Pastor Josh Howerton challenges cohabiting couples to get married, 52 couples participate in joint ceremony

Josh Howerton, the senior pastor of the multi-campus Lakepointe Church in Rockwall, Texas, recently shared that 52 couples participated in a mass wedding ceremony after he encouraged all unmarried, cohabitating couples across the church's eight campuses to stop living in sin and properly make a covenant commitment to each other. 

Howerton concluded his Feb. 22 sermon with a message for all those who are “living with somebody that’s not your spouse,” “sleeping with somebody that’s not your spouse” or “actually already started a family and had kids with somebody that’s not your spouse.” 

He urged couples who find themselves in one or more of these situations to come “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 with.” Howerton assured couples that “we want to help you do that” in accordance with the church’s belief that “the only time we look down on people is to give them a hand up.” 

“A whole team of pastors” was assembled at each of the church's eight campuses, ready to perform a mass wedding ceremony, Howerton said. 

Unwed, cohabitating couples were then offered the opportunity to take the next step in their lives by texting the word “marriage to the number 20411” and “sign up” to get married.

Howerton assured congregants that “we got people who are going to walk with you, counsel you, help you and then we’re going to get you married, and we’re going to throw a big party.”

“Guess what your church family’s 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,” he said. 

In a Facebook post last Friday, Howerton said 52 couples took him up on his offer to participate in a “mass wedding ceremony” because they “came under conviction” after hearing his sermon. He expressed gratitude for the “52 couples, 52 families, 52 lineages and legacies and family trees changed forever.” In a comment on his Facebook post, which was accompanied by a picture of the couples on stage, Howerton noted that “over A THOUSAND people showed up to cheer them on!!!” 

Howerton shared his intention to “honor these couples” at the beginning of his sermon on March 8 and called on the congregation to “give them a STANDING OVATION to show them their church family is behind them, heart and soul.” 

Howerton described the “mass wedding ceremony” as “one of the coolest things we have ever seen at Lakepointe.” He shared an image of the ceremony before inviting the congregation to “show them right now how honored we are to share that moment with them and how proud of them we are.” The crowd erupted into applause as a show of support for couples who are members of “our spiritual family.”