Rudy Rasmus is an emergent messenger, an urban prophet, and global humanitarian with a passion for outreach to our world’s poorest citizens. Pastor Rudy co-pastors the St. John’s United Methodist Church   located in Downtown Houston with his wife Juanita. 

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 sixteen 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. He attributes 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 bridges of unconditional love, universal recovery, and unprecedented hope.

Pastor Rudy co-founded the Bread of Life, Inc.  (a not forprofit corporation) in December of 1992 and began serving dinners to the homeless in the sanctuary at St. John’s. Years later the Bread of Life has changed the landscape of Downtown Houston providing an array of services tohomeless men and women seven days a week in the recently constructed Daybreak Community Health Facility on the St. John’s campus. The project provides over 7,000 hot meals each month to the homeless men and women and distributes over 9 tons of fresh food each week to hungry families. The agency also provides health and dental care for the indigent and uninsured, job training and placement, substance abuse treatment, and HIV testing, prevention, and education on a daily basis. 

$9million in campus construction over the last five years include state-of-the-art renovations to the Center for Worship and construction of the Ada Edwards Center for Hope. Thanks to generous donations from Beyonce Knowles and Kelly Rowland, the campus includes the $1.2 million Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth, an exciting, multipurpose recreational complex for community youth and the $5 million Knowles-Rowland Temenos Place Apartments.  The project is a 42 unit Single Room Occupancy (SRO) development designed to provide living accommodations for women and men who are escaping homelessness and taking significant steps in improving their lives after personal and natural disasters. 

Pastor Rudy is a monthly contributor to Oprah Winfrey’s  “O Magazine ” in an ethics column entitled “Now What Do I Do?” and is the author of a new book “Touch: Pressing against the wounds of a broken world” (Thomas NelsonPublishers) which profiles his interesting life story and his unique brand offaith sharing and radical hospitality. He also has a new music project instores now entitled “Touch Vol. 1: The Pastor Rudy Experience” on the SpiritRising Music label.