Daniel Floyd took the reins Sunday at scandal-scarred Gateway Church, the multicampus congregation whose founder, Robert Morris, faces a criminal child sexual abuse trial next month.
Floyd pledged a “new chapter” for Gateway, which reportedly lost members and tithe dollars after details of Morris’s alleged crimes became public.
Morris is accused of the rape and sexual abuse of a then-12-year-old girl, Cindy Clemishire, in 1982. In March, Morris was indicted on five counts of lewd or indecent attacks on a child by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. The church founder resigned from Gateway shortly after Clemishire’s allegations became public.
In June, Clemishire and her father Jerry Lee Clemishire, sued Morris, his wife Deborah, Gateway Church, and more than a dozen current former Gateway elders and communications staff as defendants. They allege Gateway covered up Morris’s attack on Cindy Clemishire, even though leaders knew the victim was a child.
The Clemishires are asking for more than $1 million in damages and requested a jury trial.
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At the Sunday worship service, Floyd sought to distance Gateway, one of the nation’s largest megachurches, from Morris, whom he did not name.
“Today, we turn the page on a new chapter of Gateway Church,” Floyd said. “And it’s not that we’re erasing other chapters because God has been working already at Gateway Church for 25 years. I want you to understand, I don’t think that God showed up because the Floyds showed up. God’s been at work for a really long time, and the story of Gateway Church is your story.”
He added, “Just because we turned the page and we begin a new chapter in the story of this church, I don’t want you to think by any means that it means we erase the other chapters, because they’re the story of God’s faithfulness. They’re the stories of God’s goodness and of the hand of God on this church.”
Southlake, Texas-based Gateway held a celebratory service filled with video messages from Christian musicians including Steven Curtis Chapman, CeCe Winans, and Phil Wickham.
Floyd, previously lead pastor at Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, was introduced by church elders, who described a months-long search guided by prayer and discernment.
Tra Willbanks, a Gateway elder, recounted initial conversations with Floyd in January, noting an “immediate connection” and a unanimous decision in April to appoint him.
“It became evident that God had already been at work in Daniel’s and Tammy’s lives,” Willbanks said, referring to Floyd and his wife. He praised Floyd’s “deep character and integrity” and humility, qualities deemed essential for the church’s next season.
Floyd, in his first sermon titled “Our Commitment to You,” did not directly name Morris or the scandals but acknowledged the moment’s gravity. “I understand the weight of this moment and the sacredness of this moment,” he said. He framed his arrival as part of God’s ongoing story at the 25-year-old church, stressing continuity amid change.
Outlining his agenda, Floyd drew from 1 Peter 5 to make four commitments: to love, protect, grow, and lead the congregation.
He said, “My responsibility is to love you and to love you. Well, we see this in the heart of the apostle Paul in First Thessalonians chapter two. . . . So, we’re called to love you, and we’re gonna do our very best—I promise you—to love you well.”
For protection, Floyd vowed to guard against “unsound doctrine” and disunity: “I commit to you that if someone is standing on this platform, they will preach, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ not ‘Thus saith them,’ not ‘Thus saith’ culture.’ . . . We’re not going to follow the trends of the day. If God says it, but everybody else is saying something different, let God be truth, and everybody else be a liar.”
On growth, he promised, “(M)y commitment to you is to not let you stay where you are. . . . My job is to help you grow to become more like Jesus to grow closer to Jesus. That means some Sundays you’re going to want to clap and Amen, and some Sundays you’re going to say, ‘Oh no, ouch.’”
Leadership formed the core of his vision, Floyd said, rejecting complacency: “We didn’t uproot our family and move here to maintain the status quo. We didn’t come to maintain we came to multiply… We came to push back on darkness. We came to advance the Kingdom of God. There’s some territory Gateway Church that we need to regain, and there’s some new territory that we need to take for the kingdom of God.”
Floyd added, “We didn’t come to play it safe. We didn’t come to be risk adverse. We came to take big steps of faith. We came to reach the lost. . . . We came to shame the devil and put hell on notice that every tear you cried is not wasted, and every prayer you prayed is not wasted, that all the fire you walk through is not wasted, that God is going to turn days of sorrow into days of joy, and the best days of this church are out in front of us.”
He asked congregants for two commitments: “Will you commit to love us?” he said. “And will you commit to come on the journey, to take a step at a time, because it’s not hyped to me… I really believe that God is doing something very special among us, and we haven’t seen anything yet.”
Gateway’s video of the one hour and 49 minute service is online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iqIa1Ry4o4.
Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the New York Post and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for The Washington Times. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.
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9 Responses
I am praying for him and those at Gateway.
Given the past, Gateway would do well to strongly embrace transparency, release all former employees from their NDAs and put safeguards in place to prevent the coverup of abuse or misconduct. Bob Leland #NDAfree
And the grifters keep coming in Jesus name to take your money and leave you with less than nothing. An institution built by a child molester remains an institution, not built by God, but by a child molester.
It’s hard to find fault with what you are saying, sir.
The Legendary (just ask them) John MacArthur was an accessory and enabler to the horrific pedophile practices of his trusted staffer Paul Guay for years…he helped him get positions in other churches and ridiculed the victims , as noted on this site.
Is Grace CC built by God (See Eileen Gray as well) or a wealthy grifter with numerous homes in the LA area.? Ill wait Ralph….
Thank you for stating this! Unbelief is leading many to man-made churches preaching a man-made Jesus, promising them that if they do xyz according to their instructions then God will bless them. If we believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is, then we will strive to follow the instructions He gives us in the new covenant letters,letting His Word transform us.The new testament is very straightforward and yet due to unbelief we give room to false teachings .
So true I wonder how many more children have suffered at his hands?
It’s sad that members/attendees of this organisation did not take the chance(In form of scandal) given to them to re-examine their beliefs and step out of the false organisation teaching false doctrines .
2 corinthians 11:3-4 ‘I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it very easily.’
Daniel Floyd is an ardent practitioner of Robert Morris’s tithe message. Like all mega church leaders he fits the mold of 1) need for charismatic personality 2)keep messages simple & positive 3) use the extensive library of Arc messages to recycle 4)use what the world uses to attract their audience jumbo screens, loud music, light shows but in the end no Holy Spirit power. When at his church here in Fredericksburg, VA. the salary was closed to the parishioners I was told none of my business to inquire he was not accessible to the laity even had body guards and dropped the names of Morris, Olsteen,and other leaders in ARC to boost his relevance. As Will Rodgers said to find the answer to anything follow the money ,these pastors grow wealthy at the sheep’s expense.