Dear friends,

I am writing to address the difficult news that Sam Allberry, a well-known English pastor, apologist and author, who has preached at St Barnabas Broadway at my invitation in the past, has been determined to be ‘currently disqualified from gospel ministry’ by the Elders of Immanuel Church, Nashville, where Sam has been employed as a pastor.

A statement by the Elders reports that ‘Sam agrees with this decision and has resigned from Immanuel Church.’ In addition, The Gospel Coalition’s board of directors released a statement saying that Allberry had also resigned as a fellow at The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. The statement references an ‘inappropriate relationship with an adult’ and that ‘while the relationship did not go as far as it could have, Sam’s conduct constituted a serious breach of trust and a failure to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.’

Sam Allberry is a friend who has sat at my kitchen table long into the night. When I heard, I immediately wrote to Sam to let him know that I am praying for him, and that Sam would know all the kindness of God at this time.

*

As a same-sex attracted Christian who has sought to model and teach a biblical vision of sexual faithfulness and chastity with compassion and sensitivity, often in the face of harsh criticism, Sam has been a source of hope and encouragement to an uncounted number of Christians, whether heterosexual or same-sex attracted – including at Barneys.

Our church is privileged to be the spiritual home to quite a number of faithfully celibate single people, both heterosexual and same-sex attracted, as well as those seeking to be faithful to God’s creative intentions in the midst of their experience of gender incongruence. (And we are by no means unique – the same is true of many churches around us). In my view, such sisters and brothers are exemplars of faith, modelling for us what it is to trust in the goodness of God.

There are many communities in our society where these sisters and brothers could find encouragement to pursue sexual desires outside of lifelong, exclusive, heterosexual marriage. However, they (you) have come to Barneys, and entrusted themselves (yourselves) in Christ to us, knowing our convictions about the shape of Jesus’ call upon all our lives. They trust their community and pastors to honour and celebrate their faithful choices, and to keep encouraging and exhorting them to run that race until the day when no one will be married because all of us will be.

In this sense, churches – the communities of faith in Jesus who share a common life and gather to spur one another along to life and godliness – are a refuge for those who have heard Jesus’ voice, rejected the sexual obsession of our society, and fixed their eyes on the glory to come.

*

I’m sure that, like me, many of you have wondered whether the Elders of Immanuel Church have made the right decision at this time, or if they have been unnecessarily harsh. I imagine that they have felt the immense importance of caring for Sam and acting with integrity while both he and they are under intense public scrutiny. I do not know how well they have discharged this responsibility either way, though I will note that they are a church with a history of gracious and thoughtful engagement, and wise and gentle leadership.

I will say that I think it was unfortunate that they chose to write of an ‘inappropriate relationship with an adult man‘, as the issue at stake is not sexual orientation, but sexual holiness. When we are engaging in an inappropriate relationship, it matters not at all in God’s eyes whether it is with someone of the same or opposite sex. Nonetheless, I do not think that there is any reason to believe at this stage that Sam has been treated more severely simply because of his sexual orientation, and we should resist the temptation to compare his treatment with the way in which some churches have overlooked sexual sin and even abuse by heterosexual men. We can agree that the latter response is wicked without assume the former must be, too.

I am deeply concerned that there will be plenty of teens and young adults, who found in Sam the embodiment of the classical Christian claim that we are more than merely sexual beings, and who will now be wondering if our secular, individualistic culture was right all along. In particular, because there is a well established Western anthropology that we are nothing if not our desires and appetites, there is also a well-established narrative that all same-sex attracted Christians ultimately and inevitably depart from a traditional Christian sexual ethic.

While this is a self-evidently false narrative, it is a powerful one, and bearing the burden of disproving it in one’s own life is a heavy burden for one person to bear. Actually, I think it is entirely too great a burden for anyone other than Jesus himself. When Matt Chandler, lead pastor of the Village Church and president of the Acts 29 Network, exchanged “unguarded and unwise” messages with a female member of his church, and was stepped down from his role indefinitely, no one was led to think that the whole marriage project articulated in the Scriptures should be abandoned. Indeed, no one assumed that Matt Chandler had ditched orthodox faith, any more than anyone ought to assume that Sam Allberry has done.

So, while it is right that we should be able to follow the example of our leaders, and in doing so follow in the footsteps of Christ (1 Cor 11.1; Phil 3:17), we should not expect them to be other than human and sinful. Holy, yes, and becoming more holy with the years, but sinful nonetheless. We do not follow our pastors; they help us to follow the path of Jesus. Though they should stumble, the path remains unchanged.

*

So, sisters and brothers, please be praying at this time.

Pray for Sam. The apostle Paul writes, ‘Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted’ (Gal 6:1). I’m cautious about citing a passage that uses the word ‘sin’ when Immanuel Church’s statement doesn’t, and we know little more. But Paul’s intention still feels relevant. The restoration in mind here is not the restoration of a pastor to leadership in ministry, though that may yet be in Sam Allberry’s future. It is the restoration of a stumbler to their feet, a sinner to the gospel, to confidence in the grace of God, to righteous living, and full communion with the church of God. I hope Sam has already been restored in this way.

Note that it is a gentle restoration. There will be awful things written online which will lack all gentleness; sisters and brothers, by their fruit you will know them. Sam never sought visibility and influence, and yet his personal story, gentle demeanour and clear message made him both visible and influential, and he will be a target for the ungentle. For this reason, most of us have good reason to be grateful for the small scale of our own impact on the world.

Pray for those who are vulnerable. I am praying for all who will experience wobbles in their walk with Christ as a result of this news, that they may not be tempted to give up fighting the good fight.

Pray for those who responsibility it is to care for Sam, and to make decisions about the future.

And if you are wobbly at this time, or simply grieving and would like someone to walk with you in that grief, please reach out to each other, or to one of the pastoral staff. We would be glad to pray and shed tears with you.

Grace and peace,
Mike