Matt Chandler, the lead pastor of the Village Church, a megachurch in the Dallas-Fort-Worth area, was placed on a leave of absence after he admitted to sending inappropriate messages to a woman who was not his wife.
According to a press release from the church on Sunday, an individual approached Chandler a few months ago with “concerns” regarding direct messages he was sending on social media.
As Chandler’s family and church leadership were made aware of the allegations, church elders hired an outside law firm to conduct an investigation into the lead pastor’s social media messaging history, including reviewing his cell phone and email history.
“[W]hile the messages were not romantic or sexual in nature, the frequency and familiarity of the messages crossed a line. They revealed that Matt did not use language appropriate for a pastor, and he did not model a behavior that we expect from him,” the press release stated.
The elders later stated that Chandler’s behavior did not constitute “disqualification” but placed him on a leave of absence, which they described as “disciplinary and developmental.”
Chandler addressed the allegations to his congregants in a pre-recorded address shared on the church website, the Star-Telegram reported.
“I fell short,” the lead pastor said. “If I’m honest, I’m just really embarrassed. I feel stupid. I feel dumb. I feel like I’m embarrassing my wife and kids. Putting a ton of pressure on our staff. I feel like I’ve fallen short for you.”
Chandler admitted that the messages involved “coarse and foolish joking,” which the elders referred to as “unguarded and unwise.”
Chandler agreed with the elder’s disciplinary action to place him on leave but says he plans to remain at the church as lead pastor for the next 20 years.
The Village Church is a large Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) affiliated church in Flower Mound, Texas, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, and is attended by thousands of congregants weekly. Chandler has been the lead pastor at the church since 2002.
The leave of absence comes at a time when the SBC is under scrutiny over how it has handled sexual assault accusations among denomination-affiliated members.
Over the past few years, Chandler has made controversial statements in regard to conservative-leaning members in his congregation and denomination.
Chandler, in a 2018 interview with Vice, stated that he believes that Christians, particularly evangelicals, who voted for Donald Trump and Republicans in 2016 did so because they were “really scared.” In that same interview, he also implied that Christians who voted for politicians that opposed certain policies, such as the bathroom bill, “lost their souls.”
Around the time of the Black Lives Matter riots in June 2020, Chandler used the pulpit to accuse Christians of “hypocrisy” regarding racial issues, the Christian Broadcasting Network noted. A few months later, he claimed that Critical Race Theory was “really helpful in helping us understand how we got where we are[, it] helps us make sense of the past;” however, he did not endorse it outright.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.