As the Village Church announced that lead pastor Matt Chandler would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from preaching and teaching after it was revealed he was engaged in an inappropriate texting conversation with a woman not his wife, (the conversation, while not romantic or sexual, was described as “overly familiar” and involved “coarse and foolish jesting.”) it was also shared that the church hired a law firm conduct an investigation into Chandler’s behavior, and that the suspension was based on their findings.
During the service Chandler mentioned that events happened “several months ago” when in reality they occurred in February 2022, half a year ago. It is unclear why the investigation took so long, or rather why the church took six months to make it public. According to a statement by The Village:
“While the messages were not romantic or sexual in nature, the frequency and familiarity of the messages crossed a line. They revealed that Matt did not use language appropriate for a pastor, and he did not model a behavior that we expect from him.”
As a result:
“(We) commissioned an independent law firm to conduct a review of Matt’s messaging history across social media platforms, cell phone, and email. The investigators’ report led the elders to conclude that Matt violated our internal social media use policies, and more importantly that, while the overarching pattern of his life has been “above reproach”, he failed to meet the 1 Timothy standard for elders of being “above reproach” in this instance.”
The law firm they hired to sift through his social media is Castañeda and Heidelman, described as a “boutique law firm with a national presence focused on litigation, investigations, employment, regulatory compliance, and intellectual property/data privacy” who serve “Fortune 500 corporate clients, medium sized private businesses in diverse industries, sophisticated faith-based and humanitarian non-profits, and high net worth executives.”
