‘UNWISE’

Texas Megachurch Pastor in Hot Water Over ‘Unhealthy’ Instagram Relationship

The megachurch leader Matt Chandler said he plans to step down after it was revealed he conducted an inappropriate online relationship with a woman.

A prominent pastor in the Southern Baptist community said Sunday he would take an indefinite leave of absence from preaching and teaching over what he called an inappropriate online relationship with a woman. Matt Chandler, who leads The Village Church in Dallas, denied he had engaged in a sexual or romantic relationship with the woman, who is not his wife. But, Chandler acknowledged, his “coarse” direct messages over Instagram to her were “unguarded and unwise” and “revealed something unhealthy in me.” Speaking to his congregation, according to The Dallas Morning News, Chandler explained that he initially believed the messages were innocuous—particularly as his wife and the other woman’s husband both knew about them. But he was caught off-guard after a friend of the woman confronted him at the church over the nature of the messages. Chandler approached the church elders, who agreed the messages were concerning. The revelation comes less than three weeks after leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention announced that federal investigators were probing the denomination for allegations of clergy sex abuse.