SOUTH CAROLINA
USA Today
Abe Hardesty, The Anderson (S.C) Independent-Mail July 11, 2016
ANDERSON, S.C. — NewSpring Church, one of the fastest growing churches in South Carolina and the nation, removed its senior pastor and founder over alcohol abuse and a series of “unfortunate choices and decisions” on Sunday.
Perry Noble, who founded NewSpring Church, is “no longer qualified to serve as pastor” at the state’s largest church, Executive Pastor Shane Duffey, said Sunday.
The church, which has a weekly attendance of 30,000, and raked in more than $64 million in 2015 alone, has been led by Noble since he unofficially began holding Wednesday Bible Study in his Anderson apartment in 1998. Within six weeks of its inception, the crowd had grown to 150.
Duffey said the termination came after Noble “had made unfortunate choices and decisions that have caused much concern” among board members, who had confronted Noble more than once in recent months about his alcohol use and his “posture toward marriage.”
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