I have had the chance to be in a few green rooms with Perry and he is a pretty interesting guy. First, he admitted to owning parachute pants in the 1980s here at the blog. Second, I would like to think I contributed to his personal development by encouraging him to update those glasses (he told me he has updated them, so that is good news). Third, there are few churches that would actually point to YouTube videos criticizing them, but they did (and, full confession, I watched the video twice).

Perry Noble is the founding and senior pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson and Greenville, South Carolina. At just eight years old the church averages over 8,000 people during weekend services and is launching another campus in Florence, South Carolina this year to reach more people. NewSpring is also launching an "internet campus" in 2009. Perry will tell you their growth is the fruit of God's work through the clear preaching of the gospel. Someone else might want to clam it's the satanic influence of Guitar Hero. Knowing Perry and NewSpring church - I believe it is their passion to see men and women reached for the gospel.

LifeWay Research had the opportunity to talk with Perry about what's happening at NewSpring.

LifeWay Research: Perry can you tell us why you think New Spring is growing?

Pastor Perry Noble: I think there are a couple of things that our church is doing but first of all let me just say this. I don't think we are the perfect church at all. And ultimately it is just by God's grace that we are growing. I really don't know, but if I had to guess, two things pop out in my mind.

Number one, our main focus is Jesus Christ. We focus on the gospel. I preach salvation. I don't have time to get caught up in political agendas or Christian boycotts or start campaigning for some sort of moral agenda. I am called by God to preach and teach the gospel because the gospel changes lives. So I don't allow myself to get side tracked on what I would consider to be either non essential issues or controversial issues that haven't been solved for like 500 or 1000 years and never will be solved this side of heaven. I just want to tell people about who Jesus is because back in 1990 I was pretty much on my way to hell and Jesus changed my life. And I just think he can do it for everybody and he is still changing me, even today. Even though I am a Christian, he is still continuing to shape me.

Secondly, we have fought really hard to keep things very simple. I don't think that success in the church means you have more to do. I believe it means you have less to do. And so we don't allow programs to dictate every night of the week or whatever. We keep things really simple. Dr. Rainer and his book Simple Church was just a huge confirmation that we have got that right. We want to be very simple in everything we do. We want to be very strategic in everything we do. And so we just keep things lean and focus on Jesus.

LWR: You have been sharing God's word in some very interesting ways through your sermon series such as the "You Asked For It" series. How did this series come about?

Noble: Honestly, I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listened to Mark Driscoll and he did this series. He said he was reading through the book of 1 Corinthians and he realized that the book of 1 and 2 Corinthians was basically brought on by the Church in Corinth writing Paul a letter asking him a bunch of questions. And so he was like, "Well, I want to do that for my church." And so he had his church submit questions. And they went on the website and they voted and they did all that stuff. He did like a nine to ten week series based on the results of the internet survey. And so I was like "Wow, We should try that."

Mark Driscoll is in Seattle and New Spring is in Anderson, so I knew the questions were going to be completely different. I was right. The questions were different. In April we allowed people to write in their questions or submit them online. After they were submitted we categorized them into 18 categories. We then put these 18 categories on the website and allowed people to vote on which ones they most wanted to address. This step happened over the course of a month and there were over 4000 votes. We then picked the top six and those were the subjects of my sermons.

LWR: Are you always thinking outside of the box? What are some other areas that you are looking for to make your messages relevant to your people?

Noble: I think one of the things I am trying to do is trying to figure out how to cut down my message time. I preach for like 50 minutes to an hour. I would really like to cut it down. You know, when you consider the average sitcom is 22 minutes [once commercials are removed]. In those 22 minutes they completely develop characters, a plot and bring resolution to a conflict. I don't think I'll ever preach 22 minutes, but I am trying to cut my message time down.

The other thing I am trying to do is to make my messages memorable with a stage prop or something like that. I don't do that all the time because I don't want the tail to ever wag the dog, and I believe the gospel should be the central part of every message. Everything done in the message or in the service should be done to enhance the gospel. I don't ever want to say, "Here is a cool illustration. How can we revolve the gospel around it?" I always want to go, "This is the gospel. What can we do to really drill this in to somebody's mind?"

LWR: In recent years the church trend has been to start multi-sites or to plant churches. I think now we beginning to see a new trend in the form of internet campuses. New Spring is beginning a virtual campus in 2009. Tell us a bit about that journey.

Noble: Well, I am very excited because I just think that one of the things that the Church is going to have to do is accept that technology is here to stay.

I heard Rick Warren say one time - "I don't think God allowed us to have the internet so pornography can become the giant in the world. I think God allowed us to have the internet so we could reach the world." I believe this with all my heart.

You know, when Jesus is talking about end times in Matthew 24 and again in the gospel of Luke he says one of the signs of the times coming to an end is the gospel will be preached all over the world. Well, through the internet I can share Jesus in countries where I am technically not allowed to go. I can't go in there as a missionary. I can't go in there as a pastor. But I can go in there online and people will watch. And so I am really excited because the internet campus opens up a huge, huge, huge audience that otherwise I wouldn't have the privilege of telling them about Jesus. That is why I am more excited because at heart I am just an evangelist. I think it takes evangelism to the next level.

LWR: Which church/churches did you study for the development of your internet campus? Is New Spring modeling their internet ministry after any other church?

Noble: We studied Life Church pretty closely and asked the a lot of questions. Craig and those guys do it just as good as anybody out there. Tony Morgan is actually over a lot of our internet stuff and the development of it.

LWR: What advice would you give to churches in America? What elements would you say are a must in any church?

Noble: I would say two things. Number one, you must keep your focus on Jesus. Don't lose sight of the gospel. Don't lose sight of the fact that people are dying and going to go to hell unless they know Jesus. If the church loses the centrality and the urgency of that message, I think the church dies. And I think the reason that churches all over America today are closing their doors and shutting down is because they forget the gospel. They have forgotten that Jesus Christ died on a cross not so we could have a holy huddle or a stained glass fortress or us four and no more. He died on a cross so that we could reach the world. They have got sin in their lives. And because of that they are separated from God. They go to hell. That is not necessary. Jesus died on the cross to make forgiveness and redemption completely possible.

Number two, don't try to be anything except who God called you to be. Maybe God didn't call you to go multi-site. Maybe God called you to one location. You need to be completely content with that. Maybe God called you to go plant churches instead of doing video venues. You need to do that. Maybe God told you to do video venues and plant churches. You need to do that. You don't ever, every need to feel pressure because another church somewhere else in America or somewhere else in the world is doing something to think, "Oh, wow, we have got do that." Our call as a church is to do exactly what God called us to do. In the book of Revelation chapter two and chapter three Jesus gives seven different messages to seven different churches. If he wanted every church to be the same he would have just said, "All right. Here is my message to every church and it is just the same." But he addressed seven churches specifically and said, "Here is what is going on with you. Here is what is going on with you. Here is what is going on with you." I just think that each church has a unique DNA that it needs to focus on. The gospel should be central, but the strategy and the structure of the church should be completely open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Perry's blog, perrynoble.com, is in my Google reader and is always an interesting read.

Watch and pray for Perry as I believe his influence will continue to grow.