He was a trailblazing man of God, an evangelist who started preaching while still a teenager and then grew up to build one of California’s largest congregations.
Kenny Foreman, the founder of San Jose’s Cathedral of Faith, has died. He was 88.
Foreman, who founded the megachurch in 1965, passed away the evening of Dec. 16 at home in Los Gatos after a years-long battle with prostate cancer, his son Kurt Foreman said.
“My dad loved people,” he said. “I got to see him in front of crowds and behind the scenes and he was the exact same person.”
Over the years, what started out as a modest church with a few dozen members blossomedinto a diverse 12,000 member congregation.
Born in Crowley, Louisiana, Foreman became a traveling evangelist at the ripe old age of 17, holding revivals around the country. He met his future wife Shirley during a stop in Oakland, returning once a year or so for a time before proposing over the phone. The pair, then married, eventually made their way to Kansas City, Missouri, where they opened what Kurt believes was one of the first integrated churches in the nation.
“He had some interesting encounters with people who were not so crazy about that,” Kurt said.
In the 1960s, with Shirley, Kurt and his older brother Ken — now the Cathedral of Faith’s senior pastor — in tow, Foreman came to Willow Glen to start a new church. By the 1970s, the number of worshipers had swelled and the church moved south, to the corner of Canoas Garden and Curtner avenues.
“He had a heart for the poor,” Kurt said.
The church runs a robust emergency food program, and welcomes people of all incomes and backgrounds to worship. Foreman stepped away from day-to-day operations of the church in the early 2000s, but still attended services and major events.
Most recently, Foreman fulfilled a wish to make it to his granddaughter’s graduation from high school in May at the charter school on the church’s campus.
Foreman preached across the world, delivering sermons to 40,000 people in Nairobi, Kenya and speaking at the Los Angeles Coliseum. In the 1970s, he helped expand the Trinity Broadcasting Network to reach more people. Today, the church livestreams services and is active on social media.
“My dad was always an innovator,” Kurt said.
He wasn’t perfect, Kurt said, noting that his father was Cajun and “in the earlier days could get riled up.”
But, he added, “he was the first to apologize publicly,” and took great joy in helping other people be successful.
“He was,” Kurt said, “the real deal.”
Foreman is survived by his wife Shirley, 83, sons Ken, 59, and Kurt, 54, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Memorial details are expected to be announced in the coming days.
