When I was living in the south, I could hear just about anytime of the day typical southern baptist preachers on the radio, shouting into the microphone from about ten feet away so that there was this constant sound of a guy yelling in an empty room.
So many of them were just regular people speaking plain English. I heard in Atlanta one Sunday night Hosea Williams, a preacher and civil rights activist. I started copying his voice, the cadence, the accent, the plain speaking. I didn’t develop the character till I got to LA for some reason. It was a controversial character that didn’t always go over well with black listeners or religious listeners. My idea was to give Rennick a shady personality, working the money angle, using profanity because he says “Gods okay with it,” using the congregations money for hot tubs and vacations. That’s the relatability of the character. He’s just a highly entertaining con man and he’s broad and loud and colorful. All the things we like in con men.  I use Pastor Rennick if I just want to blow the carburetor out, just blast the pipes and go crazy with the comedy because the character works as a big cartoon.