Matt Chandler, the pastor of a large megachurch in North Texas, stated on Sunday that he will stop preaching and teaching due to an inappropriate online contact with a lady.
Matthew Chandler, 48, informed his congregation in person that The Village Church administrators found his communication with the lady inappropriate and in violation of the church’s own social media regulations.
Chandler, the head pastor and an elder at The Village Church, claimed a friend of the woman involved approached him a few months ago and had concerns about the communication he was having during his announcement to his church.
He told the church leaders about the incident, and they looked into it and recruited an outside agency to check into it.
Elders discovered Chandler’s communication with the woman was not romantic or sexual, but rather unguarded and foolish. As a result, church leaders immediately placed Chandler on leave of absence.
What we know about about Matt Chandler
According to Chandler’s online church profile, the First Baptist Church of Highland Village hired him as its pastor in 2002, before changing its name to The Village Church.
His father was in the military, and he was born close to Seattle, according to his biography. Later, his family relocated to the Houston region. Chandler claimed that until the age of 17, he had never met Jesus.
Chandler attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene before serving as the pastor of a tiny church close to Houston. He worked at Beltway Park Church and taught Grace, an interdenominational Bible study group, both while he was a student.
After living in Abilene for a while, Chandler relocated to the Dallas region and wed Lauren in 1999. They are parents of three kids.
In addition to serving as The Village Church’s head pastor, Chandler presided over the board of Acts 29, an organization that starts new churches.
Following the announcement from The Village Church, Acts 29 requested Chandler to withdraw from speaking engagements, according to a written statement posted on the organization’s website.
According to the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, he was identified as having anaplastic oligodendroglioma, a kind of cancer that is frequently discovered in the cortex of the brain.
Chandler had chemotherapy for his cancerous brain tumor. Chandler referred to his encounter with the disease as an educational lesson in the piece.
