A Texas megachurch that has been losing members and facing mass layoffs amid allegations that its pastor sexually abused a young girl for years, announced it would be cutting services.
Gateway Church, which once regularly drew over 100,000 worshippers, says it will be cutting Saturday services at nearly all of its locations, excluding its main Southlake campus.
"As we continue to strengthen our relationship with the Gateway Church family and community, we’re making a shift at several of our DFW campuses by hosting our church services on Sundays only," a church spokesperson told WFAA.
"This adjustment will allow us to minister to and love our congregation well while prioritizing the needs of our individual campus communities. Throughout all our locations, our commitment to loving God and loving people remains unchanged."
The church, one of the largest American megachurches, has previously acknowledged decreased attendance and financial issues, which it said last month would soon amount to mass layoffs of staff. The church did not specify how many people would lose their jobs.
Turmoil at the church comes after a grand jury indicted its pastor, Robert Morris, in March on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child.
Morris, who founded Gateway Church 25 years ago, is currently out on bond while awaiting trial.
The pastor has pleaded not guilty but stepped down from his role at the church in June 2024. Morris’ alleged abuse began in 1982 when his accuser, Cindy Clemishire, was 12 years old and Morris was a traveling evangelist staying with her family in Hominy, Oklahoma.
Clemishire alleges that the abuse spanned years. She filed a lawsuit last month against Morris, seeking at least $1 million for slander, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress in the years following his abuse.
Morris has acknowledged he had been “sexually immoral” when he was younger, but in the past year has continued to claim his alleged abuse of Clemishire was an “extramarital affair.”
The former pastor, who served on President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory board in 2016 during his first presidential campaign, has filed a lawsuit against Gateway for over $1 million in deferred compensation and intellectual rights to his books, sermons and social media.
