Caleb Whitley (Daniel Stine) is an energetic and handsome pastor who is also a coach at the local high school.  His father was a pastor and Caleb inherited the church that his old man founded.  Caleb’s loyal mother, Hattie (Annette Saunders), is there to protect Caleb in all that he does because she believes that he is meant for something special.  Caleb’s wife, Jenn (Clark Sarullo), appears to be the perfect pastor’s wife.  She’s blonde, she’s composed, and she always seem to have control over the situation.

And that’s good because Caleb …. well, Caleb often falls to temptation.

Caleb is the type of pastor who makes a big deal about running shirtless every morning so that the single women of the neighborhood can appreciate him.  Caleb says he’s just trying to take care of his body but we all know what he’s doing.  Caleb also has a history of cheating on Jenn and his mistresses have a tendency to turn up dead once they become inconvenient.  Is the Pastor truly preying?  Or is something else happening?

That’s what fashion designer Nicole (Amanda Nicholas) is determined to find out.  After her cousin, Amanda (Analisa Wall) is found dead, Nicole immediately suspects the pastor.  She shares her concerns with Detective Chandler (Wade Hunt Williams) but does she have any proof?  Not yet….

I should say a few words about Detective Chandler.  There are a lot of memorable characters to be found in The Pastor Who Preys but Detective Chandler is one of the most entertaining, just because he seems to be so genuinely perplexed by everything that he hears.  Most detectives tend to be cynical but Detective Chandler seems to be genuinely shocked at the idea that the pastor could be a serial adulterer.  When the detective later talks to Jenn about the rumors of her husband’s infidelity, he has no problem revealing the name of the person who said that Caleb’s a cheater.  It seems like most detectives would know better than to reveal the name to a potential suspect.  Chandler is so incompetent at his job that he becomes oddly likable.  I mean, he’s just trying so hard!  His facial expressions during the film’s finale really should be put in a museum.

This is a Lifetime church melodrama.  I have to admit that almost everything I know about protestant churches, I learned from watching Lifetime.  I’ve learned that the pastors are always charismatic but they shouldn’t be trusted.  The church men always want to get home to watch the game.  The church women always spend their meetings gossiping about who is cheating on whom.  There’s always a divorcee who wears leopard-print dresses and who has her eye on the pastor.  In this film, that role is filled by Lacey (Erika Monet Butters) and she’s definitely the best character in the film.

The Pastor Who Preys is an enjoyable melodrama in the time-honored Lifetime tradition.  It offers up several credible suspects and I have to admit that my first guess as to who was guilty turned out to be wrong.  Caleb is one smooth operator.  I expect he’ll return when they get around to The Pastor Who Stalked Me.