According to Greenville Online:
About 2,000 members made the warm walk across the NewSpring Church parking lot in Anderson for each worship service Sunday morning.
Few were fully braced for the news that awaited: Perry Noble, the only senior pastor the church has known, has been removed from his duties.
Williamston Town Councilman Rockey Burgess said the news “did come as a shock” in the 9:15 a.m. service, even though recent rumors had prepared him to a degree.
“Everybody was kind of shocked,” Burgess said. “But the church isn’t made up of the preacher, and the church doesn’t worship the preacher. The church is the people who go there, and we all love one another.”