Matt Chandler, pastor of the Village Church in Texas, revealed on Sunday that he would be stepping down from the pulpit permanently after admitting to an inappropriate online relationship with a woman on Instagram. This news should come as no surprise to anyone.
It’s not surprising because Chandler has spent years responding in the worst possible ways to sexual abuse and inappropriate behavior. Before it all caught up to him, it was only a matter of time.
A refresher might be beneficial for those who are not evangelicals.
An 11-year-old girl is said to have been abused at the Village Church’s summer camp in 2012. Chandler lied to his congregation about the specifics, even though her parents informed church leaders about the incident years later (when they found out about it). He merely stated that a church member had been accused of abusing children, but that the unnamed offender had no “access to children at the Village Church.” (That was only technically accurate because the offender, an associate children’s minister, had left the organization.)
In a separate email, Chandler informed the congregation that one of their pastors—THE SAME GUY—was resigning from his position due to a “alcohol abuse problem.” without mentioning how the two stories are related.
Wait. Things worsen.
After learning that her husband was a pedophile, a woman in 2015 was punished by Chandler and his coworkers because she didn’t consult church elders first so they could try to work things out.
I repeat: They punished her for wanting to get the hell out of that marriage. They did not punish him because he repented. (The husband and wife had been missionaries.)
Later, the church expressed regret for failing Human Decency 101.
Wait. Things worsen.
Chandler also serves as the president of Acts 29, a significant evangelical “church planting” network that provides enormous wheelbarrows full of cash to men who exhibit promise in founding and overseeing organizations that follow a strict conservative understanding of Christianity.
Acts 29 was established by Mark Driscoll, the misogynistic, plagiarism-committing, and spiritually abusive internet troll who was expelled from the ministry in 2014. Steve Timmis, who succeeded him as a preacher, was later expelled from the ministry for similar reasons.
Daniel Silliman of Christianity Today spoke with Chandler earlier this year about the state of the ministry and specifically inquired as to whether the current structure would have eliminated men like Driscoll and Timmis.
In other words, had Acts 29 changed its curriculum to ensure that such abusive individuals didn’t have a voice?
The response from Chandler was pitiful:
I would hope they would get caught by it. I think there’s something about the dynamics of narcissism that makes it hard to catch, so I want to be careful, but we’re trying to organize as best as we can so that we can vet men before they get our sticker on them. And then after they’ve been vetted, get them in the kind of community that they might be encouraged or challenged if you start getting red flags.
We’ve done a lot of work around this and we hate abuse in all its forms.
Saying you detest all forms of abuse is a convenient way to ignore the very specific types of abuse that frequently occur in evangelical churches, as I noted at the time. Chandler behaved like a swing-state Republican who must defend Donald Trump in an interview because he was so anxious to avoid saying anything negative about two objectively bad guys. He spoke in meaningless generalizations as opposed to telling the truth. (Narcissism isn’t the issue, either. There is a lack of responsibility.)
Chandler has had numerous opportunities to denounce abuse. Instead, he stood up for the abusers or at the very least protected them from justifiable condemnation.
Currently, Chandler is being accused of wrongdoing… However, the details of his actions are entirely hazy and not at all transparent.
Matt Chandler informed his congregation on Sunday morning that a woman had recently come up to him with “concerns” regarding Instagram DMs he had been sending to a friend. He explained to the congregation that although those DMs weren’t “romantic or sexual,” they were “unguarded and foolish” to the point where they were “revealing some unhealth in me.”
WHAT THE%*$& DOES ANY OF THAT MEAN, you may be asking?
Your hunch is just as valid as mine. However, it appears that the messages were scandalous enough for Chandler to not be returning to the pulpit any time soon.
As noted by Christianity Today:
Chandler grew emotional as he addressed the church and paused to fight back tears. At one point someone in the congregation shouted, “We love you.”
“If I’m honest I’m just really embarrassed,” Chandler said. “Feel stupid. Feel dumb. Feel like I’m embarrassing my wife and kids. Putting a ton of pressure on our staff.”
What’s embarrassing about this is how a grown-ass man has been infantilized.
If this was just friendly conversation that went too far, it could have been resolved privately. It most certainly shouldn’t result in this kind of public humiliation or brief exile.
The church ought to inform the congregation of what the hell he did if it’s something more serious—which it obviously seems to be. Why are these people keeping everything so damn secret? When has that strategy ever been successful for them?
The past few years have taught them nothing at all.
Remember that we haven’t heard from the other woman’s perspective. Or anything from the person who spoke to him about this initially. also Chandler’s spouse. The fact that so many specifics are being withheld from the public suggests that it is not a simple error. The church member shouting “We love you” and Chandler’s own admission that he intends to serve as this church’s lead pastor for the next 20 years won’t likely hold up over time.
But without knowing the true nature of the Instagram conversations between Matt Chandler and the woman, it’s difficult to judge whether the church went too far or didn’t go far enough. But the public would be wise to assume the worst given his track record. He is not deserving of a second chance.
