Two Megachurches Face Financial Shortfalls

Gateway Church and Grace Community Church are facing challenges with their long-time leaders missing.

Two large, well-known churches in the U.S. are facing budget shortfalls and financial cuts. Gateway Church and Grace Community Church have been missing their long-time preachers, with one facing scandal and the other health challenges.

John MacArthur, left / Robert Morris, right

Gateway Church, a megachurch in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, has now warned staff that more layoffs are coming.

According to an email sent to Gateway congregants, tithing income is down significantly.

An evaluation of the church’s finances revealed “it has become clear that restructuring our staffing is necessary, requiring the tough but necessary step of staff reduction,” elders wrote in the email, according to the Fort Worth Report.

The email did not include details about staffing reductions or church finances, but it did associate its challenges with the church’s former pastor, Robert Morris.

Last summer, Gateway’s founding pastor was publicly accused of sexually abusing Cindy Clemishire in the 1980s, starting when she was 12 years old and he was 22.

The layoff process is expected to conclude in mid-July, and affected employees will receive one month of severance and benefits per year of service, up to four months, a church spokesperson told the Fort Worth Report.

Tra Wilbanks, who chairs the church’s board of elders, said, “This was an extremely difficult decision for us to make, and we didn’t come to it quickly or easily and waited as long as we could.”

“This decision was an important step to ensure we are able to minister to our church family well,” he said. “However it affects real people and members of our church family that we’ve loved and served alongside for years, which is what makes it so painful. And we are trying to love our staff well through this painful process.”

In November 2024, a leaked video revealed that Gateway tithing was down by between 35-40%.

“As a result, we really need to go and start looking at the ministry itself and looking into some staff reductions,” elder Kenneth Fambro said in the video meant for church staff.

MinistryWatch’s extensive reporting on Morris and Gateway can be found here.

Grace Community Church Budget Cuts

Grace Community Church, led by John MacArthur, is also facing reduced giving and the need to reduce its budget, according to ChurchLeaders.

“[F]or the first time in more than a decade, we have faced the effects of a financial recession in our giving this past fiscal year. By God’s grace, he has provided for our needs through some large donations to bring us through the last two years,” MacArthur wrote in a note read to the congregation on Sunday (June 15). “But as we look ahead to the coming fiscal year, starting July 1, our elders recognize the need to reduce our budget at the church by about 20%.”

MacArthur, 85, has struggled with health issues over the past year, with a recent lung procedure once again delaying his return to the pulpit.

He had a heart procedure in July 2024 and briefly returned to the pulpit in November. Then in January 2025, he was again hospitalized for residual symptoms from the July procedure.

In April, MacArthur declared his eagerness to return to preaching. “I feel great,” he said. “I’m ready to come roaring back into the public and pick up my ministry again.”

However, because of another lung procedure in May, MacArthur will be away recovering for at least another few months.

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