Perry Noble has been fired by the church he founded, NewSpring.
Perry Noble, pastor of the giant NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina, has been fired for alcohol abuse.
Noble founded NewSpring Church 16 years ago and it subsequently grew to 30,000 members in 17 cities across South Carolina.
The church was told of his removal by the church’s board of directors on Sunday. In a statement, the directors said Noble had “made some unfortunate choices and decisions that have caused us much concern”.
The statement said: “Perry’s posture towards his marriage, increased reliance on alcohol and other behaviors, were of continual concern. Due to this, the Executive Pastors confronted Perry and went through the steps of dealing with sin in the church as outlined in Matthew 18. Because Perry chose not to properly address these ongoing issues and didn’t take the necessary steps toward correcting them, he is no longer qualified, as outlined in 1 Timothy 3 and the church’s bylaws, to continue as a pastor at NewSpring Church.”
It said: “We will continue to love Perry and his family during this difficult time and we are committed to continue to pray for their healing.”
Noble also released a statement, saying: “What we’ve seen the Lord do over the past 16 years has been a modern day miracle. However, in my obsession to do everything possible to reach 100,000 [members] and beyond – it has come at a personal cost in my own life and created a strain on my marriage.”
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He added: “I never had a problem drinking alcohol socially, but in the past year or so I have allowed myself to slide into, in my opinion, the overuse of alcohol.”
He said he was “currently under the treatment of an excellent psychiatrist who is helping me take major steps forward”, adding: “Let me be very clear, neither Lucretia [his wife] nor I have committed any sort of sexual sin. I have not stolen money. I have not been looking at porn and there was absolutely no domestic abuse. This is the story – period.”
Newspring is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, but it has not always been a comfortable fit. The church uses secular music in its services and Noble was criticised last year when he said the Ten Commandments were not really commandments.
