Pastor Rudy Rasmus is an urban prophet. 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.

Pastors Rudy and Juanita co-founded the Bread of Life, Inc. (a not for profit corporation) in December of 1992 and began serving dinners to the homeless in the sanctuary at St. John’s. Fifteen years later the Bread of Life has become a lighthouse of love providing an array of services to homeless men and women seven days a week in the Daybreak Community Health Facility on the campus.

The project provides:

• 7,000 hot meals each month to the homeless men and women and distributes over 9 tons pounds of fresh food each month to hungry individuals.
• The agency also provides health care for the indigent and uninsured, job training and placement, and houses 30 men in Resurrection House substance abuse treatment and transitional living program.
• C.O.P.E. (counseling, outreach, prevention, and education) provides HIV testing and prevention to over 3,000 individuals annually and offers HIV testing after Sunday services each month.
• Rudy and Juanita also, co-founded the St. John’s Academy in 1999 to provide a safe and stable environment for the children of this community (ages 0-Kindegarten), especially those living with HIV/AIDS, pre-exposure to drugs and alcohol, and other developmental challenges.
• Thanks to a generous donation from Kelly Rowland and Beyonce Knowles of the pop singing group “Destiny’s Child”, the campus includes the $1.2 million Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth, an exciting, multipurpose recreational complex for community youth and “Breaking the Silence” an youth HIV education and risk reduction program. 
• In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, efforts began to construct Knowles-Rowland Phase I of the $4 million Temenos Place Apartments. The housing development is the results of collaborations with House of Dereon founders Tina Knowles and Beyonce Knowles’ Survivor Foundation, Inc. and the City of Houston. The project is a 40 unit Single Room Occupancy development designed to provide permanent living accommodations for women and men who are taking significant steps in improving their lives after the traumatic effects of personal and natural disasters.

Pastor Rudy is the author of a new book entitled “Touch: Pressing Against the Wounds of a Broken World” which profiles his unique brand of faith sharing and radical hospitality and a new music project (the book’s sound track) entitled “The Pastor Rudy Experience” on Spirit Rising Music.

Rudy and Juanita have been married for 21 years and are the proud parents of two daughters, Morgan and Ryan who both in college.