PERSON: Drew Stever

Hope Lutheran Church

Pastor

Drew Stever, a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, is one of the few out transgender clergy members to be ordained by a Christian institution. Now a pastor at Hope Lutheran in Hollywood, Stever was recently featured on CBS Mornings’ The State of Spirituality with Lisa Ling, using the opportunity to reflect on his journey.

Always feeling a calling towards spiritual teachings, Stever attended seminary school, and ended up coming to terms with his identity during his time there. As he describes it, he went into seminary as a woman, but came out “not a woman.”

The Lutheran Church ordained its first trans minister in 2015, with leadership seeming to show more acceptance towards LGBTQ+ clergy and attendees in recent years. Stever said that the church is “trying so hard” to improve, and that he believes “those who need to hear, will hear.”

To those who don’t believe trans people have a place in Christianity, or that scripture denies the existence of trans people, Stever’s response is: “It’s hard to relate [that] to modern day times, because it wasn’t written for 2024. It was written for then. When we read in scripture that God created man and woman — yes, and God created everyone else as well.”

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