It's a drizzly gray Sunday morning in April 2023 and Antonio and I are going to church.

We cross an expansive parking lot and approach a massive white and brown brick building.

At more than 200,000 square feet,

gateway church's main campus in South Lake

is bigger than a typical Walmart supercenter.

A church volunteer smiles and opens a glass door for us.

Thank you.

Years ago, back before their estrangement,

this is where Charlotte used to bring Wren to church.

It's also where Westen Brown used to work, before he was outed as gay and fired.

We've come this morning because school board elections are getting underway in this part of North Texas,

including in Grapevine. And we've got a hunch, based on what's happened in the past couple of years,

that Gateways Senior Pastor is going to take time to talk

about it from the pulpit this morning. Mike and I find a seat near the back of the

darkened auditorium as members of the congregation raised their hands in worship.

So I throw my hands to praise you again and again.

So that I have is a heart. I attended big churches a lot like this one when I was a teenager and in college.

If you've never been, you might be fooled at first glance into thinking you're attending

a rock concert.

The music set is highly produced, with a lead singer strumming a guitar alongside four backup vocalists, a bass player, someone

on keyboards, and the hippest-looking guy in the room behind them on drums.

A fog machine cloaks the musicians in a smoky mist, as dozens of bright white stage lights whirl around them,

...