It was a summer of upheaval in several North Texas churches, as several pastors have either resigned or been fired. Some were prominent figures on the national stage, and a number have cited an undisclosed “moral failure” as the reason they left their positions.
Here’s what to know.
June 9: Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church
On June 9, Tony Evans, a founding pastor of Dallas’ Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church, told his church that he was stepping down from leading the church due to what he described as a sin in his past.
“The foundation of our ministry has always been our commitment to the Word of God as the absolute supreme standard of truth to which we are to conform our lives,” Evans wrote in a statement published to the church’s website. “A number of years ago, I fell short of that standard. I am, therefore, required to apply the same biblical standard of repentance and restoration to myself that I have applied to others.”
A representative of the church declined a request for further comment from The Dallas Morning News.
June 14: Gateway Church in Southlake
On June 14, a 54-year-old Oklahoma woman accused the founder of Gateway Church, a major Southlake megachurch, of abusing her for four and a half years, starting when she was 12.
Cindy Clemishire accused Robert Morris of molesting her in a blog post by the Christian watchdog website The Wartburg Watch. Four days later, Morris resigned.
A day after Clemishire shared her story publicly, Gateway elders reportedly shared a statement with staff that was obtained and posted to X by the blogger Amy Smith.
“Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago when he was in his twenties and prior to him starting Gateway Church,” the statement began.
The statement also included a quote from Morris, which read in part: “When I was in my early twenties, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying. It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong.”
Morris then said he returned to ministry with the blessing of Clemishire’s father, which Clemishire has denied. Morris has not responded to repeated phone calls from The News seeking comment.
Morris founded Gateway in 2000 and expanded the church to nine campuses across the Dallas-Fort Worth area. As of 2022, Gateway was the third-largest church in Texas, with an average weekly attendance of 20,500. It was ranked as the ninth-largest church in the country, and one of the fastest growing, by the Christian magazine Outreach in 2023.
June 19: Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury
On June 19, a youth pastor at Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a child.
Luke Cunningham was the church’s student minister, and is facing two counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of aggravated assault.
In a statement to its members, Lakeside said it received information June 2 from outside the church that Cunningham was accused of inappropriate conduct with a minor at another church.
Lakeside said it immediately launched an investigation and suspended Cunningham. Within days, the statement said, the church determined evidence warranted firing the pastor, and it reported its findings to authorities.
The church’s statement also added that it would reevaluate and adopt more rigorous processes to identify predators. It urged the Southern Baptist Convention, to which it belongs, to take a more aggressive stance against sexual abuse, including adopting a sex offender database.
“We believe that, if the Southern Baptist Convention had a working database for offenders, we would likely have never been exposed to Mr. Cunningham,” the church said. “We plan to do everything possible to encourage national leaders to exercise their spiritual responsibility, identify perpetrators in the churches, and stop this from happening again.”
July 9: Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco
On July 9, a megachurch in Frisco told congregants they had removed a longtime pastor due to a “moral failure,” according to an email they sent that day obtained by The News.
Tony Cammarota, a former associate pastor at Stonebriar Community Church, “confessed to church leadership of a moral failure” on July 7, the church’s email said. “He is deeply remorseful but his sin disqualifies him from serving on our staff as a pastor,” the email said.
Cammarota did not return multiple phone calls requesting comment on the situation. Representatives of the church did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails requesting comment.
Cammarota worked at the church as an associate pastor for over 17 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. More than 3,000 people attend Sunday services at Stonebriar, according to a recent church news release, and around 16,000 watch online.
The church’s email did not describe the nature of the “moral failure” it said led to Cammarota’s removal and urged readers not to speculate about it.
“And please guard against giving the Devil any foothold for more damage to our church through unnecessary speech and speculation,” it read. “This is a sad day and we don’t want the Devil making it worse through any one of us in the days ahead.”
July 28: Cross Timbers Church in Argyle
On July 28, elders at Cross Timbers Church in Argyle announced during a Sunday service that their senior pastor Josiah Anthony had resigned. At that time, the church said he was leaving due to “inappropriate and hurtful” behavior.
According to his LinkedIn page, Anthony joined the staff of the Denton County church, which has about 5,000 members, in 2014 and became the church’s senior pastor in 2022. He has not responded to multiple email and phone requests for comment.
On July 29, Byron Copeland, whom the church chose as interim lead pastor, told The News in an interview that Anthony had resigned due to “emotional affairs” with female staff members. On July 30, the church sent The News a statement signed by its leadership team that said the “emotional affairs” happened while Anthony was lead pastor and that the women involved were not reporting directly to him.
In an Aug. 1 email signed by church elders, the church said they had received new information about Anthony and updated that characterization. Anthony had also made “inappropriate comments” in texts and through social media that were sexual in nature, the email said.
“After announcing Josiah’s resignation to our congregation, we then learned about additional inappropriate comments he made in text messages and through social media that were sexual in nature,” the elders wrote. “Because the power dynamic of these interactions were never equal, we do not consider these to be consensual.”
Aug. 21: Gateway Church in Southlake
On Aug. 21, Gateway Church shared that its executive pastor Kemtal Glasgow, who oversaw all of the church’s campuses, was “no longer employed at Gateway.” The church announced Glasgow’s removal in an unlisted video on YouTube.
“We were informed last week of a moral issue which we believe as elders disqualifies him from serving in the role that he had at Gateway,” church elder Tra Willbanks said in the video.
Gateway spokesperson Lawrence Swicegood emailed a statement Thursday in response to a request for comment. “It recently came to light that Kemtal Glasgow had a moral failure so we’ve asked him to step down as a pastor at Gateway and devote time to his marriage and family,” according to the statement. Swicegood added that Glasgow’s departure was unrelated to Morris’ resignation.
Sept. 18: Lake Country Church in Saginaw
On Sept. 17, a lawyer representing Scott Crenshaw confirmed that he had been removed from his position as senior pastor of Lake Country Church in Saginaw.
Crenshaw served as interim pastor at the church starting in 2018, according to its website, and became senior pastor in 2020.
“He has been discharged because of extreme false rumors and false information that was given to the elders of this church, who did not engage in any investigation at all,” Crenshaw’s lawyer, Mark Lane, said in an interview on Sept. 17.
Lake Country Church declined to comment on Sept. 18, and the pastor’s lawyer declined to elaborate on the allegations against him.
Lane said he plans to send the church a letter demanding they pay damages to Crenshaw and publicly apologize to him.
“This is not like the other recent firings in the metroplex of pastors. This is absolutely, unequivocally, without any basis in fact, these allegations against Mr. Crenshaw,” Lane said.
Sept. 19: Trinity Bible Church in Dallas
On Sept. 19, Trinity Bible Church in Dallas announced it was removing its lead pastor due to an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman in a statement posted to its website.
The church did not elaborate on the nature of that relationship, and declined to comment on Sept. 20. Lawson did not immediately respond to email and phone inquiries seeking comment.
According to the church’s statement, Lawson came forward about his relationship by telling the church’s elders, and the church will no longer be paying him. The church also emphasized that “we are ALL sinners.”
Lawson, 73, became the teaching pastor at Trinity Bible Church in 2018, the same year the church was founded. Before that, he spent over 40 years as a pastor at churches in Arkansas and Alabama. He has been an influential advocate for Reformed theology, which adheres to Calvinist doctrines about God’s sovereignty and the inerrancy of the Bible.
Adrian Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for The Dallas Morning News through a partnership with Report for America. Staff writers Erin Booke, José Sánchez Córdova, Sarah Bahari, Chase Rogers and Kajsa Kedefors contributed to this report.
