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by WILL FOLKS
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Another South Carolina church finds itself embroiled in scandal after one pastor accused another of an extramarital affair in a since-deleted social media post – a revelation which threatened to unearth a host of related allegations tied to the congregation.
Legacy Church Global – based in Greenville, S.C. – is the epicenter of the latest drama after its senior pastor, Mark Wagnon Jr., publicly accused the church’s worship leader, Chad Buckland, of engaging in “an ongoing sexual relationship with a 20-year-old woman over the last two months.”
“He has been leading a double life, all while standing on this platform leading worship before the people of God,” Wagnon wrote in his since deleted social media post. “Let me be crystal clear – this is not a fall someone repented of. This is a willful sin he refused to turn from, even when warned. It’s a betrayal of trust, of Scripture, of his wife and of this body.”
Once the alleged relationship was established via “confirmed communication,” Buckland was “removed from leadership” last Friday (July 18, 2025) – an “immediate action” which was “taken out of obedience to God and protection for this house,” according to Wagnon. Congregants were informed of Buckland’s removal during worship services on Sunday morning (July 20, 2025).
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Wagnon – who leads the church with his wife, Jennifer Wagnon – also hinted that “depending on next steps” Buckland could be “removed from the fellowship entirely.”
“Over the past several months, I’ve had growing concerns about an inappropriate relationship that I confronted and addressed with (Buckland) back in January,” Wagnon wrote. “I issued a clear warning, called him to accountability, and instructed him to establish emotional and spiritual boundaries. While no physical line had been crossed at that point, the relationship was clearly becoming too close, too personal, and too dangerous. It was a doorway to sin, and he was warned not to walk through it.”
According to Wagnon, Buckland refused to heed this warning.
“We have evidence, we have witnesses, and we have direct confirmation,” he wrote. “And he is persisting – not repenting.”
Despite alleged assurances from Buckland that the “relationship was over,” over the past six-and-a-half months the worship leader allegedly engaged in “a prolonged, intentional pattern of deception” to conceal the affair, per Wagnon.
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“He lied to leadership,” Wagnon wrote. “He deceived his wife. And he continued the relationship in secret while maintaining a public appearance of repentance.”
The post attributed to Wagnon was removed from Legacy Church’s Facebook and Instagram pages on Monday afternoon (July 21, 2025) – but not before it had been seen, shared and screen-capped.
Why does a church leader’s alleged affair matter in the grand scheme of things? Well, for starters, sources close to the congregation have informed FITSNews that scandal involving Buckland is one of many reportedly tied to Legacy Church – and that further investigation is warranted by both media and law enforcement.
“I believe that this goes deeper,” a source familiar with the allegations told us this week.
Count on our media outlet to provide pertinent updates as they become available…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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10 comments
It will be interesting to see what else may be uncovered…..
This is a tiny church up in Berea that most of us in Greenville have never heard of. No one has been charged with a crime. No children (or animals) are alleged to be involved. All this story does is amplify one social media post that has been deleted accusing someone of adultery. Must be a slow FITSNews day for this to merit coverage. Also, it seems like at some point your libertarian theory was that sex between consenting adults wasn’t news, even if it was an affair, if no one else was getting hurt.
The urge to return to your roots as a gossip rag must be strong. At least bring back the hottest lawyer article if you’re going down this path.
Is this the National Enquirer? You can’t just hint at “deeper” issues by quoting one unnamed source. Smells like religious persecution?
“Smells like religious persecution.” Is that a witty Nirvana reference? If so, well done. I might put that on e T-shirt.
Wonder what the senior pastor is trying to cover up or hide by going public with this. Sounds like a smoke and mirrors job to me.
I heard this has been going on over a year and everyone knew so why all of a sudden the outrage. Jealousy perhaps. Hmmm.
Now I know what happened to the missing offering plate.
We have been praying asking God to remove anything that would stop us from being closer to Him and to prune away anything that is not glorifying Him. We have been praying this for a while and He has been doing exactly that for sometime now . This was so hard because it was a a head leader. We love him and his family very much and we ate praying for him and his family. God knows all of our hearts.
This is a God loving Bible believing church!
We know noone is perfect. No, not one we all sin,
If we don’t come to terms with the sin and bring it to God and repent and harden our hearts to it God will eventually bring it to light. And then it’s up to the individual people and their relationship with the Lord on what happens next. You can repent accept His forgiveness, or grow bitter it’s up to the individual in what way they choose to react. It could be to hurt others or point fingers. But, God wants our hearts.
I pray we all search our hearts and our true relationship with the Lord and let Him lead us in Love.
After all when it’s all said and done it will only be you and God at Judgement day!
May God keep you and bless you all!
Written with the Love of Christ.
If this is how you guys “love” maybe people shouldn’t be anywhere near you sickos
You won’t find Jesus in churches like this, but you can find Him by going out and helping your fellow man.
Honestly, reading this kinda hits different when it’s a church leader, someone people’s looking up to. The post said “not a repented fall” and that Buckland refused to stop even after warning–that’s pretty wild. He basically led a secret double life on stage. ? Too much to unpack here. And deleted the social post later? Like hiding proof. Church drama isn’t new, but this one feels especially heavy.