Gateway Church announced Saturday that a law firm it hired to conduct an internal investigation into founder Robert Morris’ alleged sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl he had finished his report.

In response to the findings of the Haynes Boone report, the church said Saturday it was making significant changes, including removing several of its top leaders and updating its governance structure.

The Dallas Morning News tried to contact Morris at several phone numbers and sent letters to four addresses listed for him in public records, but received no response.

Here’s what we know so far about the law firm’s report and how Gateway Church is responding.

Gateway removes 4 elders, says they had information about Morris’ abuse allegations

During the service, church elder Tra Willbanks said that all but three church elders before Saturday either knew that former senior pastor Robert Morris had sex with a 12-year-old child or had some information about the situation and “failed to ask more. “

“We decided to draw a very bright line here based on biblical and moral values ​​and the values ​​of our church family, and we can report to you that, to this day, no person from either group serves as an elder, is employed, or works at the Church Gateway,” Willbanks said to applause from the crowd at the megachurch’s Southlake campus.

Haynes Boone submitted a report to a subcommittee of elders, including Willbanks, Kenneth Fambro and Dane Minor, Willbanks said.

Elders Thomas Miller, Gayland Lawshe, Kevin Grove and Jeremy Carrasco were not listed on the Gateway Elders page on the church website as of Saturday afternoon.

Gateway is cooperating with a criminal investigation

Willbanks said the church is cooperating with a criminal investigation. “I can share that neither the church nor its current leadership is the subject of this criminal investigation,” he said.

The church did not say which law enforcement agency is handling the investigation.

Gateway is reviewing its governance structure

The church will review its bylaws and governance structure, Willbanks said. In the past, the church was controlled by a group of elders made up of both those on the church staff in other roles and those full-time elsewhere. Going forward, all voting members of Gateway’s board will be non-staff members, Willbanks said.

“We need to bring that level of independence and objectivity to elders, and that’s been lacking in years past,” he said.

Willbanks said the staff will no longer serve as elders, except for the church’s future senior pastor and possibly an executive pastor. Willbanks said both positions would be non-voting elders.

“The truth is that the events of the past several months have demonstrated that there has been a massive failure of governance and accountability here at Gateway Church,” Willbanks said near the end of his remarks. “It was a failure of the culture and we have to be honest with ourselves and admit that our culture has allowed this truth to be buried for too long.”

Gateway condemns founder Robert Morris

During his Saturday service, Willbanks condemned Morris in the strongest words the church has yet used.

He said Gateway’s culture became centered around Morris, which allowed the truth to be hidden for years.

“When a church becomes centered around one pastor, it loses its way,” Willbanks said. “Unfortunately, over the past few months, we’ve realized that at some point in the past, the culture at Gateway became one where power was centralized and the leader at the top was surrounded by people who wanted to protect it , some of them at any cost.”

Willbanks said that on the day Cindy Clemishire came forward with allegations that Morris abused her in the 1980s, Morris ordered church staff to issue a statement intending to minimize his claims.

He said the elders were able to independently verify elements of Clemishire’s story and asked to meet with Morris. but Morris resigned without meeting the elders.

“To date, there have been six people who have refused to meet in person with Haynes and Boone, including Robert Morris,” Willbanks said.

Morris founded Gateway Church in 2000. Over the course of nearly 25 years, the Southlake megachurch has grown to 100,000 members and nine D-FW campuses, according to the church.

Morris was an adviser to former President Donald Trump, wrote the influential book Blessed Life and hosted a TV program that aired in more than 190 countries, according to an archived version of Morris’ website.