Gateway Church in Southlake, a very wealthy suburb of Dallas, became our church in 2006, shortly after the death of our oldest son TJ. TJ's funeral, at Grace Outreach in Plano, had been one of the most attended services ever at that church, filling it's 1400 or so seats, and with many more standing. We left Grace not due to anything those wonderful people did, but because my wife was uncomfortable there being known as the mother of the boy who died so young. Honoring her desire to attend church elsewhere, we ended up becoming members of Gateway, before they built the huge campus as shown above. The music and preaching and focus of Gateway then was similar to Grace Outreach Center.

As of this writing, our former Pastor at Gateway, Robert Morris, is in an Oklahoma jail for sexual indiscretions that happened decades ago. This is a sad example of what keeps happening in so many independent churches that operate with no real authority. Gateway has become a much smaller church, breaking many bonds of relationship between its members. So many churches are one scandal away from following a similar course.