Seven years ago, God spoke a word to me. He said, “A network of pastors will fall.”
As a good Southern Baptist pastor, it is hard to make sense of words like this from the Lord.
No one wants to receive a negative word from the Lord for the future and then sadly watch it play out repeatedly in small and very mega ways locally and globally in the media.
In the time of Nehemiah, he observed something very similar. Nehemiah said about the spiritual leaders of his day in Nehemiah 13:29, “They have defiled the priesthood and the solemn vows of the priests and Levites.”
There are sadly so many cases and stories across the U.S. and around the world that many have grown numb to the next situation and name mentioned in the media. Two of the names that remain in the media are Robert Morris from Gateway Church in Dallas and Bishop T.D. Jakes of the Potter’s House in Dallas. There have sadly been several high-profile pastors and ministry leaders in this area alone that have made the news numerous times over the last few years.
You may be unfamiliar with these two pastors. Pastor Robert Morris is the founder of Gateway Church in Dallas, with a weekly attendance of 26,000. This makes Gateway the 9th largest church in the United States. In June of 2024, Pastor Morris admitted publicly to moral failure with a “young lady.” The Gateway elder board initially accepted his admission without investigation, later learning that the “young lady” was 12 years old. Thankfully the Gateway elder board moved swiftly to dismiss Pastor Morris and declare an internal investigation. It has been documented since then that the church elders learned additional details of allegations, including the alleged victim’s age and length of the supposed abuse. This led to Pastor Morris’s immediate resignation. As a follow up, Cindy Clemishire, the twelve-year-old whom Pastor Morris referred to as a “young lady,” reported the crime in 2005. Cindy sent an email directly to Robert Morris, and she also addressed this email to former Gateway elder, Tom Lane. Based off reports, Tom both received and responded to this email which acknowledged the sexual abuse began when she was 12 years old. So, it appears others besides Morris were aware of this abuse of a minor in 2005.
It is remarkable that a sin of this magnitude would go uncovered and unreported by other leaders for almost 20 years. Recently the current elders of Gateway hosted an information meeting that can be viewed on youtube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmIb-k_8HnM
The two alarming and saddening facts shared by the elders of Gateway is that Robert Morris continues to ask the church for money. Second, there are six former leaders of Gateway who refuse to cooperate with ongoing criminal investigation of the abuse that occurred in 2005 or acknowledge why it wasn’t reported to authorities then. I suspect some of these leaders are no longer at Gateway and have gone on to other churches, as is often the case in these sorts of matters. It is not only a travesty that someone would do and explain away his actions like Robert Morris but also that others who were present then would look the other way.
I, myself, was a part of a similar situation in 2001 where I tried to bring to light a moral failing in Pastor Ted Haggard’s life and ministry.
The prophetic word I received seven years ago about a network of pastors falling was not my first prophetic word regarding fallen pastors. I received a prophetic word repeatedly at 1:23am regarding Pastor Ted Haggard in 2001. A word he privately confirmed was true to me and then later denied to me in front of his elders and wife. I write about the New Life story that occurred in 2001 in the book, “The Mystery of 23: God Speaks”, published six years ago in 2018.
It began in February of 2001 and culminated in a meeting with the elders of New Life Church in October of 2001, led by Senior Pastor Larry Stockstill of then Bethany World Prayer Center. Pastor Stockstill remains today one of the two overseers of New Life Church in Colorado Springs led by Pastor Brady Boyd. Pastor Boyd was the associate senior pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas under Pastor Robert Morris until August 2007.
I think the questions that stand out to me regarding the Gateway investigation is this, “Who are the six who refuse to cooperate and why?” If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.
Then more recently, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Senior Pastor of the 30,000 plus Potter’s House in Dallas, has been in the headlines. First, he was in the headlines because, after the arrest of Sean “Diddy” Combs, images surfaced of Bishop T.D. Jakes at one of Diddy’s “sex” parties. Bishop Jakes dismissed this, saying he had stopped in to visit with Sean “Diddy” Combs because he was a spiritual mentor to him. Since then, “Diddy” has been arraigned on charges of sex trafficking along with a list of other felonies.
This past week Bishop T.D. Jakes was seen on livestream at the Potter’s House preaching and talking about how his wife has his back in ministry. Then he quoted Psalm 19:14 and immediately had what appeared to be a slight stroke of some sort. Later he communicated that the Lord spared him from this stroke. He is now recovering. It appears he will make a full recovery but needs time off to rest and be with his family.
Because I was a part of the inner workings of a fallen leader and an elder board that refused to believe me 23 years ago or publicly acknowledge it to this day, these matters today seem suspect to me now. Sadly, I had to watch the Haggard situation for five years while it unraveled. I was asked not to speak of it publicly, and I honored their request for five years until it came out November 2006. When it came out, there was no mention of our meeting publicly in 2001. There was no mention that someone had brought to them the very things that were now plastered across the World News. There was no mention of the fact that they carried knowledge of the situation for five years. I even drove to a meeting in Denver in 2006 and went on stage to speak to Rev. Larry Stockstill after he spoke. I asked him if he remembered me. He said he did. He then said immediately, “Let me pray for you.” After he prayed, he turned away as if I wasn’t there and began talking to someone else like the conversation never occurred.
I have sadly watched scores of pastors who refuse to own what they have been a part of at other churches. They want the notoriety of being on the “board” of another megachurch, until the windfall of immorality comes crashing down around them and then they have amnesia.
I have been the Senior Pastor of Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs for almost 28 years now and I have watched the “machine” of church. It grieves me deeply and more importantly it grieves the heart of God. The undoing of a network of pastors now is largely due to the sins of omission then. We have pastors who have committed crimes against minors and young adults and sadly, in every situation, we see scores of others who refuse to take responsibility and publicly address what they were aware of years ago. Because of this, we now see a great falling of a network of leaders. We also see a great falling away of people from the church because their trust has been destroyed. It grieves me deeply! And more importantly it grieves the heart of God.
Bishop T.D. Jakes filed a defamation lawsuit against Duane Youngblood who accused Bishop Jakes of sexual assault and harassment from 40 years ago. You can read about the details of this in the Christian post article: https://www.christianpost.com/news/td-jakes-files-defamation-lawsuit-against-duane-youngblood.html
I think the questions that stand out to me about Bishop Jakes are these. First, why file a defamation case the day after a supposed stroke and mention the supposed stroke as one of the facts for filing? Timing seems rather odd and suspect at best. Second, in the court filing it appears Bishop Jakes reputation is more the concern it seems than the desire to protect the integrity of God’s church, which is supposed to be the primarily role of a shepherd.
And my last question is this: Bishop Jakes is Pastor Steven Furtick’s primary mentor and hero. It remains strange to me that during all of this over the last several months, Pastor Furtick has not publicly come to his mentor’s defense in anyway. Why not? I do pray the cycle of publicly identifying with a mega church pastor until they are under scrutiny and accusation is not on repeat, again.
But sadly, the dominoes seem to keep falling!
Time and truth are on the side of integrity!
May the Lord bring the truth in His time.
Blessings,
Pastor Kelly
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