Matt Chandler To Return to the Pulpit this Sunday After 3 Month Suspension

Months after the elder board of The Village Church temporarily suspended lead pastor Matt Chandler over engaging in an inappropriate, overly familiar conversation with a woman, the church has announced that Chandler has completed his restoration process and is returning to the pulpit on December 4th, the 20th anniversary of the church’s first service. They explain:

“Matt has been diligently working through a development plan that we laid out for him…We asked a lot of Matt, including time spent in study and prayer, personal reflection, and multiple intensives with trusted outside experts. Matt has completed everything asked of him with submissiveness, steadfastness, and humility, and we have received positive feedback from all involved. We have been encouraged by his posture throughout, and we remain so.”

Previously, the Village Church announced that Chandler would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from preaching and teaching after Chandler was accused of engaging in an inappropriate texting conversation with a woman, not his wife. The church said that while it was not romantic or sexual, it was “overly familiar” and involved “coarse and foolish jesting.” Furthermore, the church hired a law firm to conduct an investigation into Chandler’s behavior, and said that the suspension was based on their findings.

According to his friend Preston Sprinkle, the church’s language surrounding the incident suggested a far more severe offence than occurred. He alleges that the “coarse joking” was not sexual at all but involved joking about alcohol. 

Furthermore, he explained that the woman Chandler was DMing was not offended by their banter, did not consider herself a victim, and urged Matt not to apologize. Preston alleged that the woman who confronted Chandler followed a stringent interpretation of the Billy Graham rule that precluded these conversations- an interpretation neither Chandler nor his messaging partner held.

Lastly, Sprinkle claimed that the investigation results by the lawyers into his phone and tablet came back clean, with no porn, sexual messaging, or otherwise inappropriate conversations found anywhere on Chandler’s computers or electronic devices. 

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