A hipster megachurch minister who was deserted by his flock amid allegations he was having an affair with a married employee admitted to volunteers that he had kissed the woman and planned to be with her after they were both divorced.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press obtained audio of the December 17 meeting where Tavner Smith, pastor of Venue church, was confronted about a video that seemed to show him planting the kiss on the woman during a trip to Georgia.
He denied that: “I wouldn’t have kissed her in public. That’s the truth.”
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He said they had not been “sexual,” but confessed they had not exactly been chaste.
“Have you kissed?” a volunteer could be heard asking.
“Yes, but caveat—never at any time when either of us was living with our spouses,” Smith replied.
He said he and the worker were in it for the long haul.
“When she’s not married and I’m not married, yeah, we hope to pursue each other,” he said.
As The Daily Beast reported last month, church staffers and congregants began to revolt against Smith after they discovered him at his home with the employee—him in his boxers and her in a towel.
The pair’s excuse was that they had been cooking chili and made a mess.
The video that Smith was grilled about was taken while the employee was staying at an Airbnb in Georgia, where she was getting counseling. Smith said he had previously paid for church workers to stay in Airbnbs while getting counseling for things he “personally was probably responsible for,” the Times Free Press reported.
He went on to stay that he had also paid for gift cards, vehicles and vacations for church associates without telling anyone.
Smith, 41, is now on a sabbatical. During the meeting, he told volunteers he would return to the church—where seats were once packed but where just a few dozen attended a recent service.
“I wanted you to know from the bottom of my heart I’m sorry that I let you down,” he said.
