The recent dismissal of NewSpring Church’s founder and senior pastor Perry Noble has prompted a California minister to share his own struggle with alcohol dependence and warn Christians against “flaunting” their liberties.
On Sunday, NewSpring Church executive pastor Shane Duffey announced that they had removed Perry Noble as senior pastor on July 1. He said the recently fired pastor’s poor decisions have disqualified him from church service. Noble himself acknowledge his mistake and promised to return to the right path and to keep on following Jesus, Christian News relays.
The revelation about Noble’s alcohol issues has prompted Westside Christian Fellowship pastor Shane Idleman to also share his own experience with the same problem. He admitted that he once considered alcohol as a liberty.
In an article he penned for The Christian Post, the California-based pastor warned against the dangers that alcohol brings to believers. Idleman recalled how his past alcohol problem had caused
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I learned this lesson the hard way, even as a Christian involved in ministry,” said Idleman in the article.
Idleman said he could have had only a couple of beers on special occasions, but it had always slipped back into addiction. What he viewed as a simple “liberty” had awakened a sleeping addiction, he explained.
In light of the current culture which involves a lot of alcohol, Pastor Idleman expressed alarm at the tendency of Christian leaders to also go with the trend. He remarked that some “flaunt liberty” by posting on social media pictures of their favorite drinks under the pretense of merely “exercising liberty.”
Referencing Perry Noble’s situation, Idleman urged Christian leaders to do away with this behavior because they will later on regret the damage that it has inflicted on the church, their personal testimony, and even on other people’s lives. He said flaunting this liberty on social media could cause dozens of their online friends to