The elders at Immanuel Nashville have disqualified Sam Allberry from ministry after the church said he had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with an adult man. The move affects a pastor who served as associate pastor at the church and was also a fellow at The Gospel Coalition’s Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics.
The Gospel Coalition said its board was informed by Allberry yesterday about “an inappropriate relationship with another man a few years ago,” and said an announcement would be made at Immanuel Church today regarding his resignation as a pastor. The organization also said it had immediately begun removing all of Allberry’s content from its website and social media channels.
The fallout is especially stark because Allberry has long been one of the best-known conservative Christian voices speaking publicly about same-sex attraction. He grew up in England, became aware that he was same-sex attracted when he was 15, and became a Christian at 18. Over the years, he wrote for The Gospel Coalition, Desiring God and Living Out, and published books including Is God Anti-Gay?, What God Has to Say About Our Bodies and Biblical Manhood.
That history gives the decision at Immanuel and the response from The Gospel Coalition unusual weight. This was not a peripheral figure. It was a minister whose public work had centered on sexual ethics, discipleship and church teaching, and the church and the coalition moved quickly once the relationship was disclosed. The Gospel Coalition said, “We are heartbroken over this news, and we continue to pray for Sam, Immanuel Church, and everyone affected.”
The unresolved question now is not whether the ministry role is over. It is how deeply the disclosure will reshape the network of teaching, publishing and church leadership around Allberry, after years in which his books and essays circulated widely among evangelical readers. For now, the immediate step is clear: he has resigned as a fellow of the Keller Center, his content has been removed from The Gospel Coalition’s platforms, and Immanuel Nashville has barred him from ministry.
