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Married Texas Pastor Of Embattled Megachurch Steps Down Following “Embarrassing” Instagram DMs

<p>A married Texas megachurch pastor is stepping down from his post after an independent investigation uncovered &&num;8220&semi;embarrassing&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;frequent&&num;8221&semi; Instagram DMs with a woman who is not his wife&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On Sunday&comma; Matt Chandler&comma; lead pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound&comma; which sits about 30 miles northwest of Dallas&comma; told his congregation that the leave of absence was prompted by a decision from church elders following an investigation into his social media usage&comma; according to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;usatoday&period;com&sol;story&sol;news&sol;nation&sol;2022&sol;08&sol;30&sol;megachurch-pastor-matt-chandler-instagram&sol;7938054001&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><strong>USA Today<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The news comes just weeks after the embattled church&comma; which has a congregation size upwards of 15&comma;000 attendees&comma; settled a 2019 lawsuit where one of its former children&&num;8217&semi;s ministers was accused of molesting an 11-year-old girl&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the exact contents of Chandler&&num;8217&semi;s DMs were not released&comma; it was described as &&num;8220&semi;coarse joking&&num;8221&semi; in investigative reports and had many on social media speculating that it included adulterous overtones&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Megachurch Pastor Says He &&num;8220&semi;Didn&&num;8217&semi;t Think He Had Done Anything Wrong&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Chandler explained in a statement posted to the church&&num;8217&semi;s website that several months ago&comma; a woman confronted him regarding &&num;8220&semi;how he was &lpar;direct messaging&rpar; on Instagram with a friend of hers&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 48-year-old stated he &&num;8220&semi;didn&&num;8217&semi;t think &lpar;he&rpar; had done anything wrong&&num;8221&semi; and that &&num;8220&semi;a couple of things that she said were disorienting to me&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I didn’t think I had done anything wrong in that&comma;” Chandler told the congregation&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;My wife knew that&comma; her husband knew that&comma; and yet there were a couple of things that she said that were disorienting to me&period;”<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"CgrJ1H8uhK8" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Chandler reportedly told his wife Lauren as well as two church elders that same evening in an attempt to address the situation&comma; according to a statement The Village Church wrote on its website Sunday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The statement went on to say that the elders then hired an independent law firm to investigate Chandler&&num;8217&semi;s social media messaging history&comma; along with his emails and cellphone&comma; six months after the issue was brought to their attention&comma; the outlet reports&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Independent Law Firm Found Pastor&&num;8217&semi;s DMs Violated Church&&num;8217&semi;s Internal Social Media Policies<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Their findings ultimately led the elders to believe that Chandler had indeed violated the church&&num;8217&semi;s internal social media use policies&comma; and added that &&num;8220&semi;more importantly&&num;8230&semi; while the overarching pattern of his life has been &&num;8216&semi;above reproach&comma;&&num;8217&semi; he failed to meet the &lpar;Bible&&num;8217&semi;s&rpar; standards for elders of being &&num;8216&semi;above reproach&&num;8217&semi; in this instance&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The investigators found that while &&num;8220&semi;the messages were not romantic or sexual in nature&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the frequency and familiarity of the messages crossed a line&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and that Chandler &&num;8220&semi;did not use language appropriate for a pastor&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The messages were also described as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;unguarded and unwise” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;revealed something unhealthy in me&comma;” Chandler said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;While the messages were not romantic or sexual in nature&comma; the frequency and familiarity of the messages crossed a line&comma;” the statement continues&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;They revealed that &lpar;he&rpar; did not use language appropriate for a pastor&comma; and he did not model a behavior that we expect from him&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-size&colon; 14px&semi; font-weight&colon; 300&semi;"> <&sol;span><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The church&&num;8217&semi;s statement described Chandler&&num;8217&semi;s leave of absence as &&num;8220&semi;both disciplinary and developmental&comma; which allows him to focus on growing greater awareness in this area&comma;&&num;8221&semi; according to USA Today&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-twitter data-tweetid&equals;"1564588818526789642" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"480"><&sol;amp-twitter><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Pastor Feels &&num;8220&semi;Really Embarrassed&&num;8221&semi; And &&num;8220&semi;Stupid&&num;8221&semi; After Falling Short Of &&num;8220&semi;Higher Standard&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Chandler said he felt &&num;8220&semi;really embarrassed&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;stupid&&num;8221&semi; before adding he&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;held to a higher standard and fell short of that higher standard&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I’m just really embarrassed&comma; feel stupid&&num;8230&semi; I feel like I&&num;8217&semi;m embarrassing my wife and kids&comma;” Chandler told the congregation Sunday&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I’m held to a higher standard and fell short of that higher standard&period;”<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The disgraced pastor&&num;8217&semi;s online church profile states he married his wife back in 1999&period; They have since had three children together&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Highland Village&comma; which is now called The Village Church&comma; in 2002&comma; USA Today reports&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Chandler was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2009&comma; and was declared cancer-free a year later after undergoing brain surgery&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Village Church&comma; Southern Baptist Convention Under Investigation For Allegations Of Sexual Abuse<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The pastor&&num;8217&semi;s leave of absence marks the latest embarrassment for the Southern Baptist Convention &lpar;SBC&rpar; denomination&comma; of which The Village Church is a member&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"CGS8iFUlwY7" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The SBC&comma; which is the second-largest religious group in the country&comma; announced it was under federal investigation for sexual abuse earlier this month&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>&&num;8220&semi;Individually and collectively each SBC entity is resolved to fully and completely cooperate with the investigation&comma;&&num;8221&semi; an SBC statement on August 12 read&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The investigation comes on the heels of the release of an internal report that discovered SBC leaders had mishandled sexual abuse cases for 20 years&comma; according to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;npr&period;org&sol;2022&sol;08&sol;13&sol;1117362904&sol;southern-baptists-doj-investigation-sexual-abuse" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><strong>NPR<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On August 1&comma; The Village Church in particular announced it had settled a 2019 lawsuit where one of its former children&&num;8217&semi;s ministers was accused of molesting an 11-year-old girl&comma; after a criminal case against the minister was dropped in 2020&comma; Religion News Services reported&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The church &&num;8220&semi;maintains and firmly believe that we committed no wrong&comma;&&num;8221&semi; it wrote after a lengthy legal investigation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-wrap wpra-plugin-container" style&equals;"justify-content&colon; center&semi;&semi;"> <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-container" data-ver&equals;"1&period;3&period;10" data-post&lowbar;id&equals;"97359" data-show&lowbar;count&equals;"true" data-enable&lowbar;share&equals;"onclick" data-behavior&equals;"regular" data-animation&equals;"true" data-share&lowbar;url&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;married-texas-pastor-of-embattled-megachurch-steps-down-following-embarrassing-instagram-dms&sol;" data-secure&equals;"2a1d850594"> <div class&equals;"wpra-call-to-action" style&equals;"color&colon; &num;000000&semi;font-size&colon; 25px&semi;font-weight&colon; 600&semi;">What Do You Think Roomies&quest;<&sol;div> <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions wpra-static-emojis size-medium" style&equals;"border-color&colon; 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Matthew McNulty

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