Pastor Perry Noble opens up about repentance and scripture that helped him after ‘screw up in 2016’
Second Chance Church founder and Senior Pastor Perry Noble, who was fired from NewSpring Church in South Carolina in 2016 for alcohol abuse and other "unfortunate choices and decisions," says he didn’t truly repent of his failures until he started viewing the situation from a Christlike perspective.
In a recent post on Facebook under the heading, “Some Thoughts on Repentance,” Noble recalled how 2 Corinthians 7:10, which says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” was “HUGE for me after my colossal screw up in 2016.”
“I've got to admit that when everything happened the way it did — my emotions we[re] all over the place (anger, hurt, confusion, guilt, shame.) However, after I was able to get away (at rehab as well as an additional week of extensive outpatient therapy) and look at the situation, I came to the realization that when I came to how I thought, felt, reacted ... I was (as Dr. Henry Cloud says) ‘ridiculously in charge,’” he recalled.
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“(So often we want to blame everything on everyone, which will literally STOP the work of Jesus in our lives when it comes to repentance. Jesus allowed me to see things the way He saw them — to feel the way He felt about them (which was HUGE in the healing process),” he added. “And because of that I was able to reach out to those who I knew had been hurt/offended the most and apologize for the part I had played in all that had taken place.”
In October 2016, three months after his firing from his job as senior pastor of NewSpring Church, Noble, who would later divorce his wife, Lucretia, went public with details of his marriage, drinking issues, and other aspects of the double life that led to his exit from the church he founded 16 years earlier.
"I was a hypocrite — I preached, 'you can't do life alone' and then went out and lived the opposite," he wrote. "I chose isolation over community. … Isolation is where self-doubt dominated my emotions, causing me to believe I just could not carry the weight anymore, and alcohol was necessary for me to make it through another day. I hated myself, literally HATED myself for doing what I was doing, but believed the lie that this was just the way things were and there was no way it could ever get better."
While NewSpring leaders voiced opposition to his return to ministry, seven months after his firing, during which time he successfully completed a rehab program, Noble returned to the pulpit with the blessing of his friend and confidante, Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in North Carolina. He also continued preaching at other churches while running a consultancy business, The Growth Company, which teaches churches how to grow.
Since that time in his life, however, Noble said God helped him to repent and heal.
“(BTW - when we repent, we do so with NO expectations, our repentance is NOT based on THEIR response but rather OUR obedience!),” Noble continued in the Facebook post. “After making specific apologies, I made several public apologies (both written and spoken) for the hurt, pain and confusion I had caused for making poor, selfish and sinful decisions.
And — (this is HUGE) — because of God's grace, He gave me the power to change the things that He had changed my mind about.”
