Gateway Church in Southlake will soon be cutting staff as the megachurch sees significant declines in donations or tithes. a church elder announced this week.

Kenneth Fambro, one of three remaining elders at Gateway Church, said taxes were down 35% to 40% Wednesday.

Departments affected by the cuts will receive severance packages of one month for each year of service, up to four months. Fambro said the church is trying to approach staff cuts differently because similar cuts “have not been handled well in the past.”

“We’re really trying to look at leadership differently and, in doing so, express leadership differently.” Fambro said in a video posted on social media:. “My heart goes out to everyone processing this right now.”

It sounds like this Gateway deals with class-action lawsuit from church members who alleged financial fraud. Former lead pastor Robert Morris said 15% of the $100 million annual church revenue, or about $15 million, would go to global ministries.

But a church member and financial advisor for Gateway claimed that only $3 million of annual revenue is given to global missions and ministries.

The lawsuit sought the return of the church’s previously misdirected donations.

Lead pastor Tra Willbanks expressed concerns about the case during a church service last month, claiming Gateway had been auditing its records since 2005. Willbanks also said the church has hired a new agency, the Evangelical Financial Responsibility Council, to investigate its financial ethics.

At the same service, Willbanks told the congregation his findings from a four-month internal investigation into allegations that Morris sexually abused a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s.

A law firm report found that numerous church elders and staff members knew about the alleged abuse for years and failed to investigate the matter further.

It’s unclear how many people knew about the alleged abuse, but four church elders have been removed from the church’s website since October.

Gateway Church declined to comment to KERA News on Thursday.

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