Posted on 07/10/2016 12:21:58 PM PDT by Gamecock
ANDERSON, SC
The Rev. Perry Noble, who started NewSpring Church nearly 20 years ago, is no longer its senior pastor.
Early in Sunday’s 9:15 a.m. service, Executive Pastor Shane Duffey announced that Noble had been removed as pastor on July 1, after the NewSpring board of directors had “made a difficult and painful decision” to make a change.
Duffey said the termination by the state’s largest and richest church came after Noble “had made unfortunate choices,” and that the board members had confronted Noble on numerous occasions regarding his use of alcohol.
The announcement came three days after a closed-door, unscheduled meeting of church officials that fueled rumors throughout the community that the 45-year-old Noble was at odds with church hierarchy.
Noble, in a statement read by Duffey, said “I wish this were a joke, and part of a sermon illustration, but it is true.”
He also confirmed an “overuse of alcohol,” in the statement, adding that he has “come to depend on alcohol instead of Jesus.” He also said that there was no infidelity or abuse in his marriage.
“No one is more disappointed in me than I am in myself,” said Noble, the only senior pastor in the 16-year history of the church.
Noble also manages a personal blog/website (perrynoble.com) that he once used to convey frequent messages about his personal life and Christian topics. The blog has grown quiet in recent months. Noble made 51 posts in the first three months of 2016 but made only nine in April, six in May, and none in June or July.
Duffey announced that Clayton King will serve as interim senior pastor. Cooper delivered the primary message Sunday morning.
Noble was one of 22 pastors listed on the church’s website. In addition to the 17 campus pastors, including three in the Midlands, Noble led a staff that includes Brad Cooper as executive pastor of ministries, Duffey, Howard Frist as executive pastor of campuses, and Michael Millikin as executive pastor of operations.
NewSpring unofficially began in 1998 when Noble, an Anderson native, began holding Bible study on Wednesday nights at his apartment in Anderson. Eight people came to the first meeting. Within six weeks, the crowd had grown to 150.
The next summer, Noble was at a restaurant when a friend asked him: “What would you do for God if you knew you could not fail?”
Noble’s answer: Start NewSpring Church.
The church’s first service was held on Jan. 16, 2000, in the Sullivan Building at Anderson University. About 115 people showed up.
The congregation grew tremendously after that, and by 2004, NewSpring was building a campus near Concord Road and S.C. 81 North in Anderson.
The congregation moved into the 2,460-seat auditorium there in 2006, and the church’s membership soon doubled from 4,000 to 8,000 people.
Now, NewSpring has 17 campuses across South Carolina and more than 30,000 people attend its weekly services. In 2015, NewSpring’s income was more than $64 million, according to an annual report posted the church’s website.
NewSpring is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, but leaders of the organization have criticized Noble over the church’s use of secular music. Noble’s messages have also been controversial at times – including one last year in which he stated that the Ten Commandments were not commandments.
A similar controversy erupted in 2009, when the NewSpring band opened the Easter service with the rock song “Highway to Hell.”
“Apparently the “NewSpring board of directors” missed this memo. “
No. You are the one confused. The NewSpring Board of Directors is PART OF the church. It is internal to the church, not external. Thus “No one in the SBC, external to the congregation, can remove a pastor.”
This is like watching the media trying to discuss guns. The very concept of a gun is so foreign to them that they cannot imagine it.
He was replaced IAW the church bylaws (http://ns.downloads.s3.amazonaws.com/newspring/editorial/NewSpring%20Church%20Statement.pdf). The SBC denomination has nothing to do with it. Nothing. The denomination has no control over its member churches, other than a church can be thrown out at an annual convention by vote of the convention.
Redemption is always offered and always possible.
Not trying to be picky, but I do want the record accurate.
“And pastors are held to a higher level than those of us in the pew.”
Actually it is the position of teacher that is held to a higher standard, James 3:1. With that being said if you are called to pastor then you must be gifted as a teacher. There are different callings of teachers such as a pastor, teaching the new believer, or even teaching the experienced believer, but still spiritually gifted as a teacher. Does that mean that there are some misguided pastor’s out there, absolutely! A true teacher can spot them a mile away, but unfortunately it still happens.
If that is not the case, then this church isn't using a "bottom-top" model as the SBC claims. An elite few board members at the top are telling the thousands of rank-and-file church members that they can't keep their pastor.
“Since its a “bottom-top” model where the congregation itself decides the church’s policy, one would assume that the “NewSpring board of directors” couldn’t remove the pastor until the individual congregation gave them permission to do so.”
I don’t understand your blindness. The congregation determined the bylaws that run the church. They then give power to someone inside the congregation - the congregation itself, or the deacons, or someone else - to hire & fire a pastor.
“If that is not the case, then this church isn’t using a “bottom-top” model as the SBC claims.”
The SBC doesn’t claim anything involving member churches. When it says it doesn’t use a top down model, it means there is no hierarchy in the SBC. And there is not. The President of the SBC has no authority over the member churches. All member churches are autonomous. The member churches determine their own rules. Period. There is no SBC Pope, or SBC Cardinals.
I don’t know what your antagonism is for the SBC, but the structure is what it is, and folks have TRIED to explain it to you. As this particular church explained in their press release, the procedures followed are the ones spelled out in their bylaws. Those bylaws were created by the individual church, not the SBC.
Maybe it was an experiment in attitude—not advisable, but I’d give the challenge at least a benefit of a doubt...
From an Intrivert who is heartily tired of a few extroverts I know--
General note on spiritual growth. (I’m not disagreeing with anybody here...just using this opportunity to make this observation) There should be no division of “clergy” and “laity” for the Christian as far as our own personal spiritual walk. Yes, those who teach and “pastor” have a greater responsibility because they have such influence over others. But every Christian should live his life, making every decision, every plan, and speaking every word, in the name of Jesus Christ. There should not be the notion that the preacher is in a different “more righteous” category...than us “regular folks”. As we behold Christ on the cross, we should all strive to say, as Paul did, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Excellent summary of the dynamics here--you've captured the key ingredients, "gumption" and submission. Here's another look at it from my own experience. I served as an elder for a small church whose pastor I found to be somewhat headstrong. Repeatedly he acted beyond his authority by intruding on the elder board's. (The only other elder was his brother.) Finally I confronted him formally. But in doing so I had to resign, to avoid both the temptation and the appearance of trying to get him to submit not to the board (as a proxy for God) but to me personally.
Good that the board of directors acted in a biblical manner by removing a compromised leader....
I left a church once because the church leadership refused to make the senior pastor step down because he was obviously getting a serious case of dementia....
The final straw came when he married my daughter and keep calling her the wrong name during the ceremony....he knew her well...
We have been going there for five years, my daughter was heavily involved with children’s ministry....
It wasn’t like we walked off the street and asked for him to marry her...
Pastors are teachers.
“Pastors are teachers.”
I believe I made that clear, but per Scripture the word is “teacher”.
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