Gateway Church, founding pastor Robert Morris agree to arbitration to end multimillion-dollar retirement dispute
Gateway Church and its founding pastor, Robert Morris, have ended their Tarrant County legal fight over a multimillion-dollar retirement package and are moving the proceedings out of court to arbitration, an attorney says.
The document filed Friday in Tarrant County comes less than two months after the former Gateway Church pastor finished a six-month sentence in the Osage County Jail on charges of child sexual abuse.
"The parties have reached agreement on an appropriate arbitration forum to resolve their dispute and will now proceed in that forum and not in state court," said Bill Mateja, an attorney for the Morris family. "Thus the state court proceeding was dismissed."
CBS News Texas reached out to Gateway for a statement but did not hear back.
Oklahoma child abuse case against Morris
The Oklahoma criminal charges against Morris were filed after he was accused of abuse by Cindy Clemishire, a then 12-year-old girl, the pastor had been accused of fondling, starting in the 1980s.
In the Tarrant County filing, both sides agreed to dismiss the proceedings without prejudice and to each cover the expenses that were incurred.
Morris filed a suit in May 2025 demanding millions of dollars in payments and retirement benefits after his resignation from the church in 2024.
Gateway Church retirement dispute
In court documents, Morris' attorneys argued he was owed more than $1 million in his retirement account and that church elders had verbally promised him a retirement benefit of $800,000 per year until he turns 70 and $600,000 per year for as long as he or his wife lives.
For its part, the church pushed back on the demand in a May 2025 court filing, saying "amid the chaos … his conduct had unleashed on Gateway and his community, Morris was laser-focused on securing his financial future."
Legal challenges continue for Morris and Gateway Church
The church and Morris remain involved in three other legal cases.
Clemishire, along with her father, filed a $1 million defamation suit in Dallas County against Morris, his wife, Debbie, the church, its current and former elders and a church staff member. That case is currently under review at the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas.
In federal court, the church is facing a lawsuit from its insurance company and a class-action suit by former members that accused the church of misusing millions in donations. The church has denied the allegations.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that the legal dispute between Gateway Church and Robert Morris was not fully settled, but instead dismissed from state court and moved to arbitration, according to an attorney for the Morris family.
