Greg Locke’s expansion plans put on hold

Pastor Greg Locke, leader of the Global Vision Bible Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, is facing another hurdle to the continued expansion of his church as he is set to host a massive deliverance service for children and burning of items related to witchcraft and the occult on his church’s campus Halloween night.

A building plan for the church was recently postponed for a second straight month because of a lawsuit filed by Wilson County alleging that the church did construction work at its campus located at 2060 Old Lebanon Dirt Road without site plan approval, building permits or land disturbance permits, according to The Tennessean.

Wilson County Planning Director Tom Brashear said the church tried to resolve the lawsuit by submitting a site plan, but 28 comments related to stormwater issues need to be addressed, The Tennessean reports.

“I’ve stated we’re willing to work with the applicant to try and come to a resolution of these issues that led to the lawsuit being filed and we feel the site plan filed is a step in that direction,” said Brashear, who told the outlet that the county recommended postponing the approval of the church’s building plan until at least December. “But we still have issues we would like to get hashed out more clearly for everyone’s protection.”

Locke, who has pivoted in the last year away from political rhetoric and blasting other ministers from his pulpit to focus more on his deliverance ministry, announced earlier this month that he will be focused on helping children and burning devilish things on Halloween night.

“On Halloween night, we will be doing two very important things. … 1. We will be conducting a mass deliverance service for children. Parents, don’t miss this opportunity to pray for the freedom and healing of your children. 95% of the adults we deal with in deliverance ministry have been under attack since they were kids. This will be a powerful move of the Lord,” Locke announced on Oct. 12 on Facebook which has drawn more than 3,000 comments and nearly 10,000 reactions. “2. We will once again be burning all things related to witchcraft and the occult. Ask the Lord to show you what’s in your home that needs to be removed. I can assure you, there are some items that must go.”

In February 2022, about two months after he began preaching his deliverance message, Locke, who exposed the presence of suspected witches at his church, revealed that he was threatened with death, hexes, sex toys and glitter bombs for preaching about deliverance from evil.

“The most dangerous message I’ve ever preached is the message of deliverance in the name of Jesus Christ. It’s caused more anger; it’s caused more pushback, it’s caused more threats, more evil, it stirred up more problems,” he said. “It’s done more to hurt people in our church — meaning that friends and family have forsaken them.”

In a video message to his more than 2 million followers on Facebook, Locke called the opposition to his deliverance message “unbelievable.”

“It’s really been unbelievable. I haven’t even checked the mail yet today, but you can ask anybody on our staff or people that volunteer here with us in deliverance ministry at the office. It is non-stop,” he explained.

“We get hundreds and hundreds, many times thousands, of phone calls every week. The voicemail will only hold 40 voicemails at a time. We can be on the phone and the voicemails will fill up about every two hours, and so many of them are like non-callback numbers, private numbers, people calling us and fussing.” 

Earlier this year, Locke released the film “Come Out in Jesus Name,” which shows his and other pastors deliverance ministries.

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