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, Chandler has signaled his imminent return to the ministry, writing on Instagram that he’s “eager to return to @tvcfm soon”
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.
