Pastor James Morris and his wife Bridgette received a standing ovation during Gateway Church’s worship service over the weekend after North Fort Worth and Online Campus Pastor Ben Pirtle voiced his appreciation for them during his sermon.
Both Morris and his wife serve as pastors at Gateway Church. Morris serves as the associate senior pastor and Bridgette serves as the executive pastor. James is the son of Gateway Church founder Robert Morris.
As Pirtle greeted the congregation, he said that he considers Gateway Church to be “the greatest church in the world,” adding, “Not that it’s a competition, but we’re winning.”
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“I love you. This is my home. And it’s such an honor to be here,” said Pirtle, who has served at Gateway Church for almost 19 years. He continued by thanking James and Bridgette, who were sitting in the congregation, resulting in a standing ovation from the crowd.
“I want to thank Pastor James and Pastor Bridgette, who I also love,” Pirtle said. “I could cry, so I’m just gonna say, I love you guys. I’m very thankful for you guys. It’s an honor to be here with you guys and we love you.”
He asked the congregation, “Don’t you love Pastor James and Pastor Bridgette?”
“We love you guys,” Pirtle added once more.
Pirtle then got emotional, saying that he asked the Holy Spirit what he should say because he had so many things he wanted to share.
“But based off of your response right there, what I want to say is,” he said, “that we may be going through a difficult season as a church and you may have all sorts of feelings, and those feelings are all fine—you can have whatever feelings you need to have.”
“And you know when a family goes through a season of loss, we mourn, right? That’s what we do, but we do it together,” Pirtle added.
