According to recent reports, Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, is still reeling from the sexual abuse scandal involving its founder, Pastor Robert Morris. Earlier this year, allegations surfaced on an inappropriate romantic relationship involving Morris, who was a young adult at the time, and a minor in the 1980s. Morris has since resigned from his position at the church.
For months, the church has suffered in the wake of the scandal coming to light. Recent reports indicate that tithing has plummeted 35 percent, forcing the church to consider firing staff members to cut back on expenses. Elder Kenneth Fambro provided a financial update to the congregation as the church charts the path forward.
Fambro explained, “We have, in fact, seen our tithes reduce between 35 and 40%. As a result, we really need to go and start looking at the ministry itself and looking into some staff reductions. As leadership, we want to be as clear and transparent as possible as we walk everyone through this process.” He added, “If your department is dissolved or reduced, you will receive the same severance package as those who took the voluntary severance. That is one month for every year of service up to four months.”
The elder maintains that Gateway Church wants to “take care of our staff through this process,” noting that staff reductions at the church have “not been handled well in the past.” Fambro added, “For that, I apologize. We really are trying to look at leadership differently and express leadership differently in doing so. My heart goes out to everyone who is processing this right now. But know that we want what God wants. We want you to be exactly where God wants.”
The Christian Tribune recently reported on news that Gateway Church would be removing elders following a conclusion to the investigation into the church’s handling of the Morris scandal. Elder Tra Willbanks said “We now know that there were elders and employees at Gateway who knew before June 14, 2024, that Cindy was 12 at the time of the abuse. Both groups are fundamentally wrong and simply cannot and will not be tolerated at Gateway Church.”
“We have decided to draw a very bright line here based on biblical and moral values and the values of our church family, and we can report to you that as of today, no individual in either group serves as an elder, is employed by or works at Gateway Church. They have been removed,” Willbanks continued.
Morris had supposedly confessed his sinful relationship in the 1980s. However, Willbanks provided additional context, stating, “According to this version, Robert confessed his sin to apostolic leaders in the late 1980s, many years before Gateway Church was formed. He stepped down from ministry for two years and then was restored back into ministry with the blessing of those same apostolic leaders. We as a church knew what our former senior pastor had shared publicly. Many people, including myself, simply believed his version of the story.”
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