The sudden death of groundbreaking evangelist Bishop John Gimenez has stunned a faith community that regarded him as the pillar of a movement.
“It came as a shock; we just didn’t expect it,” Anne Gimenez said Wednesday of her husband’s death. She said she was receiving condolences “from around the country.”
Gimenez and his wife founded Rock Church, one of South Hampton Roads’ first megachurches, in Virginia Beach in 1968.
Gimenez, a Pentecostal evangelist whose massive 1980 Washington for Jesus rally presaged conservative Christians’ political rise, died Tuesday afternoon. He was 76.
John Blanchard, Gimenez’s son-in-law, said Gimenez died of a stroke about 4:45 p.m. during a scheduled visit to his doctor. Blanchard said Gimenez had been treated successfully
this year for intestinal cancer.
While Gimenez’s death was unexpected , “We are celebrating with him that he’s passed into glory – he has a great reward in heaven,” Blanchard said.
“I am deeply grieved,” broadcaster Pat Robertson, a friend of Gimenez’s since 1965, said during “The 700 Club” television program.
Robertson, founder of the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network, said the 1980 rally “completely shifted the political landscape and the religious landscape of this country.”
Gimenez eventually oversaw an international network of hundreds of Rock churches that included congregations in Liberia, the Philippines, Ukraine and India.
Anne Gimenez said there will be no leadership changes at Rock Church, where she has been senior pastor for 10 years.
She said she will succeed her husband as leader of Rock’s international ministry. “I plan to fulfill his vision and carry it out.”
A former drug addict who became a born-again Christian at 31, Gimenez was a buoyant personality convinced that America was threatened by moral decay and spiritual enemies, including the ACLU.
“We’re in a big battle – they’re trying to eliminate every vestige of Christianity,” he said in 2006.
It was a refrain echoing back to 1980, when he complained, “We have turned away from the fundamental principle of one nation under God.” Gimenez was equally passionate about reaching out to the down-and-out.
“My ministry has always been to people in need: prostitutes, drug addicts,” he said in 1997. “When you don’t touch the needy of the community, you’re not doing God’s work.
Gimenez showcased his talent for mass organizing with the 1980 rally he planned with Robertson and Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ.
Critics, including the National Council of Churches, called Washington for Jesus an attempt to “Christianize” government and inject religion into politics.
Gimenez denied any political motives. “It’s not a political movement, it’s a come-back to Jesus,” he said after the rally.
But the gathering’s political context was clear, said Vinson Synan, a Regent University church historian who spoke at the rally.
“It was calling the nation to God and evangelicals and charismatics back to the ballot box,” Synan said.
The rally coincided with the 1980 presidential campaign and rising political action by evangelicals including the Rev. Jerry Falwell, whose Moral Majority mustered conservative Christians. Ronald Reagan won the presidential election with strong evangelical support.
Gimenez’s nonprofit organization, One Nation Under God, held similar election-year rallies in Washington in 1988, 1996 and 2004.
Gimenez, whose parents were from Puerto Rico, grew up in New York City’s Spanish Harlem. According to his biography on the Rock Church Web site, Gimenez was a streetwise drug addict who went to prison at 16.
“It was said that he was incurable and would in all probability die from a bullet, a knife, an overdose of heroin, or, if he was lucky, be in a mental institution for the rest of his life,” the site stated.
After his religious conversion in 1963, Gimenez spent several years as a member of a touring evangelical anti-drug drama group.
He met Anne, a touring preacher from Texas, on the Christian revival circuit. They married in 1967 and settled in South Hampton Roads after appearing on Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, then based in Portsmouth.
The couple started Rock Church in rented space in 1968. Within three years, they built a 450-seat church at 640 Kempsville Road that ultimately grew to 5,200 seats.
By 1979, with more than 4,000 members, Rock Church was dubbed “the anchor of the charismatic movement in Tidewater” by The Virginian-Pilot. Rock Church appealed especially to former mainline Christians who embraced the Pentecostal style of uninhibited, exuberant “charismatic” worship, Synan said.
Rock Church also was known locally for its multiracial and multicultural congregation.
“When we first started, I prayed and said, 'Lord, give us a church that looks like heaven, so when we get there, we won’t feel out of place,’ so we have just about every culture,” Gimenez said in 2007.
In the 1980s, the Gimenezes began a network of Rock satellite churches seeded around the country. By 2007, Rock Church International had more than 500 member churches in the United States and overseas.
A public viewing of the bishop will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday at Rock Church on Kempsville Road, Blanchard said. Visitation with his family will follow from 7 to 9 p.m. at the church.
The funeral will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the church. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the church’s missions fund.
Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com
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Great is your reward, John Gimenez
I read the comments regarding your passing and had a vision from a song I have loved. "Look about you my son, for great is your reward!" I am confident you heard that when you stood before our Lord. God bless you for helping me in my time of need.
Bishop John Gimenez
Positive Hit Radio The Current has worked with John Gimenez on his many outreaches to the lost. He is a Mighty Man of God! His love for the Lord and for the lost was evident in everything he did. He is now resting in the arms of the Lord with the secure knowledge that those he left in place will continue on like-minded in his dream to reach those in need and to grow the Kingdom of God. He will be missed on this earth!
Bishop John Gimenez
Words cannot express the way my husband and i are feeling right now. Bishop was truly a man of God. He had such a warm personality towards everyone. My condolences goes out to pastor Anne and her family and know that you are in our prayers.
The first time I saw Bishop
The first time I saw Bishop John was when I was 12 years old. My mother had taken me out of public school and placed me into Rock Church Academy. Brother John passed through my classroom one day to say hello. The first thing that struck me about him was how kind and gentle his eyes were. It was comforting for a kid who was so on edge being in a new place. As time went on I got to know him. His daughter and I grew up and graduated from the academy together. Brother John was like another father to me. He was always there as I grew up...I am 38 years old now. I have been away for quite a number of years but I could always see his face in my mind like a still framed picture of a cherished memory. He has planted a seed in my heart that I could never uproot even if I tried. It seems as though when a man like this passes on, the world should stop on its axis for just a moment as he passes from here to glory...This is a bittersweet pill to swallow...My heart is aching because I will miss him...yet it smiles through the tears because I know he is home now...Brother John my journey with you will never be forgotten.
Shelly
Walking with Jesus in heaven
We are included in those whose lives were forever changed by the LOVE and LEADERSHIP by John and Anne Gimenez. Having had the privilege of serving for over 25 years at Rock Church we can testify of the love Brother John had for his fellow man. Bishop was a man of vision who heard from God and deposited that vision in us. We have missed our former pastors as we retired to Missouri to have the blessing of watching our four grandchildren grow. Bishop, rest in the arms of our Father and celebrate with the saints who have waited for your homecoming. Sister Anne, Robin and John and Rock Church members know you are in our prayers, as well as our church family here, for comfort and strength. - Jim and Sandi Richards, Flemington, MO.
Bishop Giminez's legacy to our family
When my daughter wanted to continue going to Rock Academy in 1991, I was a single parent in school and had no money. Words cannot describe how we felt the day Bishop John announced that the Academy was opened free for the children of all the tithing members of Rock Church. My daughter continued her education at Rock Academy from the 8th grade that year and graduated there thanks to Bishop Giminez.
A salutatorian at her graduation, Bishop John spoke over her life that God was going to use her in the business arena to finance the Kingdom of God. I did not want her to pursue business in college but that prophecy released me to allow her to pursue her dream. Today she is happy in her profession.
During those nine years I was single, Rock Church was a safe haven for us. God truly used the Giminez family to bless us and keep us safe. May Pastor Anne and Revs. Robin and John continue to do God’s work. Thank you.
My Wonderful Pastor
Pastor John was ... always will be ... the most wonderful pastor. I moved to VA Beach in 1984 to be a part of the Rock Church to grow in Jesus and that is exactly what I did. Pastor John loved "everyone". He knew what it was to receive "Mercy and Grace" and he knew how to give "Mercy and Grace". He was the best Father in Christ anyone could ever have. I am sad .. but Heaven is Glad. I could just hear him as he entered the Pearly Gates and was greeted by all those loved ones who have gone before. His love of music just increased as I remember reading the books "90 Minutes in Heaven". He was a Pastor that was not afraid to smell like the sheep and get down to where the sheep were. He was a Pastor that was not afraid to allow other sheperds come to the flock and feed us. I remember him working side by side on the Land out by BlackWater ... I remember him always trying to help on every building project and others hoping he wouldn't work on every building project ..smile. I remember him coming to early morning prayer and it was such a comfort to hear his voice in the morning waking up that sanctuary with Praise and Worship to our Lord. You always felt such a safety in your hea
Prayers for the family, friends, and church
I never met Pastor Giminez, but his positive influence in the community is undeniable. His Jesus-like soul winning attitude should be in the heart of every Christian. I thank God for the testimonies I have heard concerning this man, and most importantly for how he allowed God to use him. My prayers, and the prayers of my church, will be lifted up for the family, friends, Rock Church, and his other ministry commitments.
A Man Very Close To the Heart of Many !
I'm writing this for my father, ( who is in Fiji, working with Rock Church) Pastor John Gimenez was like a father! The words spoken many times by my dad. Today He doesn't know of this tremendous loss. I think he would say " Pastor John, You have touched my life and my families lives for over thirty years! and to this, you will always have a special place in my heart and I thank God for you and your family! Good bye for now....... Ray Kantowski Sr.
Good Bye for now my Friend and Brother
What can one say at a moment such as this? That Brother John will be missed? Of Course, but more than that , what is important is what he leaves behind. The people he touched. The warmth of his personality. The very essence of the Christian Man who always looked to make things better for those around him. To make Jesus real for the world.
I will miss seeing him up on the santuary of Rock Church as he always looked to the people there to say hello to those he recognized and to think of those that were not there. The way he would come down to embrace those there, the way he would take a few mimutes to make you feel special. Good Bye for now! I will see you when I go home as well as we all must some day.
John Giminez planted a seed in my life 34 years ago
My parents, after exhausting all hope to get me help as a drug addicted, messed up teen age girl in the 70's, forced me to go to Rock Church (even though they didn't go there themselves) because they heard about a young ex drug addict preacher who had started a church where lives were being changed. In my rebellion I literally resisted going to this church to the point that I refused to put my shoes on when my Dad pulled me out of the car, thinking he would be too embarrassed to take me in without shoes on. He took me in anyway, barefoot and all, and to my surprise I found a place to call home. 34 years later I'm still enjoying the fruits of a Christian life and family thanks to the seeds John Giminez planted in my life. My new life started in that original building/gym with folding chairs,long haired hippies, and people on fire for God. It is the zeal and joy that John Giminez had in serving the Lord that I will remember him for the most. He will be truly missed.
Good man,good example
Wow.How times have changed. I remember when he first came to the area and the public schools actually let him talk to us about how he got saved after being hooked on drugs and being a criminal in NYC. What an impact he made on our lives way back in 68-69. Too bad the schools ended letting men like him come in and talk to students ! Rest in peace Reverand.
Goodbye Brother John
I'm crying now, but I know Brother John is rejoicing in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 25:21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Pastor John Gimenez
Pastor John Gimenez and Anne have meant alot to me in my life. The Rock Church in Baltimore in 1980 meant alot to me, was life changing and was there as a result of Pastor John and his wife. I was at Washington for Jesus and I always enjoyed the preaching of John and Anne Gimenez. My condolances. He touched alot of lives. KR Florida
May He Rest in Peace
My condolences to the family, and my thanks to John Gimenez for his multi-cultural view and for helping those who need it most.