In 2021, Johnna Harris reached out to me, asking if we could have a conversation about some blog posts that I had written about churches in the Acts29 Network. She & Jay Coile were working on developing a podcast where their vision was to give a voice to those who were hurt in these churches- a safe place where they could tell their story. They did just that, and Bodies Behind the Bus was born. In the 3 years since it started, Johnna & Jay have given a voice to hundreds of victims of church abuse and are doing amazing work in the kingdom of God. I am honored to call Johnna my friend and co-laborer.
This morning, a new episode of Bodies Behind the Bus was released. Johnna & Jay spoke with two former members of The Village Church (I will refer to as TVC), Chris & Anna, who shared their story about what occurred while they attending & serving at the Denton campus. I was asked to help with the research for the podcast. It is difficult to share this story as it was told on the podcast, and equally difficult to write about on this blog. I will use the word ‘allegedly’ in terms of any allegations/accusations & personal opinions…..for the lawyers.
For those who aren’t familiar with The Village Church, it is a large megachurch in the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound. The lead pastor/elder is Matt Chandler, who is also an executive chairman at the Acts 29 Network. Matt is a well-known mega church pastor with a very large following and a wide influence within evangelicalism.
Chris & Anna's Story
Chris & Anna began attending The Village Church’s Denton campus in 2011. In 2015, the campus became an autonomous church, and in 2017 Chris became an elder, while Anna served in the children’s ministry..
In 2019, Chris was the chairman of the elder board. In February of that year, the Houston Chronicle had published its ABUSE OF FAITH series, exposing a widespread cover up of sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). When the SBC Annual Meeting took place in June, there was a lot of discussion about the sexual abuse crisis in the SBC.
Chris and the TVC Denton campus pastor were at that annual meeting in Birmingham, AL. While not named in the podcast, the TVC Denton Campus pastor in 2019 was Beau Hughes, who is still on staff at The Village Church-Denton. Beau confided in Chris that a former employee of the TVC Denton Campus had confessed in a Celebrate Recovery meeting that he had sexually abused a child in the past. This confession was made prior to his employment at The Village Church.
The former employee was Matt Chandler’s father, Steve Chandler.
According to Beau, Steve was hired to work as a custodian at The Village Church Denton Campus in 2007, and allegedly the staff involved in his hiring had no knowledge of his confession. In a church statement (I’ll cover that below), Steven Chandler confessed to sexually abusing a child over 40 years ago (from the date of the confession, sometime prior to 2007). In this confession he claimed he had self-reported to authorities and the district attorney in California (where the Chandler’s lived at the time) and that he had participated in an intensive 5 year intensive therapy program for sex offenders. Since Steve passed a background check, there was no reason not to hire him. For some unknown reason, in April 2009, allegedly ALL TVC staff were made aware of Steve’s confession, and told that a care plan was in place. A care plan, that to this day, according to Chris, has not been defined in its scope or practice. Executive leadership also decided to keep him on staff. Like Anna stated in the podcast, Steve’s position gave him unfettered access to every square inch of the Denton campus property, along with knowledge of where any cameras were located.
Imagine if you found out that the janitor at your child’s school had confessed to sexually abusing a child? Would you not demand that janitor be fired….IMMEDIATELY??
When Chris returned to Dallas after the conference, he met with the other elders at the Denton campus. According to Chris, the elders felt that the best course of action was to be transparent and victim-centric, and that a statement should be made to the congregation. After more meetings, the consensus began shift to draft a statement that would be more protective of Steve Chandler and to focus on his restoration. As a courtesy, the elders at TVC Denton felt it would be important to notify the leadership at the main TVC campus in Flower Mound. After the elders at the main campus were notified, a meeting was setup with 4 staff members from Denton (including Chris), and 3 staff members from the TVC main campus (lead pastor, Josh Patterson; lead pastor, Brian Miller & Executive Director of Care, Summer Vinson-Berger) as well as a person who was their representative legal counsel.
During the meeting, Chris said the person providing legal counsel questioned why Chris & the other elders wanted to issue a statement, since they didn’t have any legal obligation to do so. Chris and the elders stood their ground and insisted that it was the right thing to do. According to Chris, Josh Patterson was quoted as saying;
“This information in the wrong hands could take down The Village, and could take down the Chandler’s.”
Chris said that he felt “very strong, strong pressure from The Village Church to NOT share this information”.
It must be noted that the elders at TVC Denton had NO OBLIGATION to agree or adhere to any assessment or recommendation given by the main TVC campus, and according to Chris, they were intimidated by the staff and legal counsel from the TVC main campus NOT to disclose this information about Steve Chandler.
At the insistence of the elders at TVC Denton, a decision was made that a statement would be issued to both churches on July 14, 2019, during a regularly scheduled church meeting. On the morning of July 14th, Chris was informed by the main TVC Campus that they would not be issuing their statement to the congregation.
Here is a copy of the statement that was read to the members that were present at the TVC-Denton meeting:
Let’s recap what we have so far:
1 – Steve Chandler confesses to sexually abusing a child in a recovery meeting at TVC Flower Mound (prior to 2007, exact date unknown)
2- In 2007, TVC Denton hires Steve as a custodian
3 – In 2009 ALL TVC staff are supposedly informed of Steve’s confession & executive leadership decides to keep him on staff
4 – Supposedly a ‘care plan’ had been put in place to ensure the safety of the members of TVC
5 – At no point are the members of the other TVC campuses formally informed of Steve Chandler’s confession of child sexual abuse
6 – TEN YEARS LATER, in 2019, TVC Denton pastor Beau Hughes tells Chris about Steve’s employment at The Village Church Denton
**A months long search was conducted to obtain any public records of Steve Chandler’s legal case, with no success. It can be speculated that Chandler said he reported himself to authorities in order discourage anyone who heard the confession to report to the authorities, because supposedly he had already gone through a legal process. We may never know whether or not this crime was reported to authorities, unless someone comes forward with corroborating proof/documentation.
Who Knew
I found archived website pages from The Village Church on the Wayback Machine, which shows that Steve Chandler was on staff as a custodian at the Denton campus in October of 2007. On that same staff webpage, it lists Glenn Campbell as the facilities manager & Beau Hughes as the campus pastor. I would assume these were the staff members that were involved in hiring Steven at the Denton campus. At that time, there were no plurality of elders at the Denton campus, and campus pastor Beau Hughes would have been the only representative elder from the Denton campus. In the 2019 elders statement, it stated that those in charge of hiring staff for that department were not aware of Steve’s confession in Celebrate Recovery, and that since he passed a background check, there was no reason not to hire him. We can reasonably assume that Matt Chandler knew his father was employed at the church. His own mother, Janet Chandler, worked as an assistant at TVC Denton at the time.
This claim of ignorance is preposterous, and I hope the members at The Village Church can see through this very weak excuse to justify hiring a confessed child sexual abuser, then allowing him to remain on staff after it became more widely known. In my opinion it would be logistically impossible for Matt to not know that his own father was employed at the church where he is lead pastor/elder. In the statement read to the members at TVC Denton, leadership attempted to blame the chain of command for hiring Steve. I believe that this explanation was given to allow Matt Chandler to avoid accountability. Sound familiar? Let’s be honest here, an exception was most likely made for Matt Chandler, and since he’s the guy in charge, he probably rubber stamped the hiring of his dad. The buck stops with him.
Matt Chandler (allegedly) knowingly and negligently employed his father, a confessed child sex abuser, with no regard to the safety of the members/attenders of The Village Church.
What’s troubling to me is the way Steve Chandler is hailed as a hero for coming forward with his confession of child sexual abuse, and that his perceived willingness to be open & honest should grant him some sort of automatic trust. In this sermon transcript from 12/30/12, Jeremy Daniel announces Steve’s end of employment, and in light of what we know now, it’s a little uncomfortable to read.
LEGAL TROUBLES AT THE VILLAGE CHURCH
At the time this information was disclosed to Chris in 2019, The Village Church was embroiled in a lawsuit with a family whose daughter was abused at a camp in 2012. It would appear to me that TVC would not have wanted this issue to surface, because it could have certainly hurt their legal case. In my opinion, it sheds light on why legal counsel was brought to the meeting between the elders of TVC Denton & the main TVC campus.
Matt Chandler & The Village Church are no strangers to controversy when it comes to sexual abuse allegations/cover ups.
In 2015, The Village Church attempted to excommunicate a covenant member who filed for an annulment from her husband. Jordan Root had confessed to viewing child sexual abuse material while on a mission assignment overseas. The church tried to convince Karen Hinkley Root to reconcile with her husband Jordan by way of a letter that was sent out to 6000 covenant members of The Village Church, claiming that Jordan had “repented and appears to be under submission to the direction of his elders and pastors“. Karen did not succumb to the pressure & harassment, and instead told her story to two bloggers Dee Parsons at the Wartburg Watch and Amy Smith at Watchkeep, who spearheaded the effort to hold The Village Church accountable for how Karen was treated. The Village Church eventually apologized to Karen & released her from membership after public pressure mounted.
In 2019, Andrew Landrum, a youth worker at the Fort Worth campus, confessed to sexually abusing a child. I wrote about that here.
In 2020, Anthony Moore, former TVC-Fort Worth Campus pastor, was fired from Cedarville University when it was discovered that he sexually abused a subordinate staff member (who also happened to be a former roommate of Andrew Landrum) while employed at The Village Church. Moore was fired by TVC in January 2017. Chandler’s announcement to the church stated that Moore had engaged “egregious immoral actions against another adult member that disqualify him as an elder and staff member.” Julie Roys wrote about that here.
Matt has had his own troubles as well. In 2022, The Village Church put Matt on a leave of absence after a woman approached him after services in Feb 2022 regarding his private messaging with her friend on Instagram. In the formal statement to the church, Matt admitted to inappropriate, but not disqualifying conduct, and to this day no one is absolutely sure what the content of those messages were-messages that would warrant a 3 month leave of absence and church discipline. It appears that Chandler believes he is above the rules, or that he sets them himself and everyone else must follow.
I find it exceedingly duplicitous that while having several incidences of sexual offenses associated with his church, Matt Chandler (allegedly) hid the secret of his father’s crime. He has also been accused of being less than pastoral when dealing with the family of the girl abused at a TVC camp, and also in how he treated Karen Hinkley. The irony and duplicity cannot be overlooked.
A Painful Legacy
Matt Chandler has been forthcoming about his childhood. He has stated many times that his father was abusive while he was growing up. In an interview with John Piper in February of 2009, Chandler said that in his childhood home, “there was every kind of abuse imaginable.”
In this audio clip from a TVC sermon in May 2006, Matt talks about the legacy of abuse in his family.
In 2019, Matt left his summer sabbatical to appear on Baptist21 at the SBC Annual Meeting to address the sexual abuse lawsuit at The Village Church. He again states there was sexual abuse in his family.
I think it’s painfully obvious that Chandler knew about his father’s crime, yet he (allegedly) eschewed his responsibility as a pastor, and allowed him to be employed by the church that he leads and is responsible for.
It’s inexcusable.
Understanding Child Sexual Abusers
There is a tremendous lack of knowledge in the church when it comes to child sexual abusers. The tendency is to cloak the abuser in the religious language of ‘repentance’, ‘restoration’ & ‘forgiveness’ while ignoring the dynamics of how child sexual abusers lie, manipulate and groom everyone around them.
In the book, “Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists & Other Sex Offenders’, Dr. Anna Salter writes:
“It is precisely our lack of knowledge and understanding that gives predators their edge….. What these experiences have taught me is that even when people are warned by a previously founded case or even a conviction, they still routinely underestimate the pathology with which they are dealing. Niceness and likability will override a track record of child molestation any day of the week.”
The naïveté of the average church member is what allows a child sexual abuser to prey freely in the church. As long as the child sexual abuser cries a few tears, says all the right words & promises to behave, people just blindly just take the abusers word for it – the word of someone who harmed a child for their own sexual gratification. Salter again writes,
“If offenders are just victims, then no one has to face the reality of malevolence, the fact that there are people out there who prey on others for reasons we simply don’t understand.”
I am not casting judgment on Steve Chandler. What I am stating is that according to experts, people who commit the crimes of pedophila are difficult to treat. There is typically more than one victim. These are just statistics, gleaned from years of research by mental health professionals. Jimmy Hinton, whose own pastor father was convicted of multiple child sexual assaults, speaks candidly about the reality of child sexual abusers – they are remarkably compliant, highly manipulative & difficult to treat therapeutically. While we would like to believe that child sexual abusers are honest and forthright about their crimes, it is more likely that they are not. Anna Salter again writes,
“If it is in the offender’s best interests to lie, and if he can do it and not get caught, he will lie.”
The current sexual abuse crisis in the church tells us that this naivete’ is dangerous & puts children at risk. We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand and claim that mere words of repentance are sufficient to cure this very serious paraphilia. At their core, a child sexual abuser is a manipulator and the depravity runs deep. To act out sexually with children is a sickness, that according to Dr. Salter, there is no cure. It can only be managed. Dr. Diane Langberg, a renowned expert in the field of abuse, wrote an article, “How Should the Church Respond to Abusers?” In it she writes,
“To see abuse as simply a wrong action that needs to be stopped (though it certainly does) is to minimize and externalize what is a cancer of the soul and does great damage to the abused…..To abuse a vulnerable child (or adult) is to alter the course of their life. The shape of their life and their sense of self has significantly changed. Those heinous actions are spillage from the heart of the abuser and exposure of the cancer deep within. When the church shows “grace” in response to a few approved words and some tears, we have done added damage to the victim, risked the safety of other sheep and left the abuser with a disease that will rot his/her soul…..Sexual abuse is a cancer; a practiced sin with an underlying, often hidden infrastructure. The abuse is the fruit of that substructure. Roots go down deep into practiced deception which becomes metastasized sin. Abuse is the external exposure of that internal, life strangling system. A response of mere words and emotions is hardly sufficient.
When churches have asked what I recommend when dealing with someone whose has sexually abused children my response is – do not allow him/her to attend church….Do we really think that if we permit an abuser of children into the sanctuary that we can guarantee the safety of the vulnerable? And do we not understand that even if nothing overt occurs, that deceptive heart and mind is feeding off the little ones sitting in the pews, strengthening his/her own sin patterns while looking good?”
Sobering words from Dr. Langberg. The church can no longer afford to take ANY chances when it comes to the safety of children. It cannot elevate the claims of repentance and change of an abuser over the safety of innocent children. A man who has confessed to sexually abusing a child should never work in a church – ever. It’s completely unacceptable.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN NOW?
The evangelical world is still reeling from the recent exposure of Robert Morris, who began sexually assaulting Cindy Clemishire when she was 12 years old. Assaults that continued for 4 1/2 years. The response of his church, Shady Grove, in 1987 is nothing short of abhorrent – as they allowed Morris to continue on in ministry without skipping a beat. That is what makes this story at The Village Church especially egregious.
The public outrage is absolutely justified in Morris’ case; the public defense of Morris is equally horrifying. There have been no shortage of people taking to the internet to defend Morris, claiming that ‘it happened so long ago, why bring it up now?” I will cut everyone off at the pass here and say that there is NO DEFENSE for Matt Chandler in this case. It doesn’t matter when the crime took place – it doesn’t matter whether it was dealt with legally or not – what matters is that a man, Chandler’s own father, confessed AT THE CHURCH to sexually abusing a child and was allowed to be employed (with the highest levels of access) at a church where children were present – AND NO ONE INFORMED THE MEMBERS.
Let’s also not forget that Steve Chandler has a victim out there somewhere. A victim that has had to live their life with the scars of sexual abuse; their life irrevocably changed forever because of this man. They may have been told to get over it, to forgive him or worse yet, that it was their fault. Imagine that his victim is watching him being celebrated for his confession, while they bear the scars of his abuse. He may have more victims. Based on statistics, it’s very possible.
What The Village Church statement lacked was any care or concern for Steve Chandler’s victim, and no appeal for other potential victims to come forward. I would like to say to Steve Chandler’s victim – I am grieved over the abuse you suffered, and how your abuser was celebrated.
You deserved more.
My heart also goes out to Chris & Anna, who have carried this story with them for five long years. The weight of carrying this story has severely impacted their faith. This cannot be overlooked. There are ripple effects of sexual abuse that can affect an entire community.
Chris & Anna – you are brave.
in my opinion, what we have seen here is that a pastor of one of the most influential churches in America, who is also an executive chairman of the Acts29 Network, allegedly put the safety of his congregation at risk to protect a family member. I believe his judgment is flawed & dangerous. This cannot be tolerated.
Matt Chandler must step down. I believe that his continual lack of judgment has rendered him unfit to lead his church or to lead in any ministry capacity. How many more secrets are being covered up? We may never know.
"......be sure, your sin will find you out."
Numbers 32:23
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Ugh. So, sad. In the name of restoration and redemption, wisdom was cast out the window. Pedophilia is a crime. Consequences, even though the criminal and civil statutes have passed, should be for a lifetime. The victim bears a lifetime of cosequences: so should the abuser. I have respect for Mr. Chandler confessing. I have no respect for elders hiring him at a church. Mr. Chandler could work on an assembly manufacturing line, but never near children. Ever.
Thanks, Anna for another well-researched and written article. You have done a good job of listing the many abusive scandals that have taken place in TVC. I agree with your conclusion that Matt Chandler must step down.
Good job Anna! Always able to succinctly give written word to these atrocities. I have emails between u and me regarding Jason Hilleman and Josh Patterson at this time.June/July 2019. To me this all makes sense now. Remember I shut down request by Josh and Summer to meet to see what I knew. U also wrote about that. . The victims of the village church directly or indirectly r VAST!