Former members of the The Village Church Denton (TVCD), who identified themselves as Chris and Anna, spoke with “The Bodies Behind The Bus” podcast to discuss how Matt Chandler‘s father, Steve Chandler, who previously confessed to child sex abuse, was hired as a custodian at TVCD in 2007.
Until it became an autonomous church in 2015, TVCD was a campus of The Village Church (TVC), which has been pastored by Matt Chandler 2002.
According to the married couple, 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 sounding the alarm because they saw TVC fail to prioritize the protection of the children.
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“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.”
The couple shared their displeasure that TVC and its campuses were part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Anna commented, “When 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 shared that he first heard about Steve’s past in 2019 after Chris’ pastor at TVCD confided in him. The pastor did so after news came out that the SBC had a sexual abuse crisis within some of its churches.
The TVCD pastor told Chris that the church had hired Matt Chandler’s father as a custodian from 2007 to 2012 and that Steve “knowingly admitted to child sex abuse.” Chris said that the TVCD pastor claimed he was unaware of Steve’s past admission when Steve was hired.
Chris recalled that the elders later met for a special meeting to discuss the fact that they had hired someone who had confessed to child sex abuse.
“The overwhelming conscience in the room was we got to share something,” he said. “We have to tell the congregation something.”
Chris shared that he was encouraged by the elders’ actions. The elders felt they needed to disclose the information now, over six years after Steve was no longer the church’s custodian, because “it’s the right thing to do” and so that “any potential victim could feel safe to come forward.”
However, Chris felt that as subsequent meetings took place, the “primary purpose” shifted to “we just need to share this thing and get out of it unscathed.”
Some of the elders became concerned about how Steve would react. “Not a ton of concern for any potential victim,” Chris said.
Chris indicated that he was told that Steve “confessed in California, had intensive court ordered therapy, and he had gone through steps in recovery. It was at one of those recovery meetings that he confessed that he had been a perpetrator of sexual abuse.”
Chris said he was tasked by his pastor to find Steve’s court records but was unable to find anything that substantiated the Steve’s claims. “He turned himself in and therefore wasn’t indicted,” Chris was told. “It didn’t make sense to me legally.”
Chris also said that when Steve was hired, his hiring would have taken place at TVC main campus. He then would have assigned to a campus.
According to Chris, leadership from both TVC and TVCD met 13 days prior to the TVCD members’ meeting in which the congregation would be informed about Steve’s past. Chris said TVC’s lawyer led the leader meeting and asked TVCD leadership why they wanted to inform the congregation of Steve’s past.
