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A married Texas megachurch pastor is stepping down from his put up after an impartial investigation uncovered “embarrassing” and “frequent” Instagram DMs with a girl who isn’t his spouse.
On Sunday, Matt Chandler, lead pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound, which sits about 30 miles northwest of Dallas, instructed his congregation that the depart of absence was prompted by a call from church elders following an investigation into his social media utilization, in response to USA Today.
The information comes simply weeks after the embattled church, which has a congregation dimension upwards of 15,000 attendees, settled a 2019 lawsuit the place one in every of its former youngsters’s ministers was accused of molesting an 11-year-old lady.
Whereas the precise contents of Chandler’s DMs weren’t launched, it was described as “coarse joking” in investigative reviews and had many on social media speculating that it included adulterous overtones.
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Megachurch Pastor Says He “Didn’t Assume He Had Carried out Something Improper”
Chandler defined in a press release posted to the church’s web site that a number of months in the past, a girl confronted him concerning “how he was (direct messaging) on Instagram with a buddy of hers.”
The 48-year-old acknowledged he “didn’t assume (he) had finished something fallacious” and that “a few issues that she stated have been disorienting to me.”
“I didn’t assume I had finished something fallacious in that,” Chandler instructed the congregation. “My spouse knew that, her husband knew that, and but there have been a few issues that she stated that have been disorienting to me.”
Chandler reportedly instructed his spouse Lauren in addition to two church elders that very same night in an try to deal with the scenario, in response to a press release The Village Church wrote on its web site Sunday.
The assertion went on to say that the elders then employed an impartial regulation agency to research Chandler’s social media messaging historical past, alongside together with his emails and cellphone, six months after the problem was dropped at their consideration, the outlet reviews.
Impartial Regulation Agency Discovered Pastor’s DMs Violated Church’s Inside Social Media Insurance policies
Their findings finally led the elders to imagine that Chandler had certainly violated the church’s inner social media use insurance policies, and added that “extra importantly… whereas the overarching sample of his life has been ‘above reproach,’ he failed to satisfy the (Bible’s) requirements for elders of being ‘above reproach’ on this occasion.”
The investigators discovered that whereas “the messages weren’t romantic or sexual in nature,” the frequency and familiarity of the messages crossed a line,” and that Chandler “didn’t use language acceptable for a pastor.”
The messages have been additionally described as “unguarded and unwise” and “revealed one thing unhealthy in me,” Chandler stated.
“Whereas the messages weren’t romantic or sexual in nature, the frequency and familiarity of the messages crossed a line,” the assertion continues. “They revealed that (he) didn’t use language acceptable for a pastor, and he didn’t mannequin a conduct that we count on from him.”
The church’s assertion described Chandler’s depart of absence as “each disciplinary and developmental, which permits him to deal with rising better consciousness on this space,” in response to USA Right this moment.
The elders did not act for six months. #MattChandler pic.twitter.com/ustNvf8A4X
— thatbrian – gender assigned by God (@thatbrian) August 30, 2022
Pastor Feels “Actually Embarrassed” And “Silly” After Falling Quick Of “Greater Commonplace”
Chandler stated he felt “actually embarrassed” and “silly” earlier than including he’s “held to the next commonplace and fell in need of that larger commonplace.”
“I’m simply actually embarrassed, really feel silly… I really feel like I’m embarrassing my spouse and youngsters,” Chandler instructed the congregation Sunday. “I’m held to the next commonplace and fell in need of that larger commonplace.”
The disgraced pastor’s on-line church profile states he married his spouse again in 1999. They’ve since had three youngsters collectively.
He turned pastor of the First Baptist Church of Highland Village, which is now referred to as The Village Church, in 2002, USA Right this moment reviews.
Chandler was recognized with mind most cancers in 2009, and was declared cancer-free a yr later after present process mind surgical procedure.
Village Church, Southern Baptist Conference Below Investigation For Allegations Of Sexual Abuse
The pastor’s depart of absence marks the most recent embarrassment for the Southern Baptist Conference (SBC) denomination, of which The Village Church is a member.
The SBC, which is the second-largest spiritual group within the nation, introduced it was underneath federal investigation for sexual abuse earlier this month.
“Individually and collectively every SBC entity is resolved to totally and utterly cooperate with the investigation,” an SBC assertion on August 12 learn.
The investigation comes on the heels of the discharge of an inner report that found SBC leaders had mishandled sexual abuse instances for 20 years, in response to NPR.
On August 1, The Village Church specifically introduced it had settled a 2019 lawsuit the place one in every of its former youngsters’s ministers was accused of molesting an 11-year-old lady, after a prison case towards the minister was dropped in 2020, Faith Information Companies reported.
The church “maintains and firmly imagine that we dedicated no fallacious,” it wrote after a prolonged authorized investigation.
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