A Touch Test, Part 2 with Pastor Rudy

Today we continue the interview with Pastor Rudy, author of Touch: Pressing Against the Wounds of a Broken World, pastor of St. Johns, and advocate for faith that intersects with a real world. He talks about his dad who was angry over his faith, his wife who suffered depression after trying to do to much to help others in the streets of Houston, and about a "touch test" that every person should consider.

Suzie Eller: Your father later came to your church and his life was changed. What would you say to teens or adults who live out their faith, but whose parents don’t agree with their new life?

Pastor Rudy: My dad taught me to “never trust preachers and church people.” He would go to say that they were all full of *$&@

He was a graphic communicator with a very well placed esteem and courage to speak his own truth as if the world bowed to it. When I first began my dad told his friends that he had “lost me to God” as if he was in competition to keep me from getting to God, but what he really meant was in the cryptic code.

You see, I ran our borderline-bordello located on the edge of Downtown Houston. It was a rough place where people traded their bodies for cash and drugs and daily 24/365 with not letting up. My dad watched me intently waiting for the moment I would slip away from ministry return to the family business that I knew and ran so well, As the years passed, this concept became even more remote of a possibility.

So my dad in the old adage “if you can’t beat you might as well join them. He started attending services in my first year. In my seventh year at 12 noon at the end of service I looked up and there was my dad walking down the aisle to commit his life to Jesus. Wow!!! I was done!

The years that followed mellowed my pops a lot. He even allowed me to close our little bordello and convert it to a drug treatment facility.

Suzie: You shared how you and your wife went through a difficult time when you were doing too much. What did you learn through that time? What would you say to others who desire to minister, but the problem seems too big, too overwhelming?

Pastor Rudy: On August 29 1999, my wife suffered what Doctors called a major depressive episode (old folks would have called it a nervous breakdown). Her nerves shattered and it was two years before she returned to the vibrant, exciting, passionate person that I knew as Juanita.

We did learn a lot of lessons during that season in our lives. We learned to never take tomorrow for granted, we learned to live in the very present moment, cherishing every waking moment with one that we loved, We learned to live as though there was no future to make corrections for missed moments. We learned to ask the question… “If I loved myself I would?” and then carefully list 10 ways that would represent loving ourselves. We also learned to wake up every morning smiling and to take long beach breaks.

Suzie: I love your title: Touch: Pressing Against the Wounds of a Broken World. What is one message you believe thatthe body of Christ needs to hear about how to minister effectively to a world outside the pew?

Pastor Rudy: A recent report in the New York Times published February 25, titled “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” depicts a highly fluid and diverse national religious life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.”

Here’s the truth; Jesus touched folks and their lives were changed… Jesus allowed folks to touch him and their lives were changed, He even said that “whatever we do for the least of these we do also for him” Once upon a time the church was at the center of life in a community but somewhere along the way the church started serving itself more than it served the community and it wasn’t long before the church was moved from the center of activity and deemed a yacht club or country club for members only and the world walked away.

Suzie: In the back of the book you offered a “touch test”. Do you believe that we forget how powerful “touch” is? Can you share one story with our readers that shows how we can touch others in tangible ways?

Pastor Rudy: The research field of touch is called HAPTICS. This research shows that the During World War II hundreds of thousands of children were left orphaned due to the murder of their parents. The longer they went without being touched by another human being the more they suffered. As a matter of fact they experienced a “failure to thrive, below average weight, and slowed emotional development.”

An honest look at our world today reveals the same symptoms for the same reasons… a lack of touch. Our willingness to touch another human being is the most basic indicator of our acceptance or rejection of that person’s humanity.

The Touch Test helps the reader assess a list of personality types with the goal of determining whether or not he or she is practicing unconditional acceptance, conditional acceptance, or out right rejection. I have learned that there are only two responses that we can give any person or situation. The two responses are either fear or love. Here’s the fact: Jesus not only touched people, but allowed people to touch him regardless to their socio-economic stations in life.

Suzie: Is there one last thing you want to share about St. John’s or anything else with your readers today?

Pastor Rudy: I am advocating for the kind of love Jesus referenced when he reduced the 10 commandments and the 600 plus ordinances to two. The first being ”love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, or strength,” and the second was “to love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

A flight attendants discourse before take-off which reminds the passenger that in case of sudden changes to planes interior… to put their own oxygen mask on first, Fundamental to loving your neighbor is the real need to know that you can’t give something that you don’t possess, even if its love for one’s self.

Suzie: Thank you, Pastor Rudy, for taking the time to share your heart and your ministry.