Pastor who lost renewal battle in Miami dies at 45
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, July 27, 2005
Michael Girolimon, a former Presbyterian Church (USA) pastor who was leading an evangelical renewal at First Presbyterian Church in Miami until the Presbytery of Tropical Florida intervened in 2000, died on May 16 in Lakeland, Fla.
Michael Girolimon in front of church on Brickell Avenue, the so-called “Wall Street” of Latin America.Girolimon was 45, no longer in the pulpit ministry and suffering from an extended bout with leukemia. Before his death, he was teaching at the McKeel Academy of Technology in Lakeland after having established an independent congregation in Miami that was running out of steam because of logistics and high costs.
Girolimon’s ministry and the presbytery’s intervention became a national story after a first report by The Layman Online on March 29, 2000. The Miami Herald and other media later published accounts of the controversy surrounding Girolimon’s service at the church.
The confrontation came to a head on July 21, 2000, when the Presbytery of Tropical Florida voted to appoint an administrative commission to take over control of the congregation. Girolimon, the elders, most of the staff and more than half of the members left the PCUSA after that decision.
From a heyday of 1,200 members, First Presbyterian Church went through decades of decline before Girolimon was called in 1997 to become its pastor. Attendance at the church’s three worship services rose steadily to an average of 160 a week during the months preceding Girolimon’s departure.
Girolimon caused controversy for a number of reasons. He followed Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven model for evangelism and church growth. He was a former Assemblies of God minister and too charismatic for some members of the congregation and presbytery leaders. He opened the door to a wave of cross-culturalism – attracting blacks and Hispanics to a congregation that included members who took pride in their traditionalism. He introduced drums and guitars.
Some of the outsiders came as non-Christians and many were converted. One of his innovations included a service at noon on Wednesdays that attracted bankers, lawyers, street people and others.
He also antagonized some old-time members by fighting to keep First Presbyterian Church off the auction block. A former presbytery executive had told Girolimon that he would be the last minister at First Presbyterian because the value of its property, estimated in 2000 to be more than $30 million, was too great to resist.
The church is nestled in the center of Miami’s banking district, an area popularly called the “Wall Street of Latin America” because of its clients.
A previous pastor had been told by the session to work toward selling the property, which runs between Brickell Avenue and Brickell Bay, not far from Key Brickell, an island of millionaires. But he couldn’t broker a deal – and couldn’t beef up attendance.
During the controversy over Girolimon, the presbytery repeatedly said it had no plans to take over the property and sell it to bolster declining presbytery revenue. The presbytery has had one of the steepest membership declines in the denomination – from 19,620 in 1997 to 16,360 in 2004, a 16.6 percent drop. As a whole, the PCUSA, which has one of the highest membership loss rates of any mainline denomination in the U.S., had a membership reduction of 9.6 percent from 1997 to 2004.
V. Neil WyrickToday, the interim minister at First Presbyterian is V. Neil Wyrick, who is undoubtedly more famous than Girolimon was when he was called to the Miami pulpit. Wyrick, a member of the Presbytery of Tropical Florida, served as a Presbyterian pastor for 21 years in other states before entering the entertainment business.
He promotes his secular and religious activities on the church’s Web site. Wyrick is a dramatist, a former Miami TV talk-show host, and producer of “more than one dozen Orange Bowl extravaganzas, both secular and sacred.”
The PCUSA’s annual statistical report showed that, on average, 44 people were attending the Sunday worship services during 2004. Also during 2004, the congregation’s 70 members contributed $61,605 – hardly enough to pay the bills. But they also raise money in other ways, including promoting the use of their historic sanctuary for wedding services – for a fee.
An obituary in The Ledger, the daily newspaper in Lakeland, Fla., did not mention Girolimon’s service as a minister. The obit listed the survivors as his wife, Rachel Girolimon; son, John Girolimon, Lakeland; daughter, Kimberly Girolimon, Lakeland; mother, Sarah Girolimon, St. John, Ind.; and brother, Mark Girolimon, St. John, Ind.
It also said he was a member of Victory Church.