An associate pastor at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, has been fired for a “moral failure.” In an email to the congregation, church leadership did not release any further details surrounding the termination of Tony Cammarota and asked church members to refrain from “unnecessary speech and speculation.”
Stonebriar Community Church was founded in 1998 by famed preacher Chuck Swindoll, who served as the church’s senior pastor until earlier this year, when he named Jonathan Murphy as his successor and moved into a founding pastor role.
According to his Linkedin profile, Cammarota had been on staff at Stonebriar since 2007 and was serving in the role of associate pastor of equipping.
The email announcement of Cammarota’s departure said that on July 7, Cammarota “confessed to church leadership of a moral failure. He is deeply remorseful but his sin disqualifies him from serving on our staff as a pastor.”
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“After much prayer seeking God’s direction, discussion as leaders, and then talking to Tony we have terminated his employment effective immediately,” the email continued.
Church leaders went on to say that while Cammarota “will no longer be employed with us at Stonebriar, please pray with us as we continue demonstrating the grace of Christ to him and his family. They need our help.”
“And please guard against giving the Devil any foothold for more damage to our church through unnecessary speech and speculation,” the email said. “This is a sad day and we don’t want the Devil making it worse through any one of us in the days ahead.”
Cammarota’s departure from Stonebriar Community Church comes as the latest in a series of pastor scandals that have rocked megachurches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
In December 2023, Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter’s House in Dallas was forced to address rumors that he attended lurid parties hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs. Jakes vehemently denied these rumors, characterizing them as “young folks’ gossip.”
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In March, Jakes was mentioned in a sexual abuse lawsuit against Combs, in which Combs was accused of attempting to “leverage his relationship” with Jakes to preserve his public image.
