Gateway Church Executive Pastor Kemtal Glasgow fired for ‘moral issue’ elders won’t disclose
Kemtal Glasgow, Gateway Church’s executive pastor who provided leadership and oversight to all of the megachurch’s campuses and gathering locations, has been fired due to a “moral issue,” the Southlake, Texas-based church announced Wednesday.
Tra Willbanks, a longtime Gateway Church elder, made the announcement in a video posted on YouTube.
“As of Monday this week, Kemtal Glasgow is no longer employed at Gateway. We were informed last week of a moral issue which we believe, as elders, disqualifies him from serving in the role that he had at Gateway,” Willbanks said.
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“We love his family. We love his wife and his kids, and we want to come alongside them during this difficult time and help them find restoration and healing that they need as a family,” he added. “We would ask that you, as a church, would pray for them as well.”
Adana Wilson, the campus pastor of Gateway Church Frisco, will take over Glasgow’s role, Willbanks said.
When asked to clarify Glasgow’s “moral issue,” Lawrence Swicegood, Gateway Church’s executive director, was quick to point out that it has “nothing to do with the departure of Robert Morris nor related to those circumstances.”
“At Gateway, it’s our deepest desire for every staff member to lead a life of integrity, both in their personal and professional lives. It recently came to light that Kemtal Glasgow had a moral failure, so we’ve asked him to step down as a pastor at Gateway and devote time to his marriage and family,” Swicegood told The Christian Post on Thursday.
“Although his employment is ending, we are devoted to still caring for Kemtal and his family. To be clear, this decision regarding Kemtal had nothing to with the departure of Robert Morris nor related to those circumstances,” he added. “We are praying for God’s grace and love to be with Kemtal and his family during this time.”
Morris who is the founder of Gateway Church, resigned as the church’s senior pastor on June 18, after 54-year-old Cindy Clemishire reported that the megachurch pastor began sexually abusing her on Dec. 25, 1982, when she was just 12, and continued with the abuse for four-and-a-half years after that.
Since Morris’ resignation, Gateway Church has undertaken an independent investigation into the allegations made against him and several key leaders of the church have followed him out the door.
These include founding elder Steve Dulin, who is alleged to have been fired due to financial abuse and bullying. Morris’ son, James Morris, who had taken the reigns of the megachurch after his father’s resignation, also stepped down last month after spending just weeks in the role. Both James Morris and his wife, Bridgette, left the church.
Gateway elders said they sought the "advice of many well-respected pastors and ministry leaders" about the decision to cut ties with the Morrises, while noting they are confident they will serve as senior leaders of a church in the future.
"We as elders affirm and believe that God has placed a desire in both Pastors James and Bridgette's hearts to serve as senior pastors of a church at some point in the future," the elders said in their statement. "We love Pastors James and Bridgette and their children. We deeply care about them and sincerely thank them for investing their lives here at Gateway Church. They have faithfully and honorably served our congregation and this community through all the years that they have been part of Gateway Church."
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