Matt Chandler under fire as podcast alleges Village Church hired father despite known abuse (2024)

(RNS) — On an episode of the “Bodies Behind the Bus” podcast Wednesday (July 11), two former members of the Village Church Denton in Denton, Texas, alleged that church leaders employed a custodian for five years, despite knowing he had previously admitted to sexually abusing a child. The custodian, they said, was Steve Chandler, the father of Matt Chandler, lead pastor of its umbrella church at the time.

The allegations have sparked controversy online, with some calling the church’s decision not to inform the congregation until 2019 “unacceptable” and others calling for the resignation of Matt Chandler, a popular author and Acts 29 executive chairman. A few have drawn comparisons to Hillsong Church co-founder Brian Houston, who was charged in Australia with concealing his late father, Frank Houston’s, sexual abuse of a young man. Brian Houston was acquitted in August.

In response to questions about Steve Chandler, Village Church told Religion News Service that they care deeply about protecting children and prioritize the safety of those who attend their gatherings.

“We employ best practices—background checks, regular training, and various security protocols—that are informed and shaped through ongoing work with external experts,” they said in a statement. “We remain committed to serving as a refuge for the broken and suffering to receive the hope of the gospel.”

Pastor Beau Hughes at The Village Church Denton did not respond to a request for comment.

Formerly a satellite campus of The Village Church, a Dallas-area multi-campus Southern Baptist megachurch led by Matt Chandler, The Village Church Denton became an autonomous church in 2015. Two former members, introduced on the podcast only as Chris and Anna, said they joined the church in 2011. Chris, who said he served as chairman of the elder board, told podcast hosts Johnna Harris and Jay Coile that in 2019, a pastor informed him that Steve Chandler, before being hired at the church in 2007, had confessed to committing child sexual abuse several decades prior.

Though the elders proposed sharing Steve Chandler’s past with the congregation, the main Village campus and its legal counsel became involved, Chris said, and the lawyer attempted to dissuade the Denton leaders from addressing the allegations.

“There was a lot of concern for Steve,” said Chris on the podcast. “Not a ton of concern for any potential victim.” Though no longer employed there, Steve Chandler was still a member of the Denton church at the time.

While the main Village campus decided not to share the allegations, according to Chris, the Denton leaders reportedly read a pre-written statement to congregants at a July 14, 2019, church meeting. Screenshots of an email showing a draft of the statement are posted in the show notes of the podcast episode.

Per the statement, Steve Chandler had shared his testimony, “including his past sin of child sexual abuse 40 years ago,” at a recovery program at another Village Church location prior to being hired in 2007.

The statement indicates that those who supervised and hired Steve Chandler didn’t initially know of the past abuse and that it hadn’t turned up in a background check. According to the statement, Steve Chandler confessed the crime to “the District Attorney and court of law 40 years ago,” was never indicted in court and received court-ordered counseling for five years.

Then, in 2009, according to the statement, church staff learned about Steve Chandler’s “testimony” and began implementing safety protocols. The details of those protocols were not shared publicly.

“The protocol is above and beyond what the law requires of us to do. And it is protocol that he still today, as a member of our church, faithfully submits to and abides by,” the statement says.

The statement adds that church leaders decided not to terminate Steve Chandler due to “the theological underpinnings of God’s redemptive grace and sanctification.”

Though the podcast episode doesn’t clarify whether Steve is a member at the Denton church today, his wife (and Matt Chandler’s mother), Janet Chandler, is still a deacon at Denton church.

In an email to RNS, Johnna Harris and Jay Coile voiced concern that The Village Church seemed to prioritize its brand over victims.

“In our view, this week’s podcast shows that more recent allegations about The Village Church aren’t raised in a vacuum. From our previous coverage of the 2012 allegations of sexual molestation of a minor at a church camp to Matt Chandler’s strange leave of absence in 2022 after being confronted about his private messages, there seem to be direct parallels in how The Village handles concerning incidents,” they wrote.

These are the latest in a string of allegations involving The Village Church-affiliated entities in recent years; in 2022 Matt Chandler took a three-month leave of absence following reports of online communication with a woman who is not his wife, and in 2019, The Village Church faced a lawsuit involving allegations that a former youth minister had molested a child at a church camp. In 2020, the criminal charges against the youth minister were dropped, and in 2022 The Village Church reached a settlement in the civil case.