Senior leaders at US-based Gateway Church have announced the appointment of a new senior pastor.

In a video shared on the church’s YouTube channel, elder Tra Willbanks, who chairs the elder board, revealed that Daniel Floyd will succeed Robert Morris as senior pastor.

The church has been without a lead pastor for nearly a year, following Morris’s resignation after a woman publicly alleged he molested her in 1982 when she was twelve.

A grand jury in Oklahoma has indicted Morris on five felony counts; he denies the charges and is awaiting trial.

Willbanks said the church chose Floyd after “a lot of prayer”. Floyd and his wife Tammy, who are the founding pastors of Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said they were “honoured and humbled” to take on the new role.

The couple have led Lifepoint in Virginia for the past 20 years.

“We’re passionate about reaching those who are far from God with the life-transforming message of the gospel,” Daniel Floyd said. “We’re passionate about developing the next generation of leaders, and we’re passionate about helping every person become everything that God’s called them to be.”

Floyd added that over the past five months, they’ve worked closely with Gateway’s elders while also seeking guidance from trusted spiritual mentors.

Above all, he said, they have “leaned into the voice of the Holy Spirit” to confirm their calling to Gateway.

The couple will officially begin their new role at the Southlake-based church in August.