Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, officially installed Daniel Floyd as its new senior pastor around three months after elders selected him to replace the church’s embattled founder, Robert Morris, who resigned last year after child sex abuse allegations emerged.
“It’s a significant day. It’s a day where we turn the page and we begin to write a new story. But it’s also not the day that we erase previous chapters,” Floyd told about 4,000 people gathered for the event at the megachurch’s main campus on Saturday, according to the Fort Worth Report.
“I just want you to know that your prayers aren’t wasted.”
Floyd and his wife, Tammie, founded Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 2005.
Morris, who founded Gateway in 2000, is currently facing multiple counts of child sex abuse in Osage County, Oklahoma. The charges stem from allegations made by the now 55-year-old Cindy Clemishire last June that he sexually abused her over multiple years in the 1980s when he was a traveling evangelist, beginning when she was 12.
In March, Nic Lesmeister, Gateway Church’s executive pastor of global outreach, reiterated in an address that Morris no longer has any formal ties to the church.
“Last November, our elders made it clear that we had drawn a bright line as a church, and we were moving forward,” he said.
“And because we’re moving forward, and Gateway is no longer involved in this legal matter, we won’t be continuing to update you on the proceedings of the case, but we’re continuing to pray for everybody that’s involved and affected in this matter.”
While Gateway Church officials work to distance the congregation from Morris, it continues to reel from the fallout of his scandal. In June, church officials announced a decision to cut staff due to “a significant drop” in tithes and general giving.
“Over the last year, tithing has not mirrored attendance, given the ongoing issues related to the church’s former pastor and that has led to a significant drop in giving levels,” Gateway Church elders said in an email to members shared on social media. “These are the difficult but practical realities of the season we’ve been in, and we will continue to walk through it with humility, prayer, and our commitment to intentionally healing as a church family.”
Gateway also faces a class-action lawsuit. Members allege that leaders misappropriated funds from the ministry, which reportedly generated in excess of $100 million in revenue annually in its heyday.
In response to the lawsuit, Gateway Church leaders said they would join the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an accreditation organization for many leading Christian nonprofits, and would undergo a forensic audit.
Clemishire has also filed a defamation lawsuit against Gateway Church and Morris, seeking more than $1 million.
Plaintiffs Clemishire and her father, Jerry Lee Clemishire, allege that Morris and Gateway Church leaders mischaracterized the abuse she suffered as a consensual “relationship” with a “young lady” instead of the sexual assault of a child.
Floyd’s message on Saturday about turning the page appeared to move some attendees, like 57-year-old Debra Narvarte, who told FWR that she has been worshiping at Gateway’s Saturday services well before Morris resigned.
“I was disappointed in the whole situation, but I know God is good,” she said. “I know God can take anything and make good out of it. And I knew that was going to happen.”
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