Gemstone Ministries

Gemstone Ministries is the church network founded by Dr. Eli Gemstone. Their main sanctuary is located in North Charleston, South Carolina, with multiple satellite locations worldwide as well as one in a mall in Locust Grove, Georgia.

Gemstone Ministries is a megachurch patterned on similar institutions such as nearby NewSpring Church based in Anderson, South Carolina; Elevation Church based in Charlotte, North Carolina; Lakewood Church (famous for being founded by pastor Joel Osteen) in Houston, Texas; and North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.

The ministry began as televangelism in the 1980s, with Dr. Gemstone and his wife, Aimee-Leigh Gemstone, having a Christian television show that featured song, dance, and scripture. However, as their family grew, Eli and Aimee-Leigh decided to expand the church and go beyond the television-based ministry they had used before. Renovating an old arena much like Joel Osteen did in Houston, the Gemstones would then use this new location as a base for expansion worldwide to places like the Philippines and China.

Dr. Gemstone boasted that the church would have upwards of 17,000 attendees for their Easter Sunday service, and rakes in $1 million in collections each week. This money can exceed $3 million for large holidays like Easter and Christmas.

The Church employs all of Eli's children, with Jesse serving as associate pastor, Kelvin serving as youth pastor, and Judy serving as an administrative assistant. They also employ Martin Amari as the church's chief operating officer, as well as multiple musicians and other employees, which includes Jesse's friend and guitarist, Levi.

The Church would suffer a major humiliation at the hands of Jesse Gemstone's son, Gideon Gemstone. Gideon would participate in a major heist scheme with a fellow stuntman colleague of his, Scotty, whom would end up committing larceny and running away with $3 million in Gemstone collections from Easter Sunday. However, the Gemstones would later track down the money, later to be found in Baby Billy Freeman's possession, having been in a car accident with Scotty and Billy's wife Tiffany later shooting Scotty so they could abscond with the money.

The vast majority of the money was recovered and returned to the church, but not after it cost the marriage and career of associate pastor Jesse Gemstone. Jesse's wife left him because of how the entire heist (and blackmail video) led to Gideon seeking salvation at a Christian mission in Haiti. Having refused to come back to South Carolina, Gideon sealed his father's fate for the foreseeable future.

With Baby Billy having quit his post as head of the Locust Grove location, that church's future is undecided as of the end of Season 1. However, Eli is still running the main location in Charleston as before, and the church managed to avoid total financial calamity in the wake of Gideon and Scotty's heist.