Pastor Romell Parks-Weekly was born and raised in Saint Louis (University City), Missouri in 1979. He became an avid student of Scripture at a young age. His mother recalls many days when she would come home from work and find him in the dining room with books sprawled out all over the table. But instead of school books, she would find him studying various Bible translations, lexicons, Bible dictionaries, and concordances.
At the age of 15, he began serving as the minister of music (teacher, director, and pianist) at the Pentecostal church where he was raised. He accepted his calling into the ministry of the word at 19. God blessed him to serve in Pentecostal, Baptist, and non-denominational churches, as minister of music, finance committee member, and eventually, elder. Through those experiences, he learned much about church and ministry operation, both in and behind the scenes.
In 2002, just before turning 23, he founded New Revelation Christian Church. But a few years later (in 2009), much of the congregation withdrew their membership after he came out of the closet as a gay man and made the church gay-affirming. Steadfast in his convictions, though, he continued moving forward. After merging with another small congregation in 2011, The Sanctuary was born.
Pastor Romell is both a pastor and a teacher (of the five-fold ministry; Eph. 4:11), and enjoys teaching the word of God with simplicity and understanding. He’s published four (4) books, three (3) of which deal with homosexuality from a biblical perspective. He’s had the honor of being invited to participate in conferences and workshops in Saint Louis, Kansas City, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. He is passionate about opening people’s eyes to God’s affirming truth, and freeing people (gay and straight) from the idea that God doesn’t affirm homosexuals, or their relationships.
