Brother Jim

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James Gilles (b. 1962), better known as Jim Gilles or more commonly Brother Jim, is an American evangelist whose ministry is concentrated on college campuses, particularly in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and surrounding areas. He is currently based out of Symsonia, Kentucky.

1 Early Life
2 The Campus Ministry
3 Notes
4 External Links

[edit] Early Life

James Gilles was born in 1962 in Evansville, Indiana. As early as eighth grade, Gilles was already beginning to embrace the counter culture lifestyle that was still strong in the early 1970s. His first major encounter with law enforcement came during his freshman year of high school when he was arrested for possession of alcoholic beverages and under 30 grams of marijuana. Not more than a month later, Gilles was once again arrested for possession of alcohol and marijuana following an automobile accident driven by a friend. Heavy pot usage eventually lead Gilles to harder drugs including cocaine. The drugs also led him to lose jobs three different times by the time he was 18.

A lifestyle of alcohol abuse, heavy drug use, and an obsession with muscle cars began to take a toll on Jim Gilles. In 1980, an unemployed and desperate Gilles was persuaded by his brother's former roommate to start attending church and reading the Bible. The chance encounter eventually led to Gilles completely changing his lifestyle on November 7, 1980 while Gilles was attending a Van Halen rock concert. Van Halen's original lead singer, David Lee Roth, shouted to the crowd, "Not even God can save your soul at a Van Halen concert." Roth then began to sing their hit song, "Running With The Devil."

[edit] The Campus Ministry

After meeting Brother Jed in his home church about a year after his conversion, Jim Gilles arranged to preach with Jed at Southern Illinios University for a week during his vacation time. The two worked well together, and they arranged to work together for another week with Max Lynch and Cindy Lassiter the following spring. In the fall of 1982, Gilles began preaching full-time with Brother Jed, Max Lynch and Cindy Lassiter. He has since travelled nationwide to 328 colleges and universities preaching to students.

Brother Jim does not have the appearance of some of the other well-known campus ministers. His initially calm personality and business-like style of dress are a far cry from others. However, once Brother Jim gets worked up in preaching, he can become every bit as enthusiastic and confrontational as the rest. Gilles utilizes the "confrontational evangelism" variant of evangelism that is shared by many street-preachers, campus pastors and other evangelicals, who hope that a spiritual rebuke will influence sinners to repent.

Brother Jim's confrontational style of preaching have resulted in him being arrested at least 30 times in the last 25 years for various charges ranging from trespassing, loitering, disorderly conduct, breach of peace and unreasonable noise on university campuses and pubic sidewalks.^[1]

Most recently, Brother Jim gained media attention when he filed a federal lawsuit against Murray State University in late September 2006. The lawsuit alleges that Murray State deprived him of his rights to free speech when he was told that he would have to stop preaching until he secured sponsorship from a campus organization. Gilles contended that he has frequented Murray State since the 1980s and never before required a sponsor.^[2]^[3]