Lessons in Leadership with Pastor Perry Noble

Who is Perry Noble?

How does Perry Noble describe himself?

In his own words, he says he is one of those guys who believes that the best is yet to come.

Many people know about his story with New Spring Church, where he began the Church in a living room in 1999.

Due to some unfortunate poor decisions on his part, Noble was dismissed as the pastor in 2016.

Perry Noble says he thought he would never be able to do any type of ministry again, but, he says, God gave him a second chance, the name of the church he preaches at today.

Dave Ramsey said it first but I really do feel like I’m doing better than I deserve because I’m a second-chance guy. I believe God gives second chances and so that’s why we named our church, Second Chance Church because we want people to know they get a second chance.

“The church is not a museum for saints but it is a hospital for sinners.”

Processing the Inevitable

“It’s a daily process,” Noble tells Elliott.  “I literally get up every day and try to figure it out. There’s a lot of people that think I should just go away and I don’t feel like that’s what the Lord wants.”

The biggest thing he is trying to do, he says, is figuring out how to take steps forward and as he does, if he can help somebody else on their journey along the way, he is wide open to try to do that too.

Noble says he doesn’t feel like he has to be different, referencing coming out of indiscretions.

He feels like he can be raw and more authentic simply because he feels the freedom to be himself and is not afraid of what others may think about him. Perry Noble knows who Perry Noble is.

The higher you go up in leadership and you start struggling with something, whether it’s a habit or an addiction.

You either have to do two things: you either have to hide or you either have to lie.

Both of those ultimately lead to some sort of destruction.

What can we do to figure out how to help people not have to hide and not have to lie?

That’s the thing Noble says he wants to focus on moving forward.

Noble says he feels as though his empathy levels have risen since his departure with NewSpring Church.

Faith + Business

Church is a business.

Noble says he wanted to create a church where people could bring their own church friends, that was it. There was not a massive strategy.

If a business leader is going to be a person of faith and really seek out the wisdom, you could just take the principles in the book of the Proverbs and apply them to the business world.

“whew, that’d be a great business right there,” jokes Noble.

But not only that, if you’re strong in your faith and you take that command that Jesus said to love one another, “Love people as I love you,” then you’re going to lead a great. People are going to want to work with you, because of the way you treat people.

However, Noble reflects on the negative side.

“If the business leader tries to shove a Bible down everybody’s throat, I mean there’s probably some things there that we should talk about but if they’re going to live out their faith, I think it just makes the business better.”

Noble believes for Second Chance and for what they’re trying to do, one of their top priorities is to have an excellent Sunday experience.

An excellent Sunday experience looks like people walking in, feeling engaged, feeling like Second Hand Church is not wasting their time, like the message is relevant to where they’re living.

That’s the goal every week.

According to Noble, if his congregation has a good experience, they will tell their friends via word of mouth, the best form of advertising.

“And so if somebody has a great experience over and over and over again, they’ll tell people about it. They’ll bring people and that’s how I feel like … That’s one of the ways, one of the primary ways, I think the church could focus on growth.”

Church Advertising

When asked about different forms of media for advertising, Noble
mentions that he doesn’t find television advertising to be too effective to him personally, but for big events (like the Super Bowl) he is all in.

Noble also believes radio falls in the same category as television. If it isn’t well placed, it may not be the impact you’re looking for.

Billboard advertising, however, does not even phase him, or his car passengers! He says (and we agree) people are too busy driving or looking at their phones!

Phones and social media are the way to go, according to Noble.

“And it’s so funny to listen to middle aged people scream at people to get off their phones. It’s just not going to happen. People are there and so instead of yelling at people to get off their phone, let’s meet them there.”

Find out where your target audience is and if they’re on Snapchat, hit them up with an ad.

If they’re on TikTok, hit them up with an ad.

If they’re on Facebook, hit them up with an ad.

Find out where they are, especially with Facebook ads.

You can get so specific with your target demographic, it’s amazing and so I think that’s where the best marketing can be done is through digital!

Social Media Sins?

“Eric, social media is kind of like a gun,” Noble says. “It’s a tool, it just depends on whose hands it’s in whether it’s a good tool or a bad tool.”

He continues to say that he loves social media because of how it helps us to communicate information.

Whether it is encouragement or inspiration, social media is a great thing.

Of course, social media has a negative side to it.

There have always been negative people, but social media enhances it.

I just think that social media … I just think that social media gave the village idiot a voice. Used to be, the village idiot … The only people that knew the village idiot were the people in the village and they didn’t pay him any attention. But now their village idiot can literally have a voice and so for me, what I try to do is encourage and inspire through social media but I don’t get caught up in online arguments.

Overall, it’s just an effective way to communicate, connect, and help people.

Being a Noble Leader

“I just want to help people feel like they’re taking positive steps,” Noble tells Eric.

Noble references the New Testament where the phrase ‘good news’ appears hundreds of times.

‘Good news’  caused him to reflect on how he wants people to feel when they leave his church.

“When people attend my church, as they leave, do they feel like they just heard good news? Because if they didn’t hear good news, then I didn’t take what the original people who took the gospel out, I didn’t bring that today.”

Noble says that does not mean you can’t preach about sin.

He wants people to know that while you may not be where you need to be in your walk with Christ, he wants you to know he’s here to figure out how to help you take a step away from where you are and closer to where you need to be.

“…as people are taking positive steps, they not only hear about the good news, but they actually get to live out the good news. That’s what I think changes people and ultimately will change a community and a state and maybe even the world.”

Worship and COVID-19

“Well, it had the same effect as 9/11 did. And after 9/11, church attendance in America increased significantly for about two or three weeks and then it dropped pretty much back to the way it was,” Noble tells Eric.

According to Noble, when the church had to shut down for COVID, online church attendance spiked significantly and after about two or three weeks, it came back down to normal.

In his personal conversations with people who attend our church, online church helped people to realize how much we all need church.

Noble says that he does believe there’s something to being there and experiencing that with other believers that makes a significant difference.

Writing off Worship

“I think some people have written off church because of maybe they grew up in a really strict fundamentalist background where you couldn’t watch TV or play cards,” Noble says in response to Elliott’s question of whyp people may be writing of church.

“There’s all kinds of rules out there. I think some people walk away from church because they were taught that you can’t love Jesus and believe in evolution at the same time.”

The experience that a person may have had that developed their decision to walk away from church could stem from anything.

“On the South, I mean you know this, in the South, if people don’t go to church, it’s not because they can’t find one,” Noble says. “I’m just trying to figure out what their story is and let them know, hey, this is a safe place for you to come back to.”

What advice would you give younger Perry?

“Get some help, dude,” Noble says.

He continues to say he wishes he would have known how valuable having “anything goes friends were.”

The friends that will encourage and love you, no matter what.

“I would tell younger Perry, go be that for as many people as possible because one of these days, you’re going to need that more than you know,” he preaches.

When asked if he ever feels compelled to help someone who’s not even a friend,  Noble responded “Yes, sir.”

The Bible says weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice and a lot of times, as Christians, we try to make people that weep, rejoice and sometimes, they just need somebody that’ll sit and weep with them, sit and feel that moment with them.

“I’ve done that but I usually do it kind of off the radar because I don’t want any attention or accolades for it. I just want to do it to try to help people,” Noble says.

Second Chance Church

Second Chance Church, the nondenominational church, is in the upstate of South Carolina in Anderson

Services on Sunday, 8:30 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. and then 5:00 p.m. (online).

You can find Perry Noble on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and on his website.

Listen to the full interview at www.veryimportantplacement.com/our-podcast