DANIEL WHYTE III SAYS DR. TONY EVANS IS NOT SHOCKED AT HIS UNFORTUNATE SITUATION, NOR IS HE SHOCKED BY THE SO-CALLED “GIANTS OF THE FAITH” FALLING. HERE IS WHY:

The remaining Gateway leaders, who all served under the humongous shadow of Morris, are struggling to navigate the next steps with new revelations emerging practically every day that point to a series of deceptions by Morris. I hope they get to the bottom of who on the elders board knew what and when, because they’re losing credibility each time they retract hastily put-together public statements that turn out to be false.

While I was never a member of Gateway, I attended several of its services and events and read Morris’ books in class (one of which refers to a “catastrophic moral failure” early in his ministry in which he “committed a grievous betrayal of my marriage vows”). I hold out hope for the church and seminary to survive this crisis, based on the many good people I knew at both institutions and, more important, my knowledge that God does not abandon his faithful people, regardless of the failings of their leaders.

I personally benefited from a Gateway member whom I met for the first and only time when she prophesied to me in late 2019 that I would be debt-free within a year. The pandemic landed just a few months later, and almost immediately I lost my full-time job. But, thank God, my husband and I were completely out of debt in a little more than a year, despite the job loss. I respect any church environment that cultivates the proper use of the spiritual gifts and gives its members freedom to use them, because this is becoming increasingly rare.

That said, Gateway must use this extremely difficult moment to examine critically the culture they acquiesced to and helped maintain under Morris. Holy Scripture and the example of Jesus Christ must be our guide, not a set of “best practices” adapted from the corporate world that produce “successful” churches. I pray that prophetic leaders will emerge at Gateway and rebuild this ministry from the inside out, and I know that if they undertake this challenging task, God will provide wisdom. Right now, however, public statements by Gateway leaders have the distinct whiff of being vetted by lawyers and crisis-management experts.

I’m sure these leaders are reeling, but that is not prophetic leadership. Think Samuel, Elijah, and Nathan, who called out sin fearlessly and hewed to God’s concept of justice without submitting their every utterance to a church marketing department tasked with avoiding controversial subjects and never offending anyone.

Based on my observations and interactions with Gateway folks in seminary, I’d like to point to some areas that call for soul-searching and reform.

■ Gateway members and staffers displayed excessive adulation for Pastor Robert Morris. The ministry was built on his celebrity, public persona, and patina of success. Though Morris had announced he would retire in 2025, I was surprised to find out last week that the plan was for him to continue to be the lead preacher on Sundays. Morris was absolutely the looming figure over Gateway.

I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that many Gateway members and staffers were gaga over him. He was known as a strong, practical Bible teacher, and his teaching was respected even by non-charismatics. (Gateway Church is technically a neo-charismatic church, but I won’t delve into the fine points of church history here.) The level of adulation for Morris, however, far exceeded the normal respect one accords to a lead pastor.

One seminary student who was a Gateway staffer frequently made public service announcements in class—I don’t know what else to call them—extolling the many virtues of “Pastor Robert.” I don’t recall ever hearing the slightest criticism of Morris in the numerous student discussions I took part in. Sorry, but no human being deserves that kind of unqualified support, nor should we even desire it as leaders.

It’s alarming to me that any mature Christian leader in 2024 would even tolerate this degree of adulation, because we have seen that disaster so often follows, as attested to by the succession of nationally renowned pastors who’ve fallen into grievous public sin over the last several years.

Paul and Barnabas tore their robes when the people of Lystra ascribed a miracle to them instead of God and began to offer sacrifices for mere men (Acts 14:1-18). These early evangelists rent their clothing, the sign of utmost grief and despair in their Jewish culture, because they wanted to be absolutely certain that the focal point was Jesus Christ.

Still we don’t learn. We tend to think it’s someone else in the church who will fall, because their leader or organization isn’t as “excellent” or pure as ours. Yet few if any of the Gateway members and staffers I interacted with even knew Morris personally—he wasn’t accessible to normal people. Their trust in Morris was based on his public image. Perhaps a little healthy skepticism was in order here.

■ Gateway is a conformist culture. Gateway people spoke about Morris as though he were the unassailable paragon of Christian success. He reportedly possesses a large personal fortune and unabashedly stocked his elders board with men who were owners of successful businesses. When we surround ourselves with people who act and think just like us, we will develop blind spots.

I detected no concern among my Gateway classmates when Morris lifted up Trump and Trumpism at the cost of members of color fleeing his Southlake congregation, even after The New York Times made Gateway the centerpiece of a lengthy story on  the “Quiet Exodus” of African-Americans leaving predominantly white evangelical churches in the wake of their white leaders’ and members’ embrace of Trumpism.

SOURCE AND TO READ MORE: https://julieroys.com/robert-morris-scandal-when-megachurch-giants-fall/