Turns out, Carl Lentz -- the pastor at Hillsong church who's tight with Justin Bieber and Kevin Durant -- is a sneakerhead who splurges ... but responsibly, he says.
We got Carl Monday at LAX and had to first ask him about the sick sneakers we spotted him wearing ... a pair of Air Jordan XXXIII SE shoes that begged the question -- is it okay for men and women of the cloth to splurge on expensive stuff?
He admits the optics ain't necessarily great when, say, a pastor tells his congregation he needs a private jet (true story) or when pastors wear shoes worth thousands.