Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, has announced it will cut staff in the coming weeks due to “a significant drop” in tithes and general giving as it continues to reel in the aftermath of founder Robert Morris’ child sex abuse scandal.
“Over the last year, tithing has not mirrored attendance, given the ongoing issues related to the church’s former pastor and that has led to a significant drop in giving levels,” Gateway Church elders said in an email to members on Wednesday that was shared on social media. “These are the difficult but practical realities of the season we’ve been in, and we will continue to walk through it with humility, prayer, and our commitment to intentionally healing as a church family.”
The elders further noted that due to the financial position of the church, “it has become clear that restructuring our staff is necessary, requiring the tough but necessary step of staff reduction.”
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Church officials told The Dallas Morning News that affected staffers will be given two weeks to voluntarily resign and will receive one month of severance and benefits for each year of service up to four months. The staff reduction is expected to be completed by mid-July, around the time when new Gateway Church Senior Pastor Daniel Floyd and his wife, Tammie, are expected to begin transitioning into their new roles.
“This was an extremely difficult decision for us to make, and we didn’t come to it quickly or easily and waited as long as we could,” Tra Willbanks, the chair of Gateway’s elders, told The Dallas Morning News.
“This decision was an important step to ensure we are able to minister to our church family well, however it affects real people and members of our church family that we’ve loved and served alongside for years, which is what makes it so painful. And we are trying to love our staff well through this painful process.”
It is unclear what the membership of the church is, but officials confirmed with the publication that attendance had fallen between 22% and 24% from June 2024 when Morris resigned and October 2024, to about 19,000 per weekend.
In the church’s heyday, members alleged in a class action lawsuit that the multi-site megachurch was generating in excess of $100 million in revenue annually.
The lawsuit alleges church leaders misappropriated millions of dollars in tithes meant for global missions. It was filed by Gateway Church members Katherine Leach, Garry K. Leach, Mark Browder, and Terri Browder. Those named as defendants include Morris, Gateway Church, Tom Lane, a former executive pastor; founding elder Steve Dulin; and Kevin Grove, who serves as an executive global pastor and elder.
In response to the lawsuit, Gateway Church leaders said they would join the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an accreditation organization for many leading Christian nonprofits, and would undergo a forensic audit.
Cindy Clemishire, a woman who alleges she was sexually abused by Morris in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 year old, also recently filed a defamation lawsuit against the Southlake, Texas, megachurch and Morris, seeking more than $1 million.
The lawsuit names Clemishire, 55, and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, as plaintiffs, and alleges that Morris and Gateway Church leaders mischaracterized the abuse she suffered as a consensual “relationship” with a “young lady” instead of the sexual assault of a child.
It further alleges that when public media reports emerged in 2024 about the abuse committed by Morris, Gateway’s board of elders and media executive Lawrence Swicegood made “knowingly false” statements to minimize what happened.
Morris was indicted in March on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child by a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma in connection with his actions against Clemishire. She reported that Morris began sexually abusing her on Dec. 25, 1982, when she was 12, and continued with the abuse for four-and-a-half years after that. At the time, Morris was serving as a traveling evangelist.
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