Perry Noble says he 'never felt qualified' to preach while he was still pastor at NewSpring

Perry Noble, the former pastor at NewSpring Church in South Carolina, admitted that he "never felt qualified" to preach at his former church even before he was fired for his alcoholism last year.

In a statement to members last Friday, NewSpring Teaching Pastor Clayton King said that he and other NewSpring leaders do not think Noble was qualified to preach according to biblical standards.

Noble returned to the pulpit last February and preached at the 11-year anniversary celebration of Steven Furtick's Elevation Church in North Carolina. According to The Christian Post, he has been continuing to do preaching engagements at other churches, leading NewSpring members to question why he was not being invited to preach there as well.

King explained to the members on Friday that he and his leadership team believe that Noble currently does not meet the biblical qualifications of a pastor, teacher, shepherd as outlined in the three biblical scriptures on leadership — Timothy 3:1-5, Titus 1:5b-9 and James 3:1.

In response, Noble insisted that he never met the qualifications for leadership at any one time while he served as a pastor at NewSpring, and said he saw the statement as an attack on churches that have allowed him to preach.

"I could go through that list, as the senior pastor of NewSpring, I never felt qualified. I never felt I was good enough and I never ever at any point in my ministry could have gone through any of those lists and checked them all off as I know, as you know," he said.

Noble also expressed disappointment at the suggestion by NewSpring leadership that his ministry was not about Jesus.

"The thing that hurt me the most was what I felt was a gross and inaccurate representation of my ministry, that it was somehow not about Jesus," he said.

"There may be quite a few things that I did wrong as the senior pastor of NewSpring Church. However, I preached Jesus faithfully every Sunday that I had the privilege to serve at NewSpring Church," he added.

He further stated that losing NewSpring Church is "one of the most painful things that have ever happened in my entire life."

The former pastor admitted that he had ignored King's personal efforts to reconnect with him after his firing, but he noted that he had been in contact with other staff, including lead pastors at NewSpring.

Noble contended that NewSpring leaders are not in a good position to make any judgments on his spirituality since there is currently not much of a relationship between him and the lead pastors.

"They can talk about how I am seeming unrepentant although I would say in order to determine whether someone is repentant you need to have a relationship with them 'cause it's real hard to call out repentance from the cheap seats," he said.

NewSpring leaders announced last Friday that there will be some changes in its leadership structure.

Church officials stated that the leadership responsibilities will now be shared by four lead pastors and four teaching pastors, who will rotate major sermon duties.

Rev. Lee McDerment, one of the teaching pastors, said that a single pastor bearing the weight of a church like NewSpring is too much, but sharing the load should lead to a longer future.

The church officials also noted that giving was down since Noble's firing, but the church now had more than $15 million in surplus in the bank after paying off debt.