John Gray, pastor of Relentless Church in Greenville, South Carolina, has submitted to a "process of restoration" after accusations of an inappropriate relationship with a woman.
The married megachurch pastor informed the church of the process on Sunday in an address in which he also apologized for any actions that might have "dishonored the holiness of God".
He said there had been a number of claims made about him on the internet, "some of them accurate, some of it not," and that he wanted to take "responsibility".
"I'm sorry for the areas of my life that I left unattended, that I was apathetic about, the areas where I have treated the calling of God, the grace of God and the hand of God casually in my life," he said.
"For every area of behavior that has dishonored the holiness of God, I want to tell you that I'm sorry."
The decision to take time away from the pulpit follows allegations by a Houston woman identified only as "Mary", who told social media personality Tasha K that Gray had asked her to send partially nude photos of herself to him. The 48-year-old also alleges that Gray asked her to come to Cabo, Mexico, with him.
In his statement to the church, Gray continued: "I apologize for putting the name of God in harm's way and I and I alone take the responsibility for the actions that harmed and injured God's sheep.
"No matter how many pseudo-excuses one can hurl in a moment like this, for the purposes of self-preservation, all of them ring hollow when all that is truly needed is the truth."
He revealed he was already in marriage therapy and will now do "deep work" on his "emotional health" and "soul" through the restoration process.
"I don't know how long that process is going to be," he said.
Gray said it was possible he hadn't submitted to this kind of process before because of "shame, fear or an inflated sense of worth," even reasoning with himself that the church's survival and welfare depended on his preaching.
"If God needed someone who was stuck in sin to help Him then I ain't read the Bible," he said.
"God's Church is His business and it is my prayer that a mature Relentless Church will continue to sow into this great work while I continue to seek the help, the health, the healing and wholeness that I deserve. My kids deserve a whole father, not a fragmented puzzle piece of a man.
"Some weeks you'll see me. Others you won't."
Gray was a pastor for several years at Joel Osteen's Lakewood megachurch in Houston before leaving to take the helm at Relentless.
He has two children with his wife, Aventer, who he previously said had "set it off just like a good wife should" when she discovered that he had started "listening to the wrong voices and let some people get too close".
Last year, he took some flak in the media for gifting Aventer a Lamborghini as an eighth wedding anniversary gift.
During his address on Sunday, he publicly apologized to Aventer and his family.
"As I've said to my wife, I say to her now in this moment, Aventer, I am sorry for the pain that I have caused you and my prayer is that the life I live from this moment is one worthy of the love that you have extended and that our family receives from," he said.
"I believe that this moment had to come so God can make me the man I need to be. I'm sorry for the pain that I've caused. You don't deserve it. You are an amazing woman of God and I love you and I will face me so that the man that comes out of this moment will be able to honor you in a way that I never have before."
Before concluding, Gray said he was still aspiring to holiness and that his failures would "not be the final chapter" of his life.
"The standard has not changed. Holiness is still right. And I want you to know that it is my prayer from this moment of true repentance that you will see emerge from this moment a pastor that you can be proud of," he said.
