According to a recent report, Gateway Church is facing more controversy after it was revealed that the megachurch would not honor a money-back guarantee, as noted by founder and former pastor Robert Morris. This was discovered after a new class action lawsuit was filed by four church members.
Gateway Church spokesman Lawrence Swicegood declined to address the accusations, stating, “We do not comment on pending litigation. These are serious allegations. Some of these concerns were brought to us recently, and we are actively investigating them. Funds donated to our church are sacred, and it is important that we hold ourselves to the highest biblical standards of ethics and integrity.”
The church members filing the lawsuit accuse Gateway of not being transparent with the organization’s finances. “This lawsuit is about transparency, brought by members whose concern is not money in their pockets but rather biblical stewardship,” the lawsuit claimed.
Reportedly, Gateway had previously claimed it would allocate 15% of tithes to its Global Ministries fund. “Then-Senior Pastor Robert Morris and Gateway leaders represented that 15% of all tithe dollars would be distributed to global missions and Jewish ministry partners, encouraging church members to generously give toward these ends,” the suit added.
The legal measure continued, “On the account of the facts set forth herein, Plaintiffs allege that Gateway Church and its leaders engaged in misrepresentation, fraud, and breach to contract in their efforts to induce Plaintiffs and other church members to donate money to Gateway.”
“On information and belief, Defendants did not use 15% of all money donated for the intended purpose as represented by Robert Morris and Gateway leaders,” the lawsuit states, demanding transparency from hcurch leadership. “Attempts to seek transparency and proof that money did in fact go to global missions and Jewish ministry partners have been rebuffed by Gateway elders. This lawsuit is a means of last resort and being pursued with a heavy heart.”
Furthermore, the lawsuit quoted church leaders, including Robert Morris, who previously claimed that Gateway would honor a money-back guarantee. “Robert Morris and Tom Lane promised on multiple occasions that if the congregation is not happy with the use of its money, it can get the money back,” the lawsuit read.
Morris said in a sermon from 2022, “When I started giving the first 10% to God it changed everything. And here’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to just challenge you. I’ve done this with our church. I’ve told our church on multiple occasions, I’ve said to them, if you’ll try it for one year, if you are not fully satisfied, at the end of that year, I’ll give you your money back. With 22 years in the church, no one’s ever asked for their money back.”
According to the lawsuit, the church has not honored this arrangement. “This statement was repeated by Tom Lane, and the other defendants knew that the representation was false and made with the intention of inducing congregants to give money. Many people, have requested refund of their tithes only to be stonewalled and ignored by the defendants,” the filing claims.
Featured image credit: Jared Stump, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gateway_Church_NRH.jpg