Both Gateway Church and Robert Morris faced a major setback after U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant ruled that a class action lawsuit against them over misappropriated funds can proceed, denying a motion to dismiss.
During court Wednesday, Mzaant offered “Plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to establish their fraud and breach of contract claims began to accrue at their discovery in 2024, when Plaintiffs experienced the lack of transparency or substantiation for Gateway’s use of Plaintiffs’ tithes.”
Not only did Mazzant allow the suit to proceed, but she also granted them the motion to amend their complaint and add more plaintiffs who want in.
The lawsuit was filed by members Katherine Leach, Garry K. Leach, Mark Browder, and Terri Browder against Gateway Church, Morris, and several elders high up in the echelon of church leadership, after voicing concerns with how Gateway handled the allocation of their tithes and the promises that were made about them, which didn’t seem to comport with their own audits. Feeling misled, they opted to take advantage of and make good on Morris’s often lauded ‘Tithe Money Back Guarantee.” Their lawsuits states:
Then-Senior Pastor Robert Morris and Gateway leaders represented that 15% of all tithe dollars would be distributed to global missions and Jewish ministry partners, encouraging church members to generously give toward these ends. On the account of the facts set forth herein, Plaintiffs allege that Gateway Church and its leaders engaged in misrepresentation, fraud and breach to contract in their efforts to induce Plaintiffs and other church members to donate money to Gateway.
…In addition to promising to give 15% to global missions, Robert Morris and Tom Lane promised on multiple occasions that if the congregation is not happy with the use of its money, it can get the money back…”
For example, while speaking at Willow Creek Church on February 20, 2022 about the importance of tithing on the first 10% of one’s income, Morris insisted:
“I don’t want to exaggerate, but I’m sure thousands and thousands of people, and I’m sure it’s multiplied, that have told me some way over the years through email, letters, whatever, ‘this changed my life,’
When I started giving the first 10% to God it changed everything. And here’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to just challenge you. I’ve done this with our church. I’ve told our church on multiple occasions, I’ve said to them, if you’ll try it for one year, if you are not fully satisfied, at the end of that year, I’ll give you your money back. With 22 years in the church, no one’s ever asked for their money back.”
These three tried to collect on that money-back guarantee and Gateway refused, prompting the suit.
4 responses to “Judge Hands Robert Morris, Gateway Church Major Setback”
Matt. 15:3-9, Jesus rebuked the pharisees and scribes for this very thing. We are to first honor God’s commandments and fulfill our responsibilities to Him. Then we tithe.