Gateway Church removes elders and employees who knew of Robert Morris sexual abuse allegations

Max Lucado, interim teaching pastor for Gateway Church, told congregants Nov. 2 that the Saturday service would be a ‘demarcation point’ or a ‘milestone’ for the church.

“There are necessary endings. There is a necessary beginning,” Lucado said during the Saturday service. “We are in such a time. We have been waiting all summer to know where we are, and it has brought us to this service.”

Gateway Church elder Tra Willbanks took to the pulpit to share a summary of the findings from law firm Haynes and Boone LLP. The company was hired by the church in June, following the resignation of Gateway’s founder and then-senior pastor Robert Morris. Morris founded the Southlake-based megachurch in 2000.

Morris’ departure followed accusations from Cindy Clemishire, who narrated it The Wartburg watch that the pastor sexually abused her several times in the 1980s, starting when she was twelve years old. Since the allegations came to light, attendance at Gateway campuses has increased fell by more than 20%from about 25,000 people each weekend to about 19,000, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Clemishire previously criticized Gateway for hiring a firm that specializes in crisis management to conduct the investigation into the allegations against Morris.

“This does not appear to be an independent investigation, and this concerns me greatly,” Clemishire said in June.

The law firm’s report looked at Morris’ conduct, not limited to Cleminshire’s allegations, but also what was known and when Willbanks said it, according to church leaders.

He was accompanied by church elders Kenneth Fambro and Dane Minor. The trio formed the subcommittee with which Haynes and Boone shared their findings.

The law firm did not learn of any other allegations of sexual abuse against Morris during the investigation, Willbanks said.

Haynes and Boone collected 780 gigabytes of data, reviewed thousands of pages of documents and emails and interviewed more than 20 people, Willbanks said. Morris was one of six people who declined the law firm’s request for in-person interviews, Willbanks said.

Willbanks asked those in attendance and those watching the church’s livestream to contact church elders via email to report sexual abuse by a current or former Gateway leader.

“For everyone, if you were a victim of sexual abuse as a child, please know that you could not have consented,” Willbanks said. “No child can consent to sexual abuse.”

Gateway removes elders, employees who knew of abuse before June 2024

There were two groups that knew about the abuse, Willbanks said. One group knew Clemishire was 12 years old when the abuse began. Another group was aware of sexual abuse allegations against Morris, “but failed to investigate further.”

“Both groups are fundamentally wrong and cannot and will not be tolerated at Gateway Church,” Willbanks said.

As a result, individuals who fit into either group are no longer elders or employed by the church, he said.

During the investigation, church elders Kevin Grove, Gayland Lawshe and Steve Dulin were asked to provide a temporary leave from Gateway’s board. All three served on the church’s board of elders between 2005 and 2007. Clemishire and Morris were involved in one series of messages from April to October 2005, during which Clemishire asked Morris to compensate her for the trauma she suffered from the alleged abuse.

The church formally said goodbye to Dulin, one of its founders, in July. Gateway Church’s statement did not specify reasons for the decision, but spokesman Lawrence Swicegood did earlier told the Fort Worth Report that Dulin’s departure was not related to the investigation.

Willbanks, Fambro and Minor are the only elders listed on Gateway Church’s website as of November 2 at 7 p.m. Grove, Lawshe, Thomas Miller and Jeremy Carrasco were no longer on the list.

Gateway Elder handles lawsuits against the church and financial claims

A number of lawsuits against Gateway Church have come to light in recent months. The church is also rejecting financial demands from Morris, Willbanks said.

He added that Gateway also faces an ongoing criminal investigation. Willbanks provided no further details during the Nov. 2 service.

Two separate families lawsuits filed against the Southlake-based campus over the past decade. One alleged in 2016 that a disabled child had been attacked in the church’s daycare center. The other, filed in 2020, alleged that a child was sexually abused during a sleepover.

In August, the church was hit with a lawsuit to claim child sex abuse of a youth group member.

A group of Gateway parishioners submitted an application another lawsuit In October, it was alleged that the non-denominational megachurch committed financial fraud when church leaders falsely promised members that a portion of their tithes would go to overseas missionary work.

Through their lawsuit, congregants claimed that this promise was not kept and that they did not know where those tithes were going.

During an October 5 employWillbanks said the church was in the process of joining the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which requires churches to have an independent governing body that would review annual financial statements. A copy of the statements is available upon written request.

Willbanks said the church plans to work with an accounting firm that would “conduct a forensic effort to properly conduct all accounting” in response to the allegations.

Gateway Church has been preparing audited financial statements for the past 19 years, Willbanks said Nov. 2.

The church has averaged about 19% of financial donations to global missions, he said. The global missions division includes local, regional, national and international ministries, which have raised nearly $200 million over the past 19 years, Willbanks said.

Gateway Church is updating its bylaws and looking ahead to more changes

Events in recent months have shown there was a “major failure of governance and accountability” at Gateway Church, Willbanks said. He told attendees that the church’s culture played a role in allowing the “truth to remain hidden for too long.”

“Unfortunately, in recent months we have come to realize that at some point in the past, the culture at Gateway became one in which power was centralized and the leader at the top was surrounded by people who wanted to protect him,” Willbanks said. said, “Some of them at all costs.”

Willbanks said the church is reviewing its bylaws, including removing the office of apostolic elders. And the church will no longer allow staff members to also serve as elders.

One exception concerns the future senior pastor and possibly an executive senior pastor; the two roles could only serve as elders in a “non-voting capacity,” Willbanks said.

“We must learn from the mistakes of the past or we are doomed to repeat them,” Willbanks told congregants.

He sees the next steps as an “opportunity to refocus and return the focus of the church to God.”

Editor’s note: The story was updated on November 4 to reflect 780 gigabytes of data collected by Haynes and Boone, LLP.

Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at [email protected] or @marissaygroen. The Fort Worth Report makes news decisions independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.