The Village Church, led by pastor Matt Chandler, released a statement concerning the hiring of his father, who previously confessed to child sex abuse.“The Village Church cares deeply about protecting children and the most vulnerable among us,” TVC told ChurchLeadersin a statement. “We have made it one of our top priorities not only to provide for the spiritual care of our members and guests but also to provide for the safety of those attending our gatherings.”
The church added that it employs “best practices—background checks, regular training, and various security protocols—that are informed and shaped through ongoing work with external experts.” TVC said it “continues to invest resources in our growing care ministry to provide Christ-centered transformation, hope, and support.”
“We remain committed to serving as a refuge for the broken and suffering to receive the hope of the gospel,” TVC concluded.
TVC’s statement was issued after two former church members, identified as Chris and Anna, shared their concerns about the hiring of Chandler’s father, Steve Chandler, as a custodian in 2007 on an episode of the “Bodies Behind the Bus” podcast.
The married couple were former members of The Village Church Denton (TVCD), a campus of the Village Church, which became an autonomous church in 2015.
Chris, who served as a lay elder at TVCD, and Anna, who served in the children’s ministry and is a “mandatory reporter,” are now expressing their concerns because TVC has failed to prioritize the protection of the children.
“I literally spend almost 24/7 making sure children are safe and protected [and] I didn’t feel that was being upheld at the church I attended,” Anna said. “That was a big red flag for me.”
They also voiced their indignation that TVC was and its campuses were part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
“When I look back on our time there and think about my regrets, I have a lot of them, and I think that there should have been red flags going up more.”
“But then I have to remind myself that no one stood at the welcome table and said, ‘Hi, welcome! We are an SBC church. We were formed because we wanted to keep our slaves,’” she added. “I tried to give myself grace because there were things that were intentionally not led with and not very forthcoming.”
Chris noted that he first heard about Steve’s past in 2019 after Chris’s pastor at TVCD told him that the church hired Steve Chandler as a custodian from 2007 to 2012 and that Steve “knowingly admitted to child sex abuse.”
At the time, the pastor claimed he wasnot previously awareof Steve’s past admission when he was fired. Chris also said that the elders later met for a special meeting to discuss that they hired someone who previously committed child sex abuse.
“The overwhelming conscience in the room was we got to share something,” he said. “We have to tell the congregation something.”
Despite TVC and TVCD agreeing to share a joint statement with their congregations, Chris said TVC later decided against it.
In a jointstatementby the church, TVCD elders said that, to their knowledge, no current staff members had a “history of perpetrating sexual abuse.” They said, “Our brother Steve Chandler, who served as the custodian of the Denton Campus,” is “the only exception.”
“Steve himself made us aware of his history through sharing his testimony of God’s transforming grace in his life,” the elders said. “Steve first shared his testimony publicly with members of The Village Church in Highland Village through the Recovery Ministry before he was hired on staff.”
“Steve’s testimony included him vulnerably sharing many of his past sins, including his past sin of child sexual abuse 40 years ago,” the elders continued, saying it was “a sin and crime Steve had first voluntarily confessed to the District Attorney and court of law 40 years ago.
The statement pointed out that TVCD didn’t directly hire Steve and was unaware of his child sex abuse until he personally disclosed it with his supervisor. Although a background check was run on Steve, there was no revelation of his past abuse.
After Steve’s history of sexual abuse was disclosed, the elders said that “specific safety standards and protocols were immediately put around Steve that he humbly, and to our knowledge, faithfully submitted himself to during the rest of his tenure of staff.”
The elders contended that they would not “ever hire someone on our church staff who has a history of child sex abuse in their past” and “would immediately report the abuse to the authorities so that an investigation can begin” if an allegation of sexual abuse was ever made against a staff member.
“We would suspend the staff member from their active responsibilities as we work with the authorities to move forward in an investigation,” the elders said. “[Based] on the direction given to us by the authorities, we would communicate with the church as much information as possible.”
“We would also, until the investigation is done, place our parameters for ‘non-registered sex offenders’ around the individual,” the elders said.
Following the elders meeting in 2019, Chris stepped down as an elder at TVCD, ultimately leaving TVCD altogether and later going through a period of “intense deconstruction.”
“My faith looks nothing like it did,” Chris said. “I’m still just trying to have grace for myself—still five years out—I still feel shame and responsibility about what happened and how I was complicit.”
“I’m at a point where I believe there is a God. That’s about as far as I’ll go,” he added. “I think he’s good.”
Meanwhile, Anna said she is “relieved that we still have some faith, not because we were at The Village, but despite them and despite the things that we saw.” She also expressed gratitude that she and her husband “saw the light and got out before their children were older.”
Nowadays, Chris and Anna “loosely” attend a Methodist church. “We will probably never again in our lives have the same ‘church is everything’ type of attitude,” Anna said. “People live, and they learn. And we have learned some really hard lessons.”
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