Gateway Church, Robert Morris move multimillion dollar retirement pay dispute to arbitration

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Correction appended

After a year of fighting in public court, Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, and its founder, Robert Morris, have moved a dispute over a multimillion-dollar retirement package he alleges is owed to him and his wife, Debbie, to private arbitration.

"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.  Thus, the state court proceeding was dismissed," Morris' attorney Bill Mateja told The Christian Post in a statement Tuesday.

The dismissal of the lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in Tarrant County, comes less than two months after Morris was released from the Osage County Jail in Oklahoma following the completion of a six-month sentence for sexually abusing Cindy Clemishire over multiple years beginning when she was 12 in the 1980s.

Morris resigned as Gateway Church's senior pastor in the wake of Clemishire's child sexual abuse allegations in June 2024.  In May 2025, he filed the lawsuit and arbitration demand when the megachurch refused his financial demands.

Gateway Church did not respond to a request for comment from CP.

Speaking through his attorney last summer, Morris had indicated that he wanted to settle the dispute through Christian arbitration per the terms of his former employment agreement with Gateway Church.

A copy of his former employment contract, filed in court by Gateway Church, stipulates that legally binding arbitration should be done through the California-based Institute for Christian Conciliation.

Gateway Church’s lawyers argued that the church did not have to resolve the dispute through the institute because it has new owners. Morris’ attorneys disagreed.

Morris’ lawyers argued that while the organization’s parent ministry might have changed, its rules for resolving disputes in a Christian, reconciliation-focused way remain essentially the same.

They allege in court files that Gateway Church orally promised Morris, 64, $800,000 per year in retirement pay until he turned 70. After that, he would be paid $600,000 annually until his death. If he were to die before his wife, Debbie, those payments would be made to her until she, too, passed.

Gateway Church said in a previous court filing that Morris was also arguing that he is owed just over $1 million in accrued retirement benefits. Morris’ attorneys allege that Gateway Church was required to pay Morris within 60 days of his termination if the termination was without fraud or cause.

Morris has alleged that he was forced out of his position as senior pastor at Gateway Church after the child sex abuse allegations were made public in June 2024. He said Gateway Church elders told him if he did not resign, he would be fired.

Correction: This article, originally published on May 12, 2026, titled "Gateway Church, Robert Morris settle dispute over retirement package," reported that a settlement had been finalized. The article was updated on May 13, 2026, after lawyers for Robert Morris told CP in an emailed statement that the legal dispute between the former pastor and Gateways has not been settled but has instead been dismissed from state court and moved to arbitration.