IT FIGURES! MEMBERS OF GATEWAY CHURCH HAVE FILED A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST FORMER PASTOR ROBERT MORRIS AND THE GATEWAY CHURCH FOR LYING ABOUT GIVING 15% OF THE MEMBERS’ TITHES AND OFFERINGS TO GLOBAL MISSIONS WHEN THEY DID NOT DO SO.
DANIEL WHYTE III, PRESIDENT OF GOSPEL LIGHT SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL, RENEWS HIS CALL FOR THE GATEWAY CHURCH TO AT LEAST TEMPORARILY CLOSE UNTIL INDEPENDENT LAW ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATIONS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED IN EVERY AREA OF THE CHURCH. WHYTE ALSO RENEWS HIS CALL THAT EVERYBODY WHO SERVED IN SO-CALLED LEADERSHIP WITH ROBERT MORRIS SHOULD RESIGN POSTHASTE. AT THIS POINT, WITH A LAWSUIT OF THIS NATURE, GATEWAY CHURCH NEEDS TO CONSIDER CLOSING THE CHURCH PERMANENTLY AND GIVING ALL MONEY TO DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN MISSIONS UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE FILING THIS LAWSUIT.
A group of members of Dallas-based Gateway Church have filed a proposed class action lawsuit, alleging that the church fraudulently claimed it was giving 15% of members’ tithe to global missions, but did not.
According to the suit, Gateway should have been giving away a minimum of $15 million a year to global missions, since the church had annual revenue around $100 million.
However, the suit claims Gateway hired a “seasoned CPA” to oversee its global ministries in July 2011. And during his tenure, which ended in 2014, “he never observed the Global Ministries fund give away more than $3 million in any year,” the suit states.
Following initial publication of this article, Gateway Church spokesperson Lawrence Swicegood provided a statement.
“We do not comment on pending litigation,” Swicegood told The Roys Report (TRR). “These are serious allegations. Some of these concerns were brought to us recently, and we are actively investigating them. Funds donated to our church are sacred, and it is important that we hold ourselves to the highest biblical standards of ethics and integrity.”
The lawsuit was filed today in federal court in Sherman, Texas, on behalf of four Gateway members and others “similarly situated.”
According to Attorney Lu Pham, who’s representing the plaintiffs, the suit is seeking class certification. If granted, the lawsuit will seek $100 million in damages.
Named as defendants in the suit are Gateway Church, former Gateway Senior Pastor Robert Morris, former Gateway Executive Senior Pastor Thomas Lane, Executive Global Pastor Kevin Grove, and former Executive Pastor and Founding Elder Steve Dulin.
The suit comes as Gateway has been embroiled in controversy, following allegations that its founding Pastor Robert Morris sexually molested an Oklahoma woman in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 years old.
Morris resigned soon after the allegations surfaced. And his son, James Morris, who was slated to take over the church, also resigned and is starting a new church.
Gateway accused of reneging on its promise
According to the suit, Morris and other Gateway leaders promised members that 15% of their tithe dollars would be distributed to global missions and Jewish ministry partners.
This claim was documented in the Members’ Handbook given to new members, the suit says. Plus, the church’s website currently claims, “The first 15% of Gateway’s tithe is set aside to support local, national, and international outreach efforts.”
Additionally, Morris stated in 2023 that 10 years ago, Gateway passed giving “$20 million a year . . . but now it’s over $25 million,” the suit said.
However, the suit claims Gateway regularly failed to make good on its promise, citing an unnamed CPA who used to administrate the global fund.
According to the lawsuit, the unspent balance in the global fund was $20 million in 2013 and was growing by approximately $10 million per year.
“In spite of that, Robert Morris and other leaders at Gateway misled the congregation during Global Impact Weekend each year by stating that the full amount was being given to missions when, in fact, it was not,” the suit states.
Suit alleges church covered up financial discrepancies
The suit also claims that a member of Gateway’s global staff noticed that “several entries, amounting to $1 million, were unaccounted for.”
When the CPA asked former Gateway CFO Randy Bell about the issue, “Bell stated he did not know what the entries represented but that they were ‘elder approved,’” the lawsuit states.
The CPA asked which elder approved the entries and Bell allegedly said he did not know, “stating instead that it came from Kevin Grove,” a current Gateway elder and executive global pastor.
When the CPA asked Grove about the reconciliation errors, Grove became “visibly enraged and, with a raised voice, instructed the CPA to ‘quit reconciling the accounts,’” the suit states. It adds, “Around this time period, the CPA began to find similar unexplained entries.”
The CPA took his concerns to former Executive Senior Pastor Tom Lane, telling Lane that if his concerns were not addressed, he’d resign, the suit states.
Lane told the CPA he would take his concerns to Robert Morris, the suit says.
“A few days later, Tom Lane told the CPA, ‘I spoke to Robert over the weekend, and we agreed to accept your resignation,’” according to the suit.
Lack of transparency?
The plaintiffs named in the lawsuit—Katherine and Garry Leach, and Mark and Terri Browder—claim they went to church leaders due to the sexual assault allegations against Morris disclosed this summer.
They say they were seeking answers about the use of tithe money, but “Gateway refused to be transparent when trying to answer even simple questions about the use of tithing dollars.
“Defendants’ refusal to answer even the most basic of questions is the reason for this lawsuit,” the suit states. It adds that the plaintiffs “seek transparency and an explanation (of) what happened to the 15% of funds collected that Robert Morris, Tom Lane, and the other name Defendants promised would be used for global missions.”
The suit also noted that Morris “promised on multiple occasions that if the congregation is not happy with the use of its money, it can get the money back.”
As reported by TRR, one of the defendants, Katherine Leach, asked Gateway Church to return her tithe money. According to the suit, Gateway church has not responded.
Leach also has posted videos on her Facebook page of Morris offering his “Money Back Guarantee.”
“Many people have requested refund of their tithes only to be stonewalled and ignored by the Defendants,” the lawsuits states.
According to Attorney Lu Pham, the lawsuit is “not about money” but about transparency and accountability.
“If Gateway would just open up the books and show us that the money was used for the purposes it was intended for, this lawsuit would go away very quickly,” Pham said.
He added that if his clients prevail, they plan to give the money to the ministries that should have received the money long ago.
IF YOU WERE TO DIE TODAY, WHERE WOULD YOU GO: HEAVEN OR HELL? IF YOU’RE NOT SURE, “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED” FOR JESUS CHRIST SAID THE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS EVER SPOKEN IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD WHEN HE SAID, “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.” READ FURTHER RIGHT HERE:
THE BIG QUESTION
GOSPEL LIGHT MINUTE X #447 WITH DANIEL WHYTE III
This is the “Chief of sinners,” Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International, with the Gospel Light Minute X Podcast #447 titled, “The Big Question” I’m here to remind you of what the Bible says, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” like you and me.
“HAVE YOU BEEN BORN AGAIN?”
The question is not “Have you joined a church?” or “Are you trying to do your best?” or “Do you have religion?” but “Are you twice-born?” Jesus Christ said in John 3:3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”.
We enter the physical world by birth. Spiritual life likewise is entered with a birth. We become members of a human family by birth; we become members of the family of God by birth, by being “born again.” There is no other way to get into the human family except by birth, and there is no other way to get into God’s family except by the new birth. Neither education, nor cultivation, nor reformation, nor “turning over a new leaf,” will accomplish this. What is needed is not a new “leaf” but a new “life”! “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
A New Nature Needed
By physical birth we become partakers of human nature; by being born again we become “partakers of the divine nature”. A Christian is the product of a divine “begetting”. The second birth is not an improvement of the old nature; it is the imparting of an entirely new nature. The old nature is hopelessly corrupt and incapable of ever being made fit for His presence. The new birth requires a creative act of the Holy Spirit. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature”.
Not “Trying” But “Trusting”
“Trying to follow Christ” is not Christianity. Christianity is not imitation of Christ, it is the indwelling of Christ. Christianity is not trying to do anything. It is trusting Christ Who has done it all! He has “finished the work” and there is nothing left to do but simply to receive and trust Him. He shed His precious blood on the cross and the work is all done once and forever! Cease trying and begin trusting! Believers will progressively become more and more like Christ, but by His power, not their own.
What Must I Do To Be Saved?
Simply “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”. The Bible says in 1 John 5:1, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God”. The Bible states in John 1:12,13, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”.
You are born again, you become a Christian by trusting a Person—receiving a Person. The very moment you do this, the Lord Jesus Christ comes in and life begins!
What Is Meant By “Believe”?
To “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” means more than simply believing the historic facts concerning Him. Intellectual belief about Christ is not sufficient. The belief that brings salvation must be “with the heart,” that is, with the whole being. This belief also includes repentance: “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”. The Bible states in Acts 17:30, “God … now commandeth all men every where to repent”.
The faith which saves, then, includes the necessity to repent, and to receive Christ as Saviour and Lord, to rest upon Him alone for salvation. It means to trust Him so utterly and completely that, if He should fail, there would be no hope at all!
May I Know That I Am Born Again?
This is an important question. We know that we are born again by the testimony of God’s Word. God says in John 5:24, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life”. Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as explained by God’s Word? If so, then you are saved, you are “born again,” you have “passed from death unto life.” God says so! Take God at His Word, and go on your way rejoicing!
One Final Word
You may “belong to a church,” you may be “trying to do the best you can,” you may be “striving to live right.” Your outward life may be the model of moral correctness, and you may be looked up to, honored, revered, and respected. Yet, if you have not been “born again” you are just as lost as if you had never heard of Christ. Yes, you may teach in the Sunday school, read the Bible, sing, shout, “feel happy,” and all the rest—but if you have never been “born again” you are still in your sins and a stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ!.
If you want to be saved from the wrath to come and from an eternity in Hell, and if you believe that Jesus Christ suffered, bled, and died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead and you are willing to trust Jesus Christ with all of your heart so you can go to Heaven, please pray with me what is called the sinner’s prayer: Holy Father God, I acknowledge that I am a sinner and I admit that I have sinned against You and that I have broken Your Ten Commandments. I have lied before. I have stolen things before. I have lusted after people and things before. I have dishonored and disobeyed my parents. I have taken Your holy Name in vain. For Jesus Christ’s sake, please have mercy and grace upon my soul and forgive me of all of my sins, my failures, and my faults. As I now believe in Your Holy Son the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that He suffered, bled, and died on the cross for my sins, was buried and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and help me to repent of my sins past. Help me to turn from my old, evil life and follow You in the new life. For it is in Your Name I pray. Amen.
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