My beef with NewSpring.
When I first heard Perry Noble's preaching, I loved it. I'll even go so far as to say that I still enjoy his sermons. I was a big fan of NewSpring in the beginning. My family was against them. Fortunately for me though, there was never any bad blood about it. It was just something I liked and they didn't.
I could never understand why everyone hated them so much. Sure, the music is different. He has a tendency to say things that you might not have heard your traditional preacher say when you were growing up. But he preached a good sermon.
But then I started hearing stories about things that supposedly had happened to people going there. As far as I was concerned, it was just hearsay, so I didn't consider it a big deal. Then one night I was on google, looking around for stuff about NewSpring trying to find out if there was any truth to what I had been hearing. I didn't specifically find what I was looking for at that time but I did find something else that made me change my mind. After all the horror stories I've read since then, I can't remember the one that turned me against them. But still, it didn't involve me personally so I didn't really care. It was just something I was against.
Late last year into early this year, the James Duncan harassment thing happened. That really upset me. How could a church do this? And how could this church's senior pastor not issue a public apology on behalf of the church, whether he had knowledge of it or not? It was just wrong. But still, it wasn't personal for me. It pissed me off, I ranted about it a little and I forgot about it.
A bone marrow drive was held today in honor of Alex Carver, a 15 year old who has been battling leukemia. She went into remission previously but her condition came back and got worse and now she's going to need a bone marrow transplant. 920 people showed up for the drive, not including those that already had their paperwork filled out when they came. It was a great turnout and I thank God for every single person who took time out of their lives to help a child who has barely had a chance to begin her life.
Every single newspaper, tv station, radio station and church that was contacted to help spread the word about Alex's bone marrow drive was happy to help. With the exception of one. You can imagine our disbelief when NewSpring refused to announce a bone marrow drive for a teenager who went to NewSpring for years. Especially when their refusal was on the grounds that "it would interfere with worshiping Jesus." They also would not allow a flier to be placed on their building because "if they did it for one person, they'd have to do it for everyone".
I can't help but wonder how many more people would have been there for Alex today had NewSpring told them about it. It's finally personal for me.
So here we are now. It may just be a matter of time before it becomes personal to you. Unfortunately for NewSpring's members, as was the case with me, they won't care until it becomes personal to them.
This section of The Pit is dedicated to all the people who have been hurt by NewSpring. It's a place where they can share their personal stories about this place to warn others. And hopefully in the process, we will show NewSpring that you cannot claim to be a positive influence in this community until you start acting like a positive influence in this community.
This isn't about whether or not Perry Noble preaches from the bible. It's not really about religion at all (although I can't help but wonder how someone who claims to be a Christian can sit back and go about his business pretending like things like this aren't going on). It's not about their poor choice of worship music. It's not about their pretty lights and the fact that they don't have a steeple.
It's about accountability. It's about being decent human beings. It's about not claiming Christianity, but being Christianity.
Anderson is ashamed of you, NewSpring. It's time you started paying attention.
Well said. It is about accountability. The members and community need to ask questions and demand answers. Why do the leaders at NS refuse to discuss anything with it's members? Why do the members not ask? I remember when I finally figured out that Perry was a fraud. I was still reeling from my meeting with Brad and Shane. It was the next Sunday my whole family with a few of my friends, all members, sat in the third row, left side. That's were Devin always wanted to sit. Perry had always been good about speaking to Devin, and this THRILLED Devin, because Perry in Devin's eyes was as close to God as you could get. I sat there and I prayed and cried and tried to understand how a man who just the week before told the whole church that "he had Devin's back" after the video. He never looked our way or acknowledged Devin that Sunday. God spoke to me then and told me that Perry was a fool and that I needed to leave that church. I was broken hearted. What was I going to tell Devin? or his brother? My girls were 16 they needed a church, I needed a church. That was over 2 years ago, we haven't been back to church, any church since. I read my bible every night, I pray and give to who I feel is in need, but I don't tithe. I would love to find a church that would except all of us, but I can't go through this again. I can't understand how the members can sit and do nothing about the things that they are hearing? It's true what they say about where there's smoke, there's fire. I hope they don't let another family, person, group be hurt by it's leaders.They need to remember the church members pays he's salary, they have a right to ask and have their questions answered. I hope they will find the courage to do so.
Grace Memorial Baptist Church ( located @ 3518 Whitehall Road,
Anderson, SC 29626 ) is a nice church, its not a large church with thousands in attendance - but the message delivered by Pastor Mark Dickson is the pure and unadulterated word of God. He delivers his sermons in a down to Earth , witty and sincere manner. He is a great Pastor. The congregation is always welcoming and they have a good youth program.
When I go to church, I go to Gethsemane Baptist Temple. It's on 81 South. My whole family are members there. I don't really go much anymore, for no reason other than laziness. Sam Duncan is the Pastor.
He's all hellfire and brimstone. I love it. He can be offensive at times, but it's not for the sake of being offensive. There's definitely no one that will tell you to leave and you won't be harassed for disagreeing with him.
They have an excellent youth program and a nursery as well as three services on Sunday, a Wednesday night service and Savannah Bible College on Thursday night, where my wife and I spent 3 years. Not bragging, I'm just saying from personal experience that it is an excellent church.
2,000+ members and our preacher didn't have to curse during the services or intimidate anyone to get them. You can be poor too and no one will ask you to leave for not tithing.
Thanks for the invites. I really would love to get my family back in church. I need a church that has a specail needs program or a church that has activities that my sons can participate in. My guys have no phyiscal disablilities, but they have a mental age of a 9 or 10 year old. So it's hard to find a place. My guys are 23 and 21 now. Thanks for any suggestions
Last night my girls and I talked with 3 different young women that told us they and their families no longer go to NS due to the Alex Carver situation. They started looking into all the "stories" that was around and they said that they could no longer go to a place that treated its members that way. Sad that NS is pushing people got of church, all in the name of Jesus.
It is sad. It's a shame that they can't get themselves together over there. It has so much potential.
I know everyone knows this already but for the sake of any newcomers that don't know, Alex is with Jesus now.
She acquired a bacterial infection while waiting for a donor and passed away Friday, June 25 2010 around 8:45am.
Thursday night, they tried to wake her from her coma and her blood pressure went haywire. They had to perform surgery to get the swelling to go down in her stomach and after the surgery she was doing well again. But something happened over night and the doctors told her parents that she wasn't going to make it and they had to make the most difficult decision of their lives.
She was taken off the respirator around 4:30am Friday. The doctors were expecting her to go pretty quickly but she lived until around 8:45am, just in time for her boyfriend to arrive to say goodbye to her. It's almost like she was waiting for him.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. But don't think for a second that she didn't beat this thing. Cancer broke her body but it never broke her spirit. She won. Rest in peace, Alex. We love you.
She was probably the bravest kid I have ever seen. She handled things with a grace and dignity betond her years. As did her young boyfriend. I hope and pray they will watch out for that boy....he may become severely depressed and try to join his lost love :(
