hospital, illustrating the growing friction between government enforcement and religious activity in multiple countries.

Former member says the investigation hasn't delivered what critics actually want

Jen Rockwell, a former Global Vision Bible Church member who started a social media campaign called "unlocked" to expose what she described as corruption, financial manipulation, and psychological control at the church, responded publicly after Locke reportedly sent her a lengthy text message claiming her group got what they wanted.

Rockwell pushed back on Facebook:

"I don't know what you think unLOCKEd wanted or wants, but I assure you, we haven't gotten it yet. What we want has nothing to do with criminal investigations."

Her statement suggests the grievances among former members run deeper than any federal case. The IRS may be examining the books, but the people who sat in the pews say the problem was never just about money, it was about a leader who refused to answer to anyone.

Locke described the raid as the most humiliating experience of his life, coming in the middle of grief over his son's death. He told his congregation he would not retaliate against his critics publicly or privately and acknowledged that some criticism was deserved. But acknowledgment is not the same as accountability. And the gap between Locke's assurances, clean books, willing CPAs, available records, and the structural reality Greenwell described, no board, no minutes, no oversight, is exactly the gap federal investigators appear to be examining.

The broader pattern of government authorities targeting people of faith rightly alarms religious liberty advocates. But accountability for how donated money is spent is not persecution. Congregants who tithe in good faith deserve to know where their dollars go, and "trust your pastor" is not an audit.

If Locke's books are as clean as he says, a forensic audit would be his best friend. The fact that one never happened voluntarily tells its own story.