Pastor to the stars John Gray III is reacting to Marvin Sapp‘s viral Church donation request — telling ushers to close the doors until the congregation coughs up $40,000 — and he says culture and context are key.

John tells TMZ … Marvin is a good friend of his and he’s seen a lot worse donation requests in other churches.

Pastor Gray says he understands why folks who weren’t at the service are upset with the way Marvin went about raising money — asking everyone in the crowd for $20 — and he tells us why culture and context are being left out of the conversation in sole favor of optics.

Tons of celebs follow Pastor Gray … Kourtney Kardashian, Ivanka Trump, Chris Pratt, Russell Wilson and Patrick Schwarzenegger just to name a few … and he tells us his church does reverse offerings where they put baskets of cash out and tell worshipers to take what they need to pay bills.