More than 50 unmarried, cohabiting couples got married in a joint ceremony at a Texas megachurch, just weeks after being challenged by their pastor to be obedient to Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Josh Howerton is the senior pastor of Lakepointe Church in Rockwall, Texas. On February 22, he preached a sermon titled “Three Things That Will Kill Your Marriage,” focusing on God’s design and purpose for marriage while laying out some hard truths.
At the end of the sermon, after making a plea for couples who were heading toward divorce or committing adultery to repent, he issued a challenge to unmarried couples in the congregation, encouraging them to act on the Lord’s call:
You’re living with somebody that’s not your spouse. You’re sleeping with somebody that’s not your spouse. Or you’ve actually already started a family and had kids with somebody that’s not your spouse.
And you right now are coming under the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit that you need to honor God, bend your knee to Jesus, put a ring on it, and enter into a covenant with a person that you’re already acting like you’re in a covenant.
Howerton revealed that in a few weeks, the church would hold a mass wedding ceremony across all eight campuses, and anyone interested should contact them.
You can sign up. We got people who are going to walk with you, counsel you, help you, and then we’re going to get you married.
We’re going to throw a big party. And guess what your church family is not going to be doing? These people aren’t going to be judging you. They’re going to be cheering you on as you step forward into obedience to Jesus Christ.”
Around 80 couples signed up to be married, and all met with pastors to be vetted and for the church to get a sense of their situation.
Of those 80, around 30 were counseled away from marriage; either because they were unequally yoked with their partner, the relationship was deemed unwise, or the couple needed to undergo pre-marital counseling first.
Many were ultimately advised against proceeding at that time.
Howerton told us in a statement :”The couples we married were largely couples who had either A) already started families together by having children out of wedlock, B) had been sinfully living and sleeping together for a long time and had been “functionally married” before they found Christ… .things like that.”
Two weeks later, the church held a celebration, with nearly 1,000 family members, friends, and church attendees present to cheer them on. The couples brought rings, wedding dresses, and suits. The church provided photographers, flowers, worship music, and wedding cake.
While some have been critical of the ceremony, asking questions like, “What kind of church has that kind of fornication problem!?” the reality is that Lakepointe has more than 30,000 people at varying stages of their Christian walk, from aged saints celebrating 70 years of marriage to 20-year-olds with two kids attending for just their fourth time.
The fact that this many felt convicted after hearing a forceful, powerful sermon about their sin and were then moved by the Holy Spirit should be a cause for celebration, not an opportunity to nitpick imagined grievances
Well done Lakepointe.
