Earlier today, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published a story with a statement from Gateway Church confirming the staff reductions I reported on Tuesday. According to the statement from Lawrence Swicegood, executive director of Gateway Media, the church is going to “prune” staff to prepare for growth. I suppose that is one way to look at it, although I also suppose that the staff to be pruned might see it differently.
The Star-Telegram report said that the church planned to reduce staff by 10-15% but gave no time frame. My sources maintain that the plan is to eventually cut as many as one-third of 900 positions.
The Star-Telegram article may have misstated Gateway’s financial status for 2016. As I read the annual report, it appears that Gateway experienced a deficit. More about that in a future post.
To me, a curious note is that the Star-Telegram said the church confirmed the staff layoffs but did not say what initial report had been confirmed. You can read that report first published here on Tuesday.