As Gateway Church Troubles Continue, Attendence, Tithing Drastically Decline

One of the few remaining elders left at Gateway Church in Southlake says more staff cuts will be made due to decreased tithing at the troubled mega-church.

According to a video message from elder Kenneth Fambro to staff on Wednesday and shared with church watchdog blog Watchkeep, tithing has been down “35 to 40%” and that the church is “looking into the ministry itself and into staff reductions.”

The announcement comes five months after allegations resurfaced that pastor Robert Morris sexually abused a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s. Since then, the church has announced other terminations and resignations stemming from the Morris bombshell. Cindy Clemishire, now in her 50s, came forward and said that when Morris was in his early 20s and newly married, he stayed at her family's house and molested her on numerous occasions over the course of a few years.

Morris has only admitted in a prepared statement to “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” in the time since Clemishire’s story gained widespread attention. He stepped down from his position shortly after issuing the statement in June.

Over the past 20 years, Morris’s profile has risen to international heights as a religious author, radio host and television personality as Gateway Church has grown into one of the largest congregations in the United States. Since 2016, Morris has been a vocal supporter of President-Elect Donald Trump, serving as a spiritual adviser for Trump during his first term in office.

Morris’s case was one of the first attention-grabbing examples from a summer full of prominent North Texas pastors who have been fired or have stepped down as a result of some sort of crime or moral failure. For Gateway, it was the first domino to fall for what has now been half a year’s worth of setbacks, departures and other unwelcome developments.

Soon after Morris’s resignation, his son, James Morris, who was set to take his father’s place leading the church, resigned.

In October, a group of Gateway members filed a class action lawsuit against the church claiming that they misspent millions of dollars in donations, tithes and offerings that were supposed to go toward supporting the church’s ministries around the world.

“At a conference last year, former lead pastor Robert Morris said 15–20% of the church's yearly revenue goes to ministries across the world,” a CBS 11 report stated. “In the class-action lawsuit, it says a CPA oversaw Gateway Global Ministries. The CPA claims the church's revenue totaled more than $100 million, but he only saw no more than $3 million given to global missions, which is far less than 15%.”

Earlier this month, another CBS 11 report revealed that an independent investigation “uncovered a massive failure involving former church leadership” resulting in the removal of four elders who, the investigation found, knew about Morris’s relationship with the underage Clemishire.

"There was one group who knew without a doubt that Cindy was 12 when the abuse began, and there was a second group who knew of allegations of sexual abuse by Robert Morris, who had enough information that should have led them to ask more questions and inquire further, but they did not," elder Tra Wilbanks told the congregation, according to the CBS report.

The church also noted that law enforcement is involved in its own investigation of the accusations.

Earlier this month, The Dallas Morning News reported that Gateway attendance is down 22–24%, a number that sheds light on the drastic drop in tithe money and other recent staffing changes. In the video sent to church staff this week, Fambro outlined certain details regarding what employees being laid off can expect for severance pay. He added that staff reductions “were not handled well in the past.”

“We’re going to look at leadership differently and express leadership differently,” Fambro said in the video.

This wasn’t the first time Clemishire had attempted to tell her story. She told her parents about it not long after it happened, and in more recent years, legal moves were attempted but failed to get very far. She told WFAA in a June interview that this year seemed like the right time for her to try again.

"The story is gut-wrenching when I read it on paper and I've been sharing it for years," Clemishire said. "It just happens to be God's time, I think, for it to come to light."