The Church of Living Dangerously

Tales of a Drug-Running Megachurch Pastor

By: John Lee Bishop

Narrated by: John Lee Bishop

Read by the author.

The unbelievable true story of John Bishop, a former megachurch pastor who ended up running drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel.

For thirty years, John Bishop was a pastor. Along the way, he learned that everyone does stupid things. We lie to our families. We lie to ourselves. We take long lunch breaks and sneak cigarettes when we said we’d quit. Sometimes, we take a sabbatical from our nice, comfortable life as a pastor and start running drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel, then get caught and spend five years in federal prison.

Okay, that last one might just apply to John. But it does make for one hell of a story.

In The Church of Living Dangerously, John tells that story in full for the first time—and you don’t know the half of it. Along the way, he brings readers along for the harrowing ride from the rough small town in Washington where he was born all the way to the dirty villages in Mexico where he fell in with some of the most dangerous criminals on the planet. There are backyard fight clubs where John learned to take a punch, the abandoned K-Mart where he used to preach every Sunday (sometimes with the help of wild animals), and the drug dens where he almost lost his life ten times over. It’s a story that seems too wild to be true.

But it is true—and John has the scars, both literal and figurative, to prove it.

Ride along with John as he gets arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border and learn the story of his life in all its rough, stupid glory of guns, drugs, tigers, bare-knuckle boxing matches, and prison riots. John has learned a lot of important lessons about hardship and redemption and family, and what it means to live dangerously—and to experience another chance at life.

God’s grace is the story!

An honest account of being human and loving God. The author doesn’t lose his faith and his struggles with his own worth mattered greatly as he struggled with God’s goodness. Healing our past matters so much. I appreciate this man of God!

A story of God's redemption

Loved listening to this book as John narrated it. I couldn't stop listening to it and was so captivated listening to what the cartel was like. It's a story of Gods grace and redemption and how HE never leaves us in the lowest of times. God never gives up on us and definitely didn't on John. Strongly recommend this book and the inspiration that comes from it!

knowing John made it through. Thought of him every day while he was away from Vancouver.

Was still fairly new to Living Hope when all this started. John brought me back into a church family that I still am a part of. No matter how many members may have turned their backs on John, I for one always wished that he would return to continue bringing this lost world to the cross. It us nice to hear his story and to know he is doing what God led him to do.

Tremendous story of God's Power and Grace.

John, Thank you so much for writing this book. As someone who lives in Vancouver, and who attended Living hope church for a while prior to all this stuff, I so enjoyed hearing your side of the story in your voice. The story is incredible and shows how God works in us In spite of us. I believe He allowed you to go thru what happened because you are uniquely gifted and specifically chosen for a ministry that only You ( and God) can perform. And, IMO the best is yet to come.
Your gift of communication and heart for God and for those who are lost, comes thru mightily in this book, my wife and I "Binged Listened" on audible over about 3 or 4 days.
Thanks for being so transparent and willing to show others how in spite of ourselves. God is always there and willing to pick us back up and Give us a second( or third or fifteenth ) chance.
To quote the great philosopher Yogi Berra... " It ain't over till its over" and in your case it is certainly not over......