Top of the Week: Megachurch Pastor Matt Chandler Steps Aside After Inappropriate Online Relationship
The Village Church Lead Pastor Matt Chandler announced Sunday during a church service that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from preaching and teaching after he revealed that he had an inappropriate online relationship with a woman.
During his few minutes on stage, Chandler said that the relationship was not sexual or romantic, but that the church eldership was concerned about the frequency and familiarity of the messages between he and the woman on Instagram.
Chandler, 48, aid he was in total agreement with the elders’ decision to have him step aside for a while, but that he is “the lead pastor of this church, and I plan on being the lead pastor at this church for the next 20 years.”
Shia LaBeouf is no stranger to controversy, and has discovered the world is a dark place without God.
In the past, and recently, LaBeouf has been in hot water for a laundry list of reasons. The actor made his first big splash as a child star in the hit Disney show Even Stevens, and has been caught in a myriad troubling situations. He was once arrested in Walgreens and was charged with assault at an anti-Trump protest. He was in a dark place in his life before filming of his latest movie began.
During an interview with Word on Fire Catholic Ministries’ Bishop Robert Barron, LaBeouf explained how he had been at the end of his rope, and was contemplating suicide:
Those who live by Christian values have always had values non-believers didn’t understand. As a kid my church condemned smoking, drinking, dancing and other things non-Pentecostals couldn’t understand. I guarantee the pulpit committee didn’t consider any pastor who did any of those things.
Over the years, the secular world has pretty much ignored religious nuts who could not only live such a rigid lifestyle, but sing and clap and pray loudly, often in unknown tongues. That’s if we didn’t interfere with what they liked doing. One hundred years ago the Christian taboo against drinking was so strong it resulted in the 18th amendment passed Jan. 16, 1919, what we call “Prohibition.” It was enormously unpopular and was repealed on Dec. 5, 1933.
We could use other examples but fast-forward to now where the general society wants to end unwanted pregnancies even though Christians call that killing an unborn baby. They want free-rein on any sort of sexuality whether it’s the grossest pornography, homosexuality and now even transgenderism. So who stands against those things? It’s not just Christians because sadly many who call themselves Christians compromise on those and other things. It’s Bible-believing Christians who not only live it but put it in their codes of conduct.
A few days after calling evangelist, author and Christian artist Sean Feucht “blasphemous” on social media, GOD TV took to social media once again Thursday to issue an apology to Feucht.
On Sunday, the Christian media network sent out a tweet that criticized Feucht for retweeting a message from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis’ message was: “You gotta be ready for battle. So put on the full armor of God. Take a stand against the Left’s schemes. Stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. You will face fire from flaming arrows, but the shield of faith will protect.”
GOD TV apparently took exception to Feucht’s actions, saying Feucht and DeSantis “changed the Word of God”—Ephesians 6:11-12—for political purposes. “Perhaps Sean did not fully realize what he was sending out. But this is exactly the opposite of what Paul is communicating in Ephesians 6. In fact, this could be considered blasphemous. … Sadly, many have merged politics with Jesus, when in fact, Jesus transcends politics.”
This past week, I created quite a little stir. God TV took to social media to criticize me for reposting a tweet from Gov. Ron DeSantis that they disagreed with, accusing me of being “blasphemous.”
The post says, “Take a stand against the Left’s schemes. Stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. You will face fire from flaming arrows, but the shield of faith will protect you.”
God TV said, “Our battle is against Satan,” to which I agree. But the Left is pushing policies that fall in step with the enemy’s schemes to kill, steal and destroy. Satan has always worked to undermine God’s design for humanity— it started in the Garden of Eden, and continues to this day. Satan hates everything of God’s design, and is actively working to destroy it. {eoa}
