Thousands Remember Rock Church Revolutionary

All 5,200 seats inside Rock Church, one of the country’s first megachurches, were filled to the brim Tuesday as a huge crowd gathered for the funeral of the Rev. John Gimenez, who co-founded the Hampton Roads, Va., congregation and helped spearhead a national evangelical movement in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

The late reverend died Feb. 12 at the age of 76, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

A “who’s who” of the evangelical community attended the service, including broadcaster Pat Robertson.

“[Gimenez] came to me and said, ‘Brother … I want to call Americans, Christians, to Washington and claim Washington for Jesus,’” Robertson said of Gimenez’s organization of the 1980 Washington for Jesus rally. “That meeting changed America,” Robertson said. “We got a new president (Ronald Reagan), a new administration, and things began to turn around.”

Gimenez co-pastored the church with his wife, Anne. In the past, many criticized the church’s jubilant, Pentecostal style, which is now commonplace throughout U.S. churches.

“He endured the criticism for celebrating worship,” said Bishop Courtney McBath of CalvaryRevivalChurch in Norfolk, Va.

Gimenez was a “born again” Christian, having battled drug addiction early in his life. He served as a missionary in Africa, helping to build numerous churches in Liberia. Cable companies nationwide carried RockChurch’s television ministry, allowing many who never set foot in the building to experience the worship.