“I would have gone to the leadership and said ‘I love this church and I love you and I respect you, I cannot any longer as a minister not marry same-sex couples when they ask me. And you have to make your decision about what you want to do with that,'” continued Mitchell. “That to me feels more fair and if I had to do it over again that’s what I would do.”

A progressive evangelical pastor whose 2015 pro-gay marriage announcement led to a steep decline in his church’s membership now says that he believes he should have given his church more input on the announcement than he did.

Pastor Stan Mitchell, founder and head of the Nashville area-based GracePointe Church, garnered national headlines in early 2015 when he said that his church would support and recognize gay marriages.

Since the announcement, GracePointe has seen a steep decline in worship attendance, membership and financial giving.

In an interview with The Christian Post on Thursday, Mitchell explained that he felt his position of founding pastor gave him more “equity” than he should have had when it came to decisions.

“I was the founding pastor of the church and founding pastors of nondenominational churches generally carry a good bit of equity,” said Mitchell.

“I had the capacity to make that decision when the majority of the board who are good friends of mine did not agree and a large part of the congregation didn’t agree.”

Speaking hypothetically, Mitchell told CP that if he could redo the announcement he would have been against “imposing that upon the church.”

“I would have gone to the leadership and said ‘I love this church and I love you and I respect you, I cannot any longer as a minister not marry same-sex couples when they ask me. And you have to make your decision about what you want to do with that,'” continued Mitchell.

“That to me feels more fair and if I had to do it over again that’s what I would do.”

In January 2015, Mitchell announced that his church was going to give “full membership” to LGBT individuals, including marriage ceremonies.

“Some two-and-a-half years ago, we were thrust, I believe, by a divine wind into a prayerful, mindful, painful, invigorating, careful, and hopeful conversation regarding sexual orientation and gender identity,” stated Mitchell in a sermon at the time.

Read More