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Gateway Church

Gateway Church Promises Financial Transparency Amid Lawsuit

Last week, a class action lawsuit was filed against the scandaled Gateway Church, alleging financial fraud and breach of contract. The central claim of the lawsuit is that Gateway Church promises that 15% of the giving will go to missions and that as the years went by an unused balance accumulated with irregularities that a CPA attempted to raise questions about to no avail. The money-back guarantee is much of the basis of this lawsuit. Now, Gateway Church has responded.

Tra Willbanks gave the announcement this past Sunday:

Some of you have raised concerns about Gateway’s financials and stewardship. We are grateful for your willingness to express these concerns, and we remain committed to truth and integrity. We welcome anyone to raise specific concerns at any time.

Over the past several months, the elders and campus pastors have tried to respond to the concerns you’ve emailed and called us about. Many of these concerns were general in nature, some were based on rumors from social media, and most have been easily addressed in conversation.

While we’ve been able to answer many of your questions, we acknowledge that yesterday’s news about a lawsuit raises additional questions and concerns. So, I want to share some relevant facts with you:

Gateway has had independently audited financial statements since 2005. The firm that conducts our audits is CapinCrouse, a nationally recognized auditing firm for nonprofit organizations. These audits have consistently shown that our finances are managed in accordance with best practices, and no wrongdoing has ever been revealed through these audits.

Several weeks ago, a former employee brought up several financial-related issues that we felt needed further investigation, even though these allegations date back over 10 years.

Gateway Church is coming across as taken aback by the news and downplays the potentiality by belittling the sources of the suspicion and the length of time that has past.

Hanes and Boone is currently looking into those areas. We take this matter very seriously. To this point, we have not been able to corroborate any of the specific allegations, but the investigation is still ongoing.

Frankly, I was hoping to deliver a more comprehensive report to you later, combining a summary of what Hanes and Boone is doing along with a financial update. However, yesterday’s news has prompted us to come to you earlier than planned.

Like with other concerns that have been raised, we are committed to uncovering the truth. If there is no wrongdoing, we will tell you. If there is wrongdoing, we will tell you—and we will fix it.

Gateway argues that the lawsuit has come out before they could conclude their internal investigation, thus rushing their announcement.

At this point, we are not aware of any financial wrongdoing. We want you to know that we, your elders and church staff, fully understand and embrace the sacred and biblical duty we have to steward the dollars given to Gateway.

You may be wondering what actions we are taking. One of the most common concerns raised has been a desire for greater transparency around finances, and we have been working on a plan for that. We are in the process of joining an organization called ECFA, which stands for the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Gateway Church intends to join the EFCA, which sounds more meaningful than it actually is. Gateway Church promises an investigation vowing to take action if any of the allegations are true.

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