Megachurch Pastor Josh Howerton did something a little unorthodox to achieve an orthodox outcome.

Howerton, who leads Lakepointe Church in Dallas, preached a sermon last month, “3 Things That Will Kill Your Marriage,” and, at the end of the message, he invited cohabiting, unmarried couples to get married.

“If you’re living with somebody that’s not your spouse, you’re sleeping with somebody that’s not your spouse, or you’ve actually already started a family and had kids with somebody that’s not your spouse, and you right now are coming under the loving conviction of the Holy Spirit that you need to honor God, bend your knee to Jesus,” he said from the pulpit in late February.

Howerton added, “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.”

The pastor revealed this past week that, after the sermon, which he said he spent a great deal of time preparing, 52 couples came forward and all were married Friday in a joint ceremony and celebration.

“These 52 couples heard the marriage sermon two weeks ago [and] came under conviction,” he wrote on social media. “They wanted to honor God and get married, met with pastors for council, and tonight they got married.”

Howerton honored the newly wedded couples from the pulpit this past Sunday, encouraging churchgoers to show up for the service to give them a standing ovation for their decision to repent and come into right standing with God.

Estimates released in December by the U.S. Census Bureau found fewer than half (47%) of American households were married couples, marking a significant shift from 50 years earlier, when close to two-thirds (66%) were. The median age of first marriages for men now sits at nearly 31 years old and 28 years old for women — both increased from 24 and 21, respectively, in 1975.

In the comments section of Howerton’s post, the pastor noted more than 1,000 people showed up to service Sunday “to cheer them on.”

“We never want to look down on somebody unless we’re giving them a hand up,” he said Sunday. “We called people who realized they were living outside of God’s design and they were like, ‘Man, we want to repent and honor God with our lives to step forward and put a ring on and get married and honor God.”

James Moore was one of the people who got married at Lakepointe Church after Howerton’s sermon.

He commented on the pastor’s post, “My fiancée and I ended up getting married after listening. We had kept putting it off and making excuses, but this message really lit a fire under us to finally get it done. We’re very thankful for the message.”

Pray for the new marriages formed in response to the Holy Spirit’s conviction.