Gateway Church denied Robert Morris’ demand for millions in retirement pay: court records
.JPG "Gateway Church founder Robert Morris enters the Osage County Courthouse in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, accompanied by his wife, Debbie Morris, and his attorney, Mack Martin, on Friday, May 9, 2025.")
Gateway Church has rejected founder Robert Morris’ demands for millions of dollars in retirement pay following his resignation after allegations of child sexual abuse, according to court documents filed this week by the North Texas megachurch.
Gateway Church, based in Southlake, is asking a Tarrant County court for a hearing and an order to block Morris’ demand for arbitration, according to a petition filed Tuesday. The church argues that any dispute related to Morris’ contract must go through mediation first.
Morris resigned in June 2024 as lead pastor at Gateway Church after he admitted to sexually abusing a girl in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 years old in her Oklahoma home, the documents state.
Morris has since been indicted in Oklahoma on related child sexual abuse charges and faces an upcoming preliminary hearing at which prosecutors will present evidence to show probable cause for the criminal case to go to trial.
According to the documents filed by the church, after his resignation, Morris asked Gateway for $1 million and an annual retirement package of $600,000 to $800,000 for the rest of his and his wife’s lives, along with other benefits.
Gateway declined, citing contract terms and Morris’ “defiantly unapologetic posture,” according to the court documents.
The attorney representing Morris in the contract dispute did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. A copy of Morris’ demand for arbitration, which he filed with the Institute for Christian Conciliation on April 23, is included in the response filed by the church. In his filing, Morris argues that he was forced out by the elders, who told him he would be fired if he did not resign, and that he was not given a chance to consult with a lawyer before his effective termination.
In Gateway’s response, the church said that Morris “distorts and omits” key facts about his past abuse of Cindy Clemishire — which she revealed to the Wartburg Watch last year — and his conduct toward Gateway, including making false claims.
Morris falsely claimed that he was “transparent with the Board” and that the elders were aware of the details of the abuse, the church said in the documents.
Clemishire’s public revelation of the abuse disqualified Morris “from his position as pastor and has brought reproach and pain to Gateway and (given the scope of his ministry) to the church worldwide,” Gateway says in the documents. “Regrettably, Gateway and its Elders only learned the full extent of the facts surrounding Morris’s behavior in the summer of 2024, including Morris’s decades-long campaign of misinformation and mischaracterization to the church and its leadership.”
According to the church, “Morris’s agreements with Gateway preclude him from future retirement benefits if he resigns or is terminated due to certain immoral or criminal conduct,” which Gateway’s elders believe would include the charges against him.
Morris founded Gateway Church in 2000.
According to a letter his attorneys wrote to the church’s lawyers in September 2024, which is included in the court documents, Morris contends that, “From Gateway’s opening in 2000 until at least 2023, prospective Gateway elders were informed of Robert’s moral failure that occurred in his early 20s - namely, his sexual encounters with an underage girl - and the restoration process he went through thereafter at Shady Grove church. After being told, each prospective elder had to affirm that they still wanted to be an elder for Gateway despite knowing this information.”
“Since Gateway first opened, Pastor Robert was confronted about his encounters with Ms. Clemishire multiple times - including at least in 2005, 2007, and 2011-2012,” his attorneys’ letter stated. “In each instance, Pastor Robert informed and conferred with members of the Board of Elders regarding his history with Ms. Clemishire, the present allegations and/or demands, and how he and/or Gateway should respond.”
According to the letter, Gateway elders responded on Morris’ behalf in communications with Clemishire and others related to the allegations and “elders even confirmed Ms. Clemishire’s age in 2011 when the issue resurfaced.”
In a letter in November 2024 in which the church rejected Morris’ financial demands, Gateway’s lawyers wrote that the church would only reconsider its denials if Morris changed his tone and agreed to three requests from the church: “Admit publicly that Cindy Clemishire was twelve years old (not, as claimed in the September Letter, “in her early teens”) when he began sexually abusing her; Publicly manifest contrition, not defensiveness or blame shifting, for both the abuse and the unimaginable damage it brought upon Cindy, as well as the incredible damage it has wrought upon the Church; and Stop falsely claiming that all Gateway Elders were aware of the abuse and that Cindy was only twelve when he began abusing her as this is factually incorrect.”
According to the court documents, Morris based his payment demands on employment agreements, a deferred benefit plan and oral contracts. He also is seeking intellectual property rights and attorneys’ fees.
“Several of Morris’s claims fall outside the scope of the parties’ dispute-resolution provisions and thus there is no agreement to arbitrate those claims,” the church stated in the court documents.
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 4:41 PM.