The Sad Case of Sam Allberry
By Peter Larson
TE, Midwest Presbytery
In ancient times people searched for the unicorn, a mythical creature with the body of a horse and a spiraling horn on its forehead. Of course, no unicorn was ever found because unicorns don’t exist in real life.
In recent years, evangelicals have searched for a different kind of unicorn. With great zeal and determination, they have searched for a homosexual candidate who could be ordained to ministry in the church. To qualify for ordination, such a candidate had to be celibate, repentant, not engaging in homosexual lust, making progress in sanctification, and not promoting a gay lifestyle or identity.
In the person of Sam Allberry, progressives believed they had found their unicorn. Raised in England, Allberry became aware that he was attracted to men when he was 15 years old. At the age of 18, he became a Christian. Although attracted to men, Allberry drew a distinction between attraction and behavior, using the term “Same Sex Attraction” (SSA) to define the difference between homosexual behavior and homosexual desire. According to this view, homosexual attraction is not in itself a sin and is therefore not disqualifying for ordination.
As an author and speaker, Alberry quickly rose to prominence in the evangelical world, working with Ravi Zacharias and writing for the Gospel Coalition, Desiring God, and Living Out. He served as a fellow of the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics and wrote numerous books, including Is God Anti-Gay? and What God Has to Say About our Bodies.
Along with others in the Gospel Coalition, Allberry advocated a “third way” that stressed empathy for sinners while still upholding Biblical standards of marriage and sexuality. Third way advocates believed that in order to influence culture, evangelicals had to shed the image of being hateful and intolerant toward homosexuals and become more winsome and welcoming.
In 2023, Allberry was hired as an associate pastor at Immanuel Nashville Church where he served alongside such prominent leaders as Russell Moore, Ray Ortlund, Gavin Ortlund, Barnabas Piper, and T.J. Tims. At long last, the church had found its unicorn: a homosexual person eligible to serve in ministry.
However, the rise of Sam Allberry was followed by a sudden and spectacular fall. In January 2026, the elders at Immanuel Church received information that Alberry had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with another man. In a statement to the church, the Immanuel elders stated: “… while the relationship did not go as far as it could have, Sam’s conduct constituted a serious breach of trust and a failure to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel.” The elders unanimously decided that Allberry was “disqualified from gospel ministry” and accepted his resignation.
The resignation sent shockwaves through the Gospel Coalition. Even more shocking, however, was the revelation that Allberry had been investigated two years earlier.
“In Spring of 2024, Immanuel Elders were made aware that Pastor Sam Allberry engaged in an inappropriate relationship with an adult man in 2022,” Immanuel elders stated. “This relationship concluded prior to Sam being called as a Pastor at Immanuel in 2023.” In that previous investigation, Immanuel elders concluded that, “… though Sam’s conduct was unwise, it did not rise to the level of disqualification.” However, when new information about the relationship came to light in 2026, the investigation was reopened, resulting in Allberry’s resignation.
Did Allberry engage in a physical relationship with another man? Was it sexual lust or something more? We are left to wonder. However, the fact remains that it took two years and multiple investigations before Allberry was forced to resign from Immanuel. Clearly, the church had a huge interest in trying to keep Allberry on staff until it finally became impossible.
In the wake of the scandal, Allberry resigned from serving as a canon theologian for the Anglican Church in North America. Also, the Gospel Coalition announced that it would remove all of Allberry’s articles from its website, as well as episodes of the podcast for pastors that he co-hosted. Desiring God also removed Allberry’s content from its website; the Living Out website still includes his material.
Although they were quick to distance themselves from Allberry, these evangelical organizations offered no apology for having promoted Allberry and provided him with a major platform. By trying to soften the church’s approach to sodomy, these organizations have contributed to the “queering” of the church and the effort to normalize homosexuality. With the Allberry scandal, that project that is now thoroughly discredited.
The List Grows Longer
While evangelicals were still reeling from Allberry’s disqualification, another scandal broke involving a prominent Christian leader. Alan Chambers, former president of Exodus International, was arrested May 19 in Orange County, Fla., by undercover police for exchanging sexual messages with someone he thought was a 14-year-old boy. Chambers was charged with solicitation of a minor and for allegedly paying for sexual favors from male prostitutes.
As President of Exodus International, Chambers gained national notoriety for promoting “conversion therapy” to homosexuals who wanted to change their gay orientation. The Exodus ministry disbanded in 2013 and Chambers apologized for promoting sexual change that “stigmatized” people. In his apology, Chambers said his Christian ministry had harmed the people it meant to help.
As Christians, we should never rejoice at the downfall of a brother or sister in Christ. What happened to Allberry and Chambers is sad and lamentable. Nevertheless, the church should learn from this experience. The lesson is simple: a person struggling with unnatural, homosexual desire should not be ordained to ministry in the church, whether they claim to be celibate or not.
Does this mean that a person who has experienced homosexual attraction in the past should never be ordained to ministry? No. I have several friends who experienced same-sex attraction in their youth, but who are now happily married with children and serving effectively in ministry. Delivered from unnatural desires, they are a testimony to the transforming power of the gospel: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The difference, however, is that they are no longer struggling with same sex attraction: their homosexual desire is past tense, not present tense. The most basic requirement for ordination is that a pastor be spiritually healthy, otherwise he poses a risk to himself and to others. A doctor who is battling a serious infection should not be performing surgery on his or her patients, no matter how skilled he may be. In the same way, a person struggling with ongoing homosexual desire should not be ordained to ministry.
The scandal is not that Sam Allberry engaged in a homosexual relationship; the scandal is that Immanuel Church was aware of the issue for two years and did nothing about it. All the red flags were ignored by a church that refused to acknowledge the clear and present danger. Allberry’s downfall was an accident waiting to happen, enabled by those who should have known better.
Because the truth is that unicorns do not exist.
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