Hundreds of Gateway Church employees gathered in a Southlake, Texas, auditorium on Tuesday to learn the fate of senior pastor Robert Morris, four days after learning of decades-old child sexual abuse allegations against him.
As they took their seats, some officials looked solemn; others appeared angry. One attendee pulled out her cell phone and secretly recorded the meeting. She later provided the audio to NBC News and described the meeting in an interview. A second person who was present confirmed her account and the authenticity of the recording.
Kenneth W. Fambro II, a real estate executive with the Gateway Presbyterian congregation, fought back tears as he delivered the news his employees wanted to hear: Morris, one of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders, was stepping down from the church he founded 24 years ago.
“This has been one of the most difficult decisions of my life,” Fambro said of accepting Morris’ resignation.
The recording of Pastor Fambro’s remarks reveals deep feelings of conflict as church leaders try to come to terms with the fact that their founding pastor, who built Gateway Church into one of the largest megachurches in the United States and served on former President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory council, has confessed to engaging in “inappropriate sexual conduct” with a child.
Fambro acknowledged earlier Tuesday that he and other church officials have long known about Morris’s admissions to sexual misconduct as a young man, a story that Morris has told so many times over the years from the pulpit and in one-on-one meetings that “it becomes kind of numb,” Fambro said, according to the recordings.
“Pastor Robert has done an outstanding job of speaking openly and transparently about his sins, his past and his moral failings,” Fambro said, speaking on behalf of the church’s governing board of elders.
“What we didn’t know was that she was 12 years old.”
Cindy Cremischer, who accused Morris of sexually abusing her as a child, disputed the notion that Morris had been transparent, saying in a statement to NBC News that she was troubled by Gateway elders fighting over whether to remove Morris from leadership.
“Is it so hard to accept the resignation of a man who repeatedly sexually abused a young girl for nearly five years and then lied about it,” Klemischer said after reviewing a transcript of the recording provided to NBC News. “Why wasn’t he fired?”
Klemischer and her lawyer, Boz Tchividjian, argue that the Gateway elders should have investigated Morris’ claims long ago, because she told Morris and church officials about her accusations in 2005 and 2007. (Fambro began attending the church in 2006 and became an elder in 2014, according to the Gateway website.)
Morris has not been charged with a crime and did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The allegations were made public in a story posted Friday by The Wartburg Watch, a website dedicated to exposing abuse in the church. In the story and a subsequent interview with NBC News, Klemischer, 54, described how Morris sexually abused her for several years, beginning on Christmas night in 1982, when she was 12 years old.
Initially, Morris and Gateway elders said in statements Friday and Saturday that Morris acknowledged having several sexual encounters with “younger women” when he was in his 20s and that he had confessed his sins and repented.
“Since this 35-year-old issue was resolved, no moral failures have occurred,” Elders said in a message to employees on Friday.
But some Gateway Church members and staff saw the statement itself as a moral failing: Why would church leaders use euphemisms to describe allegations of sexual abuse against a 12-year-old girl?
Fambro did not address that question in his remarks Tuesday, and he and other church elders did not respond to messages seeking comment. A Gateway spokesman also did not respond.
The person who recorded Tuesday’s staff meeting said she shared it with a reporter because she believed the Presbyterian Board was “gaslighting” staff members for initially defending Morris and that they needed to be replaced. NBC News is not publishing the woman’s name because she fears retaliation.
At the meeting, Fambro defended the presbytery, which has faced criticism from members who feel leaders have taken too long to respond to the crisis.
The pastor said leaders deliberated in multiple, hours-long meetings on Monday and Tuesday and were following guidance they had received for years from the now-former senior pastor.
“If you’ve been here a long time, you’ve heard Pastor Robert say, ‘You have to hear God’s voice before you move,'” Fambro said.
Fambro also told employees that he and other elders have “deep sympathy” for Klemischer and do not condone what happened to her.
“You’re not going to hear us try to explain it,” Fambro said.
But, he added, that doesn’t mean “we don’t love Pastor Robert or defend him.”
Fambro then spoke at length about the profound impact Morris has had on his life and the lives of tens of thousands of church members. He encouraged the audience not to let the child sexual abuse revelations cause them to lose sight of the good God has done and continues to do through Gateway and Morris.
“Yes, there is a consecration in this house. Yes, there is a consecration in Pastor Robert,” Fambro said. “But both? Something has been done. Both can exist.”
Pastor Fambro asked staff to pray for Pastor Morris’ family, including Pastor Morris’ son, the Rev. James Morris, who is the associate senior pastor and will succeed his father when he retires next year.
Robert Morris still supports Gateway, which is why he’s stepping down, Fambro said.
“Pastor Robert wants Gateway Church to thrive in the body of Christ,” Fambro said. “Pastor Robert wanted to step down and get out of the way.”
Klemischer said he was “disgusted” by the elders’ continued support for Morris.
“How can the church believe that God would sanctify a man who sexually abused children and then hid it for decades afterward? This is repulsive.”
Though the elders had asked attendees not to record Tuesday’s meeting, Fambro apparently felt that what he said might ultimately reach a wider audience: He said he was worried someone might take “some audio, some clips, some text” and distort the meaning.
Finally, before another church leader came forward to explain the counseling services available to employees, Fambro encouraged the audience to focus on what they can do to help their church succeed.
“I can dwell on the past,” he said, “and so can you. Or you can say, ‘Here’s a data point. How can I influence the future?'”
“‘How do we move forward?'” Fambro added.
