In August of 2022, I broke a 4-year absence from blogging to write a plea to pastor Matt Chandler. Basically, upon learning that he was stepping down from the pulpit for a time, I sent a cry into nowhere asking him – Don’t just leave. Months later, upon learning that he had been “restored” to preach, I wrote another post “to” Matt. Not that I expected him to ever read it. And no, I’m not following up to say that I found out he did. Still pretty sure he didn’t and probably won’t ever read my blog. After all, this blog is just a pinwheel in a hurricane, right? But I’ve been writing ever since that point. Something awakened in me. I’m grateful!

So here I go, writing yet another post about Matt Chandler. I’ve only had opportunity to watch Chandler from a distance (via the interwebs), but I find him to be very down-to-earth yet biblically sound. It’s hard not to like the guy. Self effacing, yet not in any smarmy kind of way. He’s dealt with a pretty huge death diagnosis and lived to tell about it. I genuinely think I could be his friend, and he might even want to be my friend. So as I’m typing this, I wonder why I bother to write about him again? Oh yeah…writing helps the swirly stuff in my brain have a soft place to land. Writing is cathartic and compassionate – for me! Can you see my incredibles (IFS personas) all having a heated discussion here? Yeah…they are.

In August of 2023, Chandler dropped a promo for a new podcast, with the title Overcomers. Ooh, I thought! Maybe this is how he would share his story! Maybe we would get some insight regarding what it meant for him to overcome a personal struggle, a spiritual attack – whatever it was that happened. But the show primarily focuses on the stories of others while remaining silent about whatever it was that Matt went through – whatever it was that required he be removed from his role and put through the ever-secretive restoration process. No answers to be had.

But then, just last month, Matt sat down with people from Covenant Eyes to do an interview with them. Okay, finally. Covenant Eyes is probably the leading content filtering organization out there (I say probably because I don’t want to take the time to verify that statement). If they’re talking with Chandler, maybe they could get to the bottom of all this. I’ll include some quotes, with my thoughts.

“It was just kinda silly, stupid banter, from gifs to, um, just chatter”. Okay, any time I’ve made a statement like this, “I was just…fill in the blank”, it has always, always been my way of trying to make light of or justify my own behavior in some regard. “I was just teasing”. “I just ate two scoops of ice cream”. “I was just driving a little over the speed limit”. “I was just checking to see if a friend had responded to my email while driving, but I only looked away for just a quick moment”. I’m sorry, Matt. This did not make me feel like you were exactly owning your part.

“I believe men and women can be friends”. – Yes, absolutely! Me too. The church may be one of the worst perpetrators (thank you and by thank you I mean the opposite, purity culture) of making men and women enemies. The bible calls us brothers and sisters in Christ – why do we, as the Church (big C – errbody) mostly refer to one another in terms that include vilification and objectification? We can do better. We know purity culture failed. Let’s own it and take a different approach! I’m endeavoring to do this as part something called a Confessional Community – we start meeting next week, so stay tuned. In a real sense, I’ve also been making friends here – through the blogging community. I’m grateful for the (though somewhat limited and remote) friendships I’ve made with some great and talented bloggers! I’m grateful for everyone who is part of my village.

“All my accountability was in place before this”. – That’s not a great promo for accountability, is it? I immediately think of Nate Larkin’s Beyond Accountability eBook, and also the concept of identity (rather than accountability) as written about by Jim Wilder and Marcus Warner in the book Rare Leadership.

“The way the enemy will seek to destroy and devour me probably isn’t going to come through the door I’m staring at”. Indeed, this gives credence to the truth that (insert addiction of choice) isn’t our primary problem, but rather our go-to (failed) solution to the problem. Which, then, becomes yet another problem that can be very difficult to overcome. Pay very close attention to the “man behind the curtain”, but beware that there will always be other curtains, other doors.

“One of my biggest takeaways is to be more mindful of where there might be weaknesses in the protections I’ve put around me – and then be quick to loop in my wife and my community”. For sure! Mindfulness is hugely important, along with having someone else in my life who is not me, who can reflect back the things I am saying, the things I’m thinking. This is why I need connection – more on that in a moment.

“Understanding our compulsions – where we go when we’re stressed – and then being aware that’s probably the door the enemy is going to come through” – THIS. IS. VITAL. This is called recovery. It’s therapy. It’s holistic healing, and it is an ongoing thing. There will always be new doors.

Matt also said that a “friend” who “does addiction ministry” at his church often says “the opposite of addiction is connection“. Umm…yeah, seems I’ve heard that somewhere before. In fact, it’s something we say routinely in Samson Society – a worldwide recovery group that I’ve been part of for a couple of years now. I’m guessing it didn’t originate with us, but yeah – connection is a key element in my recovery loop – for sure! I also wonder…does Matt differentiate himself when it comes to “doing addiction ministry”? It seems like many/most pastors consider this a lesser work. But, just taking a peek at the people Jesus sought out, I’d have to say it might be the greatest work and realest of all ministry.

Oh, and speaking of my recovery loop, I am going to employ one element – curiosity – when observing that it took a solid year and a half before Matt spoke up about what happened. And, I also find it kind of weird that he chose to share about this with Covenant Eyes, as best I can tell – first. Why not share from the pulpit? I am still frustrated that this incredible teaching moment took SO LONG to even happen at all, and that it didn’t happen from the pulpit where he was removed and subsequently restored! I wonder if, at least in part, it might be because the “powers that be” in his church and in leadership over the church would be afraid of fallout – any perception of wrongdoing, but also any financial setbacks as a result? From my admittedly outside perspective (having never set foot or been even near the Villlage Church), it still feels a bit like the leadership of the church and probably the whole Acts 29 Network – of which Matt is the most prolific, visible member/leader, would’ve rather just swept the whole thing under the rug. That gives me a sense of despair and even powerlessness. Will things ever really change – on the macro level – within the (big C) Church? If down-to-earth pastor Matt Chandler in all his earnestness can’t (isn’t allowed to?) talk candidly from his own pulpit about this stuff, without any whiff of justification, then who will ever lead in this regard?

“Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36