Perry Noble’s New Church Reaches Megachurch Status, Announces a Second Church Franchise in Greenville
Disgraced pastor Perry Noble has achieved what many thought impossible, starting a new church and growing it into a megachurch less than five years after being unceremoniously expelled from his old haunts, with plans for an expansion campus in the works.
For many people, the last they heard of Perry Noble was back in 2016. At the time he was the founder and lead pastor of Newspring Church, an SBC mega-church with a daily attendance of 32,000, one of the biggest in the country. He was seen as a rock star in evangelical circles, headlining major conferences and sending social media ablaze with every new provocation from the pulpit, of which there were many.
He was also widely known for several minor scandals, such as playing AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ for their Easter service, being rebuked by his denomination for bad theology when he called the 10 commandments “10 promises,” and to a lesser extent being the foil to reformed folk and discernment bloggers alike when he rebuked congregation members in his church who said they wanted to go “deeper” and dismissed them as “jackasses.”
Then the story broke. Perry Noble had been kicked out of his church by his elders for his “posture toward his marriage and increased reliance on alcohol and other behaviors.”
Essentially, he was an alcoholic whose life and marriage were out of control.
Unfortunately, reconciliation did not occur with the church or his wife. After an investigation, the elders at Newspring deemed Noble unfit for ministry. Lead pastor Clayton King told the congregation, “Perry currently does not meet the biblical qualifications of a pastor, teacher, shepherd.” Less than two years after losing his church, he filed for divorce from his wife despite saying there was no sexual immorality from either party.
Not one to be kept down, Noble followed in the footsteps of many disgraced pastors by returning to ministry as soon as possible, following the playbook of the ‘Evangelical Ministry Restoration and Reintegration Process.’
Removed from his church, he spent 30 days in rehab and went through a dark time of depression and doubt, including allegedly having suicidal thoughts at having lost it all.
Then, almost on cue, he made a decision to regain it. Noble started an online church which featured him in his living room giving little mini-sermons/ rambling talks to whatever people still disagreed with the decision to give him the boot out of NewSpring. Slowly by surely, things started to calm down in his life.
With a new church in hand, Noble soon acquired a new family, getting engaged to a woman who would soon become his new wife.
In January 2019 he made the decision to go from an online service to a physical location. Named “Last Chance Church,” it focuses on and is themed around the notion of ‘it’s ok to be not ok” and on “being real” about how messed up you really are, but embracing that because “God wants to give you a second chance” and “The best is yet to come.”
Worried about whether anyone would show up to his church on the big grand opening on January 27, 2019, Perry needn’t have stressed. Over 700 people showed up across two different services, so much so that they had to turn people away.
His church has grown substantially since then.
Nearing 3000 weekly congregants, Noble announced last week that the church purchased 8 acres of land in Greenville, SC, and that they were opening up another satellite campus so that the Second Chance Church would have its first multisite, which will feature Noble telecasting the sermon.
Sadly, his misadventures did little to temper his obstreperous disposition. He’s as arrogant as ever, releasing songs where he calls his detractors “full of s***”. His sermons are generally more subdued, focusing primarily on Christianized self-help mantras. He still twists scripture on a weekly basis and can’t exegete his way out of a paper bag. He hasn’t played anything like “Highway to hell” for Easter, but he did do a sermon series on the violent and disgustingly pornographic TV show Game of Thrones, featuring an iron throne on the stage and all the greeters wearing Game of Thrones fan shirts.
For Noble, he’s only getting started.
About Author
Well, he was obviously ‘restored’ by someone pious like Todd Bentley – it’s all good.
For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2Timothy 4:3-4
Need I say more.