Gateway Church looking into staff cuts due to reduction in congregational tithes
Leaders at Gateway Church have announced they are looking into cutting the church’s staff due to a reduction in tithes.
Gateway elder Kenneth Fambro said in a video message to staff obtained by the watchdog website watchkeep.org that the church has recently seen a 35-40% decrease in congregational tithes.
“As a result, we really need to go and start looking at the ministry itself and looking into some staff reductions,” Fambro said.
Fambro pledged transparency as Gateway walks through the process, and said those affected by the cuts would receive the same severance benefits as those who took voluntary severance.
The announcement comes nearly six weeks after four Gateway members filed a lawsuit alleging that leaders engaged in misrepresentation and fraud in their efforts to get the congregation to donate money to the Southlake-based megachurch. According to the lawsuit, former senior pastor Robert Morris and other church leaders didn’t fulfill their promise to use a portion of congregational donations toward international missionary work.
“This lawsuit is about transparency, brought by members whose concern is not money in their pockets but rather biblical stewardship,” wrote attorneys Micah Dortch and Lu Pham, the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. “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 staff cuts are the latest in a series of woes to plague the megachurch this year. Morris, who founded Gateway in 2000, resigned in June after a woman told the religious watchdog blog The Wartburg Watch that Morris abused her as a child. Cindy Clemishire, who is now in her 50s, said she was 12 at the time the abuse started. Morris was 21.
Gateway hired a law firm to conduct an independent investigation into Clemishire’s allegations. Morris’ son, James Morris, and three other elders took a leave of absence from the board at that time to demonstrate a “truly independent and unbiased inquiry,” church leaders said in a June 28 statement
James Morris resigned in July, and church leaders announced a short time later that founding elder Steve Dulin was parting ways with Gateway.
On Nov. 2, Gateway leaders announced that four elders had been removed from their positions. The men had some knowledge of Morris’ conduct prior to Clemishire making her allegations public and didn’t take action, according to church leaders.
