Gateway Church in Southlake will soon make staff cuts as the megachurch sees significant reductions in donations — or tithes, a church elder announced this week.
Kenneth Fambro, one of the three remaining elders at Gateway Church, said Wednesday tithes are down between 35% and 40%.
Departments affected by the cuts will receive severance packages of one month for every year of service up to four months. The church is trying to approach staff cuts differently, Fambro said, because similar cuts were “not handled well in the past.”
“We really are trying to look at leadership differently and express leadership differently in doing so,” Fambro said in a video posted to social media. “My heart goes out to everyone whose processing this right now.”
It comes as Gateway deals with a class-action lawsuit from church members claiming financial fraud. Former lead pastor Robert Morris said 15%, or around $15 million of its $100 million annual church revenue, would go to global ministries.
However, a church member and public accountant for Gateway alleged only $3 million of annual revenue was given to global missions and ministries.
The suit demanded the church refund donations previously mishandled.
Head elder Tra Willbanks addressed concerns over the suit earlier this month during a church service, claiming Gateway has audited its records since 2005. Willbanks also said the church hired the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a new agency to investigate its financial ethics.
At that same service, Willbanks told congregants about its findings in the four-month internal investigation into Morris’ alleged sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s.
A law firm’s report found multiple church elders and staff knew about the alleged abuse for years and failed to look further into it.
It’s unclear how many people knew about the alleged abuse, but four church elders have been removed from the church’s website since October.
Gateway Church declined to comment to KERA News Thursday.
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