Matt Chandler has returned to the pulpit of The Village Church, Flower Mound, Texas.
He was suspended in August 2022 after exchanging a series of Instagram messages with a woman who was not his wife. The Southern Baptist Convention church hired law firm Castaneda and Heidelman to conduct an investigation but declined to publish its report, wanting ‘to honour the request of the woman Matt was messaging with not to be in the spotlight’. Chandler called the exchanges ‘unguarded and unwise’, although the church stressed that they ‘were not sexual or romantic’.
Chandler said at the time that the exchange was neither sexual nor secret – his wife knew about it – but the church’s elders were nonetheless concerned ‘about frequency and familiarity’, and specifically ‘a familiarity that played itself out in coarse and foolish joking’.
On his first Sunday back at the Village Church, 48-year-old Chandler preached about sin: ‘I have fallen short of the glory of God and He has met me with grace,’ he said. ‘It is my understanding that I am inconsistent and I do have spots that are hypocritical, and there are parts of me I don’t even understand.’
Quoting Ephesians 2:13–17, Chandler urged the congregation to see that the true promise of Christmas is reconciliation with God. But that can only start, he said, if people acknowledge their sin, as he himself had done in August.
‘To humble ourselves before a living God gives us a shot at peace,’ he preached during a livestreamed service. ‘I’ve got a part of this I’ve got to own. It might just be 1%, but that’s my 1%. Forgive me. Now we’ve got a shot at reconciliation.’
A statement from the church in August said the direct messages violated its social media policy and ‘crossed a line’. The elders determined Chandler was not disqualified from ministry, but there was ‘unhealth in his life’. There is no available information about the woman Chandler was talking to and whether she was hurt in any way by the online relationship. Her view of the discipline and the restoration process are also unknown. She was not mentioned, even obliquely, in the service on Chandler’s return.
Lead pastor Josh Patterson told the congregation that Chandler was disciplined because the church holds its leaders to ‘a higher standard’. He said that after a three-months leave and a discipline and development process, the elders were affirming Chandler’s restoration without any second thoughts.
The restoration comes at a time when Southern Baptists are wrestling with questions about the standards for ministers to return to the pulpit after a scandal or a moral failing. Former Southern Baptist Convention president Johnny Hunt has just been restored to ministry, six months after a third-party investigation found he was credibly accused of sexual assault.
At the end of the Village Church service, the congregation thanked Chandler for his 20 years in post. He was joined on the stage by his wife and three children and received a standing ovation.
