Megachurch Puts Married Pastor On Leave After He Was Caught DMing Another Woman

perezhilton.com:

A Texas pastor has been put on leave following the surfacing of inappropriate messages. Matt Chandler serves as lead pastor for the Village Church in Flower Mound, and is at the center of an investigation regarding Instagram messages between himself and another woman… who is not his wife.

The megachurch posted a statement on their website Sunday addressing the situation: They added Matt had reportedly “shared those concerns with his wife, Lauren, and two elders, Josh Patterson and Elder Chairman Jasien Swords that same evening, and submitted to their leadership in addressing the situation.” Related: American Idol’s David Archuleta Opens Up About Faith & Sexuality It was then decided by said elders that a private law firm would be hired to “conduct a review of Matt’s messaging history across social media platforms, cell phone, and email.” Pretty serious stuff… The investigation ultimately found that although “the messages were not romantic or sexual in nature, the frequency and familiarity of the messages crossed a line.” The church noted boundaries are important, especially as a key figure within the community and found “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.” While addressing the institution directly Sunday, the pastor explained he didn’t believe he had “done anything wrong,” noting that both his wife and the husband of the woman he was messaging were aware of their communication.

He revealed: He then confessed: While we’re not sure what exactly the messages looked like, there definitely is a line between offering