About The Pastor Rudy Experience

Pastor Rudy is a man who once hung in the streets, then transformed his life to become a Pastor whose primary mission is to touch and heal harts.

For 15 years he has led the St. John’s United Methodist Church with his wife Juanita. In this brief span of time the couple has transformed the spiritual landscape and the face of poverty in Downtown Houston. Beginning with 9 existing members in 1992, St. John’s has grown to over 9,000 members (3,000 of the total either are or were formerly homeless) in fifteen years into one of the most culturally diverse congregations in the country where every week people of every social and economic background share the same pew. They attribute the success of the church to a compassionate congregation who has embraced the vision of tearing down the walls of classism, sexism, and racism and building the bridges of unconditional love, and universal recovery.

Pastor Rudy is the author of a book entitled “Touch: The Power of Touch in Transforming Lives” which profiles his unique brand of faith sharing and radical hospitality and a music project (the book’s sound track) entitled “Touch: The Pastor Rudy Experience” on Spirit Rising Music (2006).

Music often makes it easier to bridge the gap where there are cultural and experiential differences. The Pastor Rudy Experience: Volume One embraces that as an expression and as a tool to bring all things together.

Pastor Rudy shares, “The music is a blended experience. We looked at this from a Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria perspective. Jesus told the disciples [Acts 1:8] that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem —where all the church folks are, and in Judea —right on the outskirts where folks are a little bit familiar with church, and then Samaria —where folks have no clue about church. We took the three distinct ‘locations’ of church and brought those together in one project.” The music crosses those territories and wraps the love in packages palatable to just about everyone.