The couple didn’t return to church the following weekend, and the pastor told me that although he was saddened, he wasn’t surprised they didn’t come back. A few months later, though, the lesbian couple began attending his church again. The pastor asked why they came back, and they said they loved his church and felt more connected there than at other ones they had tried.

I was in Jerusalem two weeks ago and happened to meet a pastor through a friend. We sat down over dinner and chatted about his ministry back in the United States. He told me that a lesbian couple had been attending his church because they enjoyed the culture of his congregation and felt welcomed and loved.

Recently, however, the couple asked him to officiate their wedding. In an attempt to respond both truthfully and graciously, he asked the couple to meet him at his office to discuss their request and his answer and then go out for dinner. During the office meeting, the pastor explained how grateful he was that they felt welcomed by his church community, expressed how much he enjoyed being their pastor, and told them how he loved them. But because of clear biblical teaching on the matter of sex and marriage, he told them he couldn’t officiate their ceremony.

No doubt the couple was hurt by this response, but they continued with the evening’s plan to go out to dinner with the pastor and his wife. The couple didn’t return to church the following weekend, and the pastor told me that although he was saddened, he wasn’t surprised they didn’t come back. A few months later, though, the lesbian couple began attending his church again. The pastor asked why they came back, and they said they loved his church and felt more connected there than at other ones they had tried.

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