Prominent Southern Baptist pastor steps aside after inappropriate online relationship

The pastor of a prominent Dallas-Fort Worth megachurch said he had an inappropriate online relationship with a woman and will step down from preaching and teaching.

Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Flower Mound, told his congregation Sunday that the relationship was not sexual or romantic. But elders at the Southern Baptist church believed the messages exchanged over Instagram were “unguarded and unwise” and “revealed something unhealthy in me,” Chandler said.

“We cannot be a church where anyone is above the Scriptures and above the high heavenly call into Christ Jesus,” said Chandler, who has led the church for 19 years. “The Word of God holds me to a certain standard. And I fell short.”

Chandler is also president and chairman of Acts 29, an international church-planting group. Acts 29 said on Sunday Chandler will halt any speaking engagements on behalf of group.

The announcement comes at a time when some entities with the Southern Baptist Convention face a federal investigation of sexual abuse, and the denomination recently published an internal report on mishandling of abuse.

Chandler said a woman approached him at the church several months ago and told him she was concerned with his communications with her friend. He said he initially did not think he had done anything wrong, as both his wife and the woman’s husband knew about the messages.

But Chandler said he found the confrontation “disorienting” and informed another senior pastor and an elder, who reviewed the messages and found the frequency and familiarity concerning.

In a written statement, the church said it hired an independent law firm to review Chandler’s messages across social media platforms, cell phone and email. The report found that Chandler had violated the church’s social media use policies.

On Sunday, Baptist News wrote that the news “hit an unusual chord in a time when Southern Baptists and other churches are focused on child sexual abuse and marital infidelity.”

The Village Church is a large and influential Southern Baptist congregation in D-FW. In 2019, a woman sued the church for $1 million and said she was sexually assaulted by a minister and counselor at age 11.