DENTON (TX)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
July 12, 2024
By Ann Marie Shambaugh
Matt Chandler’s Dallas-area megachurch employed his father for five years as a custodian, despite his father’s admission he had committed a child sex crime, a former elder at The Village Church Denton said.
Matt Chandler’s father, Steve Chandler, worked at the Denton, Texas, campus of The Village Church from 2007 to 2012. In 2015, the Denton campus became an autonomous church, The Village Church Denton.
In a statement read during a members meeting July 14, 2019, The Village Church Denton stated that Steve Chandler had committed a child sex crime 40 years prior. The statement said that staff at both the Denton campus and all locations of The Village Church became aware of Steve Chandler’s criminal past in 2009, yet he remained on staff for another three years.
Until this week, news about Steve Chandler’s criminal past and church employment was not widely known. However, on July 10, The Bodies Behind the Bus (BBTB) podcast broadcast this news during an episode featuring the former chairman of the elder board at The Village Church Denton and his wife.
The couple were identified simply as Chris and Anna. However, The Roys Report (TRR) found the couple’s last name and confirmed their identities with BBTB. We have agreed not to report the couple’s full names to comply with Chris and Anna’s stated wishes.
On the podcast, Chris said he first became aware of Steve Chandler’s sex crime at the 2019 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). According to Chris, the SBC’s handling of sexual abuse was a major focus at the annual meeting, because the Houston Chronicle had recently reported on widespread sexual abuses and cover-ups within the denomination.
Also, the day before the SBC meeting, The New York Times reported that a former associate children’s minister at The Village Church had been arrested and charged with molesting a girl who attended the church at summer camp.
Chris said a pastor from The Village Church Denton told him in a private conversation about Steve Chandler’s criminal past and employment. Chris said he was initially “very confused” about how this could have happened and that he quickly went into “detective mode” to learn as much as he could.
This eventually led the leaders at the Denton church to disclose the information at a member’s meeting, which was attended by 50-100 people. Chris said church leaders previously indicated that member meetings were for “family business information that ought not be shared outside the family.”
According to Chris, the main campus of The Village Church (TVC) in Flower Mound, Texas, had planned to inform its congregation about Steve Chandler’s past the same day. However, shortly before the planned meeting, TVC’s leaders decided not to tell the congregation, Chris said.
TRR has reached out to TVC and Steve Chandler for comment, but has not received a response.
Steve Chandler reportedly confesses at Celebrate Recovery
According to the statement, Steve Chandler first shared about his child sex crime with others in the recovery ministry at The Village Church’s Highland Village campus, Celebrate Recovery. The statement did not indicate when the confession happened, but stated it occurred before Steve 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. A sin and crime Steve had first voluntarily confessed to the district attorney and court of law 40 years ago,” the statement reads.
Although it claims Steve Chandler’s admission was public knowledge, the statement reveals that “those who were directly involved and responsible for hiring” him, including his immediate supervisor, were not aware of it. It states that his supervisor, all staff at the Denton campus and all staff at The Village Church were notified of his alleged crime in 2009. It does not explain why it was disclosed at that time.
“The decision was made not to terminate Steve from the church’s staff,” the statement reads. “At the time, this decision was made based on the theological underpinnings of God’s redemptive grace and sanctification. These theological convictions led the Executive Staff of The Village Church to not terminate Steve from our staff but to place the safety protocol around him for the remainder of his time on staff.”
The church implemented “specific safety standards and protocols” in 2009 for Steve Chandler, according to the statement. It does not state what those were, and Chris said on the Bodies Behind the Bus podcast that he never received them despite repeated requests, even during his time as chair of the elder board.
According to the statement, Steve Chandler’s criminal history did not show up on a background check.
“This is because Steve was never indicted by the court, due to his voluntary compliance with and completion of all requirements set forth by the court, including a period of intense counseling for five years,” the statement reads, noting that the National Sex Offender registry did not exist at the time of the alleged crime.
On BBTB, Chris and podcast co-host Johnna Harris said they had not been able to find any public records or court documents connected to Steve Chandler’s alleged child sex crime. Chris said he believes a court in California handled the matter.
Handling of Steve Chandler matter leads to resignation
On the podcast, Chris said he felt in 2019 that the statement about Steve Chandler was adequate but has since come to believe it fell short in many ways. For example, it did not address victims or encourage potential victims in the church to come forward.
“When we actually shared with the congregation, it was clear that the primary purpose was to make sure that the congregation knew that (Steve) was ‘restored’ and had overcome these struggles,” Chris said. “The fact that that was the main thing that was communicated in the statement goes to show there wasn’t a ton of concern for potential victims.”
Chris said leaders from the Flower Mound church were hesitant to share the information about Steve Chandler’s past because if it ended up in the wrong hands, it could “take down The Village and it could take down the Chandlers.”
Chris said he stepped down as chair of the elder board and then resigned from the board soon after the meeting. He and Anna stopped attending the church not long after that. On the podcast, Anna said she and Chris “attend a Methodist church very loosely now.”
“We will probably never again in our lives have the same church-as-everything type of attitude,” Anna said. “People live and they learn, and we’ve learned some really hard lessons.”