While the youth group kids in his church have to pay for their youth meeting refreshments, Robert Morris and Gateway Church co-sponsored one of the glitzy inaugural balls to celebrate the victory of Donald Trump. In a pre-recorded message played to his congregation inauguration weekend, Morris sounded a non-partisan tone. However, as we now know, the church co-sponsored an inaugural ball where Morris declared Donald Trump the “right guy” for president because the church came together in unity. Watch the message to Gateway Church:
Tag: Robert Morris
Gateway Church Pastor Robert Morris Dines in Style While Youth Group Kids Pay for Pizza
Recall that Gateway Church founding pastor Robert Morris told his congregation two weeks ago that God wanted him to break the annual churchwide fast in order to eat the food served at Donald Trump’s inauguration. According to video served up by the Family Research Council, Morris did more than attend the festivities, he helped sponsor them. Gateway Church was one of nine sponsors of the Faith, Freedom and Future inaugural ball hosted by FRC’s Tony Perkins (Gateway Church, the only church involved, is circled in red below) in celebration of Donald Trump’s victory.
Tony Perkins gave a shout-out to each sponsor.
I don’t know what it cost to sponsor the formal affair but, in my opinion, that money could have gone to a more important purpose.
Pizza.
Like most youth groups, Gateway Church serves food during youth meetings. For adolescents, food is a draw since they always seem to be hungry. At the same time, many such groups attract teens who might not eat well at home. At one time, like most churches I know, Gateway Church served food at no cost to the youth group attenders. Now, to help “steward” church funds, teens have to pay $2 for their pizza. Since teens have to pay, this means some kids can’t eat because they really can’t afford it. Thus, Gateway Church is actually soliciting church members for donations to help buy pizza for needy youth group kids. This news comes from one of Gateway’s youth pastors:
In this season, 60% of students showing up on Wednesday nights at Gateway NRH come from families who do not attend Gateway or another church. We’re reaching our community!
We’ve served pizza on these evenings for many years, not for hype, but to be helpful. To ensure we steward our budget well as we grow, we’ve started charging $2 per plate (two slices of pizza, desert and a bottle of water).
$2 a week seems small to most of us, but it is not possible for some families. I’m okay with giving “free” pizza to those in need, but there’s little lasting value in a freebee.
A student hearing, “Somebody at Gateway cared enough to buy this FOR YOU” is way more meaningful than, “Just take this; it’s free tonight.”
If you would like to purchase one or more pizza tickets for us to bless students with, email us at studentsNRH@gatewaypeople and we’ll send you instructions for either a cash or card purchase.
I know one way Gateway could “steward” the budget better.
It seems to me that pizza for needy kids should be easy for a church that can afford to co-sponsor a presidential gala. Tickets sold for $450/person and rooms at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill (where the ball was held) were $1000/night with a four night minimum. This was no pizza party.
According to the youth pastor, a donation to the pizza fund shows caring for those needy students. What does it show that Gateway’s leaders lavishly spend tithes and offerings to celebrate a Trump victory but can’t spring for pizza?
C’mon Gateway, your donors have already given their tithes and offerings. Can’t the kids have some pizza on the House of God?
Gateway Church Pastor Robert Morris Gets a Break in the Fast to Eat Inauguration Food
At the first of each year, Gateway Church leaders ask members to fast for 21 days. The December issue of Gateway Life magazine describes the event:
This year, God has given Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris a break from the fast. Because of the inauguration and the Super Bowl, Morris will do something different. Watch:
Transcript:
But even if you’re not able to attend the conference, the thing that I love about the first of the year at Gateway is that we come together. Whether it’s through the fast, or the devotional, or through the conference. But we come together and we recommit ourselves to the Lord. So I wanna tell you thank you so much for, for that. And just encourage you to fast some way. Just so you know, I’m gonna go a little longer than 21 days than what the Lord has told me.
And someone asked me about this awhile back because, I’m going to the inauguration in a few weeks and then there’s the Super Bowl in February. And I have a reprieve for the Inauguration and for the Super Bowl. From headquarters. So, the Lord and Debbie told me that we’re gonna do something different during that time. So, but I just want to encourage you.
And why not? The inaugural menu looks very special.
Surely the Lord wouldn’t want his servant to abstain from any of that.
Gateway and Morris have been strong supporters of Donald Trump. A Gateway source told me that Franklin Graham spoke at Gateway’s First Conference (Jan. 1-4) and called Gateway the greatest single backer of his Decision America Tour. That 50 state effort was, in essence, a GOTV drive for the GOP and Donald Trump.
Gateway Church Pastor Robert Morris is One of Donald Trump's Spiritual Advisors
Back in June, Donald Trump announced the formation of an evangelical advisory board. At least one member — James MacDonald — expressed doubt that the candidate Trump took much advice from the board. However, another member on the inner circle has spoken out favorably about his role in advising Trump. Robert Morris, pastor of Gateway Church, told his congregation two Sundays ago that he was in on a conference call each Monday morning over the past three months and will continue to advise President-elect Trump. Watch:
Transcript:
It’s good to see you. It’s good to be back in the pulpit. As you know, Debbie and I went to Israel and London. Did anyone here have a late night Tuesday night? Anyone? Well, we were still jet lagged and so we actually we went to bed at 9 o’clock. Debbie and I did and about 11:30 my phone started blowing up with spiritual leaders, and so I got up and turned the TV for a little while and again about 4:30 or so I think when I woke up.
So I just wanna say this, I wanna say thank you, if you registered to vote and voted. We registered a lot of new people to vote. I, you may not hear this from the media, but Evangelicals turned out and voted this year. And I’m glad that they voted. I, I also I did not share this with you before the election but I have been serving on a Spiritual Advisory Council to now President-elect Trump, for about three months. And we, for the past three months, every Monday morning we have a conference call. And my understanding is I don’t know about the weekly conference call but the, he, he does want to continue with the Spiritual Advisory Council throughout his Presidency so I am grateful for that. And, and I will say please don’t think that this is partisan, because I don’t mean it that way. I’ll give advice to any elected leader or any government leader that I listen if you want to know what the Bible says, I’ll tell you what the Bible says whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat. I’ll tell you what it says.
I have a good relationship with Governor Abbott, Lt Governor Patrick, our Gov- our former Governor Rick Perry called me this last Thursday to ask my counsel on something. So, please pray for me, and some others on the Council, Dr Ben Carson is on this Advisory Council, Michele Bachmann, uh, James Robison, uh, Sammy Rodriguez, uh Dr Jack Graham, so it’s a, it’s a good Spiritual Council. And so, please continue to pray but thank you for voting. Thank you for praying. And just let’s just continue to pray for this country. And pray alright, alright. I’m excited. Lemme I’m excited about going forward and what God has.
At one time, evangelicals scoffed at the political influence of dominionists. Now, dominionists advise the President.
As I was preparing this post, I came across this LA Times article about Richard Spencer’s efforts to influence Trump. Amazing. At the same time, dominionists and white supremacists are preparing to claim influence in a Trump administration. What will the dominionists do when push comes to shove?
Robert Morris: God Needs Us to Pray So He Can Heal the Land
As noted earlier today, Gateway Church hosted The Gathering yesterday. Robert Morris is the founder and senior pastor of Gateway and kicked off the afternoon session with pastors. It appears that the attendance was modest, between 140-200 pastors. Watch:
Transcript:
Let me welcome you and let you know where we’re going today, and a couple of things like that, and how this all got started. I’m gonna share just for a moment, have an opening prayer, and then we’ll have one more worship song, and then Dr Tony Evans, who’s the head of the Executive Council, that we’ve called this together, this Solemn Assembly is going to-to bring a word to us. So just to let you know, we were praying and talking a few years ago about what we could do to bring our nation to God. We could say, ‘bring our nation back to God’ but I’m not sure our nation’s ever been totally to God. Huh-huh. But we want to bring our nation to Christ, and we know that.
And that’s the most important thing is for us to come before Him. And that scripture reading I was thinking about the “IF’S” and the “THENS” And y’know, the most famous verse, and so sometimes when a verse is well known, we tend to forget the “theo-pneustos” part of it, the God-breathed part. But it’s still God-breathed. And that’s 2nd Chronicles 7:14. “IF my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, THEN I will – no doubt about it – I will hear from heaven. Will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.
So, a few years ago as we were meeting, we said, “You know, I think the best thing we could do to help our nation is pray. And let’s call a Solemn Assembly and ask people to come together and pray and so that happens tonight at Seven. We are completely full tonight plus overflow. And we are simulcasting to many other churches, and we welcome those of you who are joining us by simulcast.
But we also said, let’s gather the pastors and the leaders together in the day. And let’s have a prayer meeting before we have the Solemn Assembly at night. So that’s why we’re here.
I wanna tell you one thing that you wouldn’t normally say to pastors without having the time to explain it, but I wanna tell you something that-that’s not theologically correct, but it actually is, when I get around to it. You ever preached a sermon like that?
God needs us to do our part. And when the Lord told me that a few years ago, that He said, “I need you” I explained to Him why that’s not theologically correct. I went to Criswell Bible College but I know that’s not theologically correct, because God is self-existent, self-sufficient, and self-sustaining. And I said, Lord you don’t need anything, and he said, “I need you.” And then the Lord began to explain to me what He was saying. God decided to partner with us. And that’s where the IF and the THEN comes in.
You know, God parted the Red Sea, but Moses raised the rod up. I coulda done that. I coulda raised a rod up. That’s a natural thing. My part’s always natural. His part’s always supernatural. So what we’re gonna do today is we’re gonna do our part. And we’re gonna come before Him, and we’re gonna pray. And so I wanna ask you just to join me now, and let’s let this be that first opening prayer, and please agree with me, where two or three are gathered, let’s agree.
Lord, we come and agree that today can change something in our nation. God, we come and agree, Lord, that if we will pray, that-and seek your face, and turn from our wicked ways, that you will hear from heaven, no doubt about it. You will hear our prayer today. And you will forgive our sins, and you will heal our land, and we receive it today, in Jesus’ name, and everyone said, “Amen”.
As Tony Evans did after him, Robert Morris recited the incantation to get God to change his mind (2 Chronicles 7:14):
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Here I will repeat what I wrote about Tony Evans’ misuse of 2 Chronicles 7:14.
I have never understood why people mistake this as a promise to America. American citizens are not His people called by God’s name. This verse is not addressed to Americans. This verse is the second half of a sentence started in verse 13 and concerns the dedication of the Jewish temple led by King Solomon.
11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, 12 the Lord appeared to him at night and said:
“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
God made an agreement with Solomon regarding Israel. On behalf of America, who made such a covenant?
This promise was made in a very specific way to Solomon about the very homogeneous Jewish nation. Despite a majority Christian population, there is no civil requirement to keep Christian morality. There is no civil requirement to even be a Christian to serve in government. It is very simple, these verses have nothing to do with us. We are not a new Israel.
There is nothing wrong with praying and repenting. However, a nation such as ours doesn’t do it, people do.
In the past, Morris’ needy god asked Morris’ permission to move The Kings’ University from California to the Southlake campus.