TGC contributing pastors clash over whether spouses should sit together at church

The Gospel Coalition (TGC) appeared to reverse course Thursday after an article published on its U.S. and Australian sites suggested married couples should stop sitting together at church.

Editors with the Australian version of the Evangelical outlet attached an editor’s note to the site’s Nov. 10 article, which was originally headlined “Spouses, Please Stop Sitting Together.” The headline was later changed to “Spouses, Consider Where You Sit At Church.” The piece suggested churchgoers might better advance the Great Commission by sitting with people other than their family members on Sundays.

In the article, author Dave Moore, executive pastor at Hunter Bible Church in Newcastle, Australia, called on readers to “re-imagine” how they view church attendance and insisted that “church is for others” rather than the “family of believers.”

“So here’s our take: spouses, consider whether you always sit together in church. That might be a radical idea for some. Please don’t hear me suggesting that sitting with your spouse is wrong,” Moore wrote. “However, as [wife] Julie and I discussed it, we thought it was worth calling Christian couples to re-imagine what it’s like walking into church on your own, and then to think of church less like a date and more like a deployment.”

He argued that while sitting as a family may “be a good role model to their kids,” Christians should also “model to them the value of loving our spiritual family.” Moore also hypothesized reactions to families deliberately sitting with other people.  

“Is it weird to not be sitting together?” he wrote. “If someone asks, ‘Why aren’t you sitting with your wife?,’ you could just say, ‘We just didn’t want to be cliquey, you know?’”

The column was later updated with an editor’s note which reads: “This title of this article has been changed to better reflect its content. Both The Gospel Coalition Australia and The Gospel Coalition USA have published articles interacting with it.”

While the article remained published on the Australian version of TGC, the link to the same piece on the U.S. TGC website appeared to be broken. 

CP reached out to TGC for comment on Thursday. 

In response to the article, TGC contributor Griffin Gulledge, pastor of Fayetteville First Baptist Church in Georgia, published a piece on Nov. 11 detailing why he believes Moore’s take was misguided.

“The article appeared on The Gospel Coalition’s Australian site. TGC’s international coalitions have their own independent editorial teams,” Gulledge wrote. “All agree to publish resources that align with TGC’s Foundation Documents, but individual writers, staff members, and Council members often disagree on matters that fall outside our Confessional Statement and Theological Vision for Ministry.

“In this case, I respectfully disagree with Moore,” Gulledge added. “The Bible doesn’t command families to divide in worship as a picture of Christian unity. More than that, to present family members worshiping together as an obstacle to love for others neglects the mission of the family and God’s call to parents. Acknowledging legitimate situations where families can’t or don’t sit together in church, as Christians, we don’t choose between our families or our mission. Building gospel-centered families is Great Commission ministry.”

The piece drew both support and ridicule from commenters online. Some noted that the idea isn’t new, as author Rebecca McLaughlin made a similar case in a 2018 piece for Christianity Today, titled, “Why I Don’t Sit With My Husband at Church.”

TGC has made headlines in the past for removing content, including a 2023 excerpt from pastor Joshua Butler’s book Beautiful Union, titled “Sex Won’t Save You (But It Points to the One Who Will),” which used sexual imagery to describe Christ’s relationship with the Church. TGC took the article down after some critics said it was akin to erotic literature.