How Bad is the Matt Chandler Scandal?

Matt Chandler’s Leave of Absence and the Initial Report

They decided, and again, I think they're right, to put me on a leave of absence, starting immediately from preaching and teaching at the village church.

On August 28th, 2022, Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church, a megachurch in Flower Mound, Texas, stepped down as pastor because of inappropriate online messaging. As expected, there has been an enormous number of responses to this incident, some good, some bad.

Let's first walk through what exactly happened, then we'll look at some of the responses, and then we'll share our conclusion. So make sure you stick around until the end to hear those thoughts. To announce what happened and that he was stepping down, Chandler delivered this message on August 28th.

Several months ago, a woman approached me outside here in the foyer. She had some concerns for how I was DMing on Instagram with a friend of hers. I didn't think I had done anything wrong in that. My wife knew that, her husband knew that, and yet there were a couple of things that she said that were disorienting to me.

We simply don't know very much at all about this interaction between Chandler and the woman he refers to. Clearly, the woman had concerns about how Chandler was messaging with her friend on Instagram.

And clearly, the woman approached Chandler with the intention to confront him,.

Since Chandler said. There were a couple of things that she said that were disorienting to me.

Whatever the woman said to Chandler, it led to an immediate response from Chandler.

And so I immediately came in the room. I found Chairman of the Elder Boards, Jason Swords, found Josh Patterson, other lead pastor, and said, this is what this person just told me. And then I went home.

Lauren wasn't with me that night. I told Lauren, this is what was said to me tonight.

So Chandler recognized the legitimacy and urgency of what the woman said to him, and immediately began talking to his fellow elders and his wife about what happened. Maybe Chandler was convicted by what the woman said to him.

Maybe the woman threatened to take action if Chandler didn't do anything. Maybe both. We simply don't know the details.

The Elders’ Investigation and the Standard for Pastors

From there, the elders began to look into, because that's what they're supposed to do. Because we cannot be a church where anyone is above the scriptures and above the high heavenly call into Christ Jesus.

And so they looked into the conversation between me and this other woman, and they had some concerns. And those concerns were not that our messaging was romantic or sexual. It was that our conversations were unguarded and unwise.

And because I don't ever want there to be secrets between us, the concerns were really about frequency and familiarity. We believe in brother-sister relationships here. And yet there was a frequency that moved past that, and there was a familiarity that played itself out in coarse and foolish joking.

Some befitting of someone in my position as a lead pastor, and as an elder, I'm held to a higher standard and fell short of that higher standard.

On the surface, all of this sounds fine. Any man, especially a pastor, should not engage in inappropriate familiarity with any woman who is not his wife or significant other. And it clearly sounds like either Chandler was simply ignorant that the way he was communicating with this woman on Instagram was inappropriately familiar, or he may have been on the path to engaging in something more serious than friendly online messaging.

Again, we don't know the details. If everything Chandler said was accurate, then this seems like the appropriate response from all parties. After Chandler was confronted, he immediately consulted people close to him.

And when his fellow elders had concerns about what Chandler had seemed to be ignorant of doing, they determined that he fell short of the high standard he is called to as a pastor. Could things be worse than what has just been presented so far?

Could this coarse and foolish joking be something more serious than just platonic friendly online messaging? Sure, but we simply don't know.

So the elders have decided, and I think they're right, that my inability to see what I was in probably has some revealing some unhealth in me. And I don't know if that's tied to the pace I run or the difficulty of the last six, seven years, but I agree with them.

And so in their grace to me and my family, they've decided, and again, I think they're right, to put me on a leave of absence, starting immediately from preaching and teaching at the village church.

If Chandler was indeed simply ignorant of the inappropriateness of his messaging with that woman on Instagram, and the messages were indeed not romantic or sexual in nature, then this seems like it's an appropriate response from the elders at the village church.

If the messages were of such a nature that the woman's friend and the elders had concerns, and if pastors are to be above reproach, then actions need to be taken immediately, both to protect the spiritual health of the pastor and the reputation of the church.

Chandler's inappropriate actions were responded to with seriousness by the leaders of the church. Are there legitimate concerns that might be asked about all this? Sure. Was the messaging between Chandler and the woman worse than what we've been told?

Were they bad enough that Chandler should be stepping down completely from the village church instead of merely taking a leave of absence? How could the messages be bad enough to warrant a temporary leave of absence, but not complete resignation?

But again, we simply don't know the answers to these questions as of right now. If I'm on, I'm just really embarrassed.

Feel stupid? Thank you. Feel dumb? Feel like I'm embarrassing my wife and kids? Putting a ton of pressure on her staff? Feel like I've fallen short for you? And you might even be hearing, you might not even be a Christian, you might be hearing me saying this like, what the H?

But the word of God holds me to a certain standard, and I need to live into that. And I fell short. And man, I'm apologizing to my family, to you, to all involved in this situation.

It seems that nobody is calling what Chandler did outright sin. It's something that Chandler feels embarrassed, stupid, and dumb about, but Chandler does seem to be phrasing it as sin or as something that needs to be confessed and repentant of.

Again, Chandler could be right about this, or he could be hiding something.

We simply don't know. Some things I love. I love that our elders engaged at the level they did. You know how easy this would have been to make it nothing and just let me not address whatever this is? Super grateful that the elders have loved us and walked with us the way that they have.

If everything Chandler has said so far is accurate, then I agree. No matter how seemingly mild Chandler's offense may seem, according to what has been shared with us, it is important for pastors to be held to a higher standard as people who are shepherding the flock.

If there was something unhealthy in Chandler's communication with that woman, it's good for him to take time to work through that and to not be pastoring the church while he is working through those issues.

Social Media, the Billy Graham Rule, and Celebrity-Pastor Accountability

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The concerns were about Matt's use of social media, of one-on-one communication with a woman who is not his wife.

This rule has been coined the Billy Graham rule, and Mike Pence has come under attack for choosing to follow this rule. However, it's a good rule. When a man has excessive one-on-one communication with a woman who is not his wife, then even if there is nothing romantic happening, it gives a wrong impression to people on the outside who are observing this relationship.

You need to know this, that Matt has wholeheartedly been submissive to the elders as overseers. That's significant. That's important for you to know. He's never denied or resisted. This is good to hear,.

Especially concerning a celebrity pastor like Matt Chandler. In many megachurches that are centered around celebrity pastors, such as Mars Hill Church and Harvest Bible Channel, where Mark Driscoll and James McDonald were pastors, there was much drama about these pastors consolidating power and refusing to submit to the concerns of other elders.

I'm glad Chandler seems to be fully submissive to the elders' recommendation for him to take a leave of absence over what happened.

There's been times of confusion, a time when we needed to press into clarity. And so what we did in this is we commissioned an outside independent review of his messages. This was conducted by an independent law firm.

Matt provided full access to his cell phone, emails, and all technological platforms. He fully cooperated.

Again, it's good that there was both full transparency from Chandler in response to the elders' requests and that there was an objective party that also looked into the issues. Do we still have questions?

Of course. Does what we have been told so far sound relatively legitimate?

It kind of seems so. As Matt said, we're strong proponents of brothers and sister relationships. We believe in those because we believe the scriptures affirm those. It matters to us to fight for that in the best kind of way.

But there are boundaries around what's appropriate in these kinds of friendships. And a pastoral role requires greater awareness of those boundaries. In this case, the frequency and the familiarity of the messages crossed a line.

From what we're told, it seems like this is a case of catching inappropriate communication between a man and a woman early on before it may have turned into something more serious. Again, we may ask, are they hiding anything from us?

But we simply don't know. But I wanna be clear that the elders believe that this behavior was not disqualifying of an elder and it did not rise to a level that would warrant more severe discipline. The investigators of the report concluded that this was not a romantic relationship and it was not a sexual relationship.

It really sounds like this is a case of the elders wanting to be extra careful to make sure the inappropriateness of Chandler's messaging was dealt with publicly and seriously to avoid charges of covering anything up.

We might ask, how would Chandler have been ignorant of how inappropriate his messages with this woman were? Although this sounds weird, we can certainly picture a world where this could happen.

The woman who Matt was messaging with did not request the independent investigation, but she did cooperate with the investigators and shared messages with them. We're thankful for that. We're trying to keep certain information confidential because we do want to honor her desire not to be in the spotlight.

It's also important for you to know that she's certainly free to speak if and when she chooses to do so.

A lot of people online are saying that this woman may be an abuse victim. That's certainly possible, but from what we've been told so far, we really don't have any strong reason to believe this. If she was a victim, one would imagine she would be speaking out publicly about this.

Rather, her behavior seems to align with everything we've been told so far.

The elders have laid out some expectations for Matt and will dictate the timeline for his return to the pulpit.

So Chandler will return to the pulpit sometime in the indefinite future. In the meantime, we have the official statements from both Chandler and the elders, and we will see if any more details come out.

Public Reaction, Twitter Speculation, and James White’s Response

The response on Twitter has been quite enormous. For a while, Chandler was trending. John Pyle tweeted, "'Dear bad blank woman who confronted "'atmatchandler74' in the lobby. "'I'm pretty sure you signed an NDA, "'but there's an army of people "'who will cover your legal fees "'and those of your friend you stood up for "'if you choose to speak out.

"'We won't leave you hanging.'". Two notes. First, there's absolutely zero evidence that she signed an NDA, and I highly doubt the elders at the village church would lie about that. And second, I'm pretty sure the woman would have already made this more public if she really wanted to speak out.

Pyle is clearly someone who wants things to be worse than what has been presented, and he wants Chandler's entire life and ministry to collapse. Mike the Therapist tweeted, "'Re-matchandler indiscretion.

"'I have counseled well over 100 pastors "'who were disciplined or fired for sexual reasons. "'Here is an absolute rule I found. "'Whatever they admit to is the bare minimum "'of what has happened. "'They only admit to exactly what they were caught doing.'".

Two thoughts. First, you have a rainbow in your Twitter name, so I kind of wonder what pastors you have counseled, and if these really were pastors. And second, well, Chandler did share everything with his fellow elders and with third-party investigators.

So unless we're to believe that this is an enormous conspiracy between many people, which, of course, is certainly possible, then it seems that the facts are relatively open to a significant number of people outside of Chandler.

If things are really as bad as you seem to want them to be, then I would imagine the women involved are free to speak about it. So how should we as Christians respond to all of this? First, if what we've been told is accurate, then it seems that Chandler and the elders acted appropriately.

In contrast, when Benny Hinn and Paula White were photographed holding hands, their responses were nothing like the response from Chandler and the village church. Their priorities were to protect their ministries at all costs rather than to appear above reproach.

And second, I think James White gets it right when he tweeted, this is all I will say about the Chandler stuff. I don't know what happened. You don't know what happened. Almost no one outside the elders know what happened.

It is none of my business, and if I have an iota of respect for what I say my view of church government is, I will not stick my nose into things I have no business addressing. The Lord will judge in his time, and I have plenty that he has put in my realm of work to keep me busy.