From a Pennsylvania living room where a teenager watched two very different men on television, a ministry emerged that would counsel presidents and challenge the American church to reconcile its vertical and horizontal commitments. Samuel Rodriguez has spent decades refusing the binary.
The moment arrived in 2017 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, where Samuel Rodriguez stood before a crowd of hundreds of thousands and read from the fifth chapter of Matthew. The passage spoke of salt and light, of cities on hills. He concluded in the name of Jesus, a choice that carried weight in a secular ceremony, a declaration that the vertical dimension of faith could not be separated from the horizontal work of citizenship. It was not the first time he had participated in a presidential inauguration, and it would not be the last time he insisted that the two realms were inseparable.
Eight years earlier, Rodriguez had read from Luke 4 at President Obama’s inaugural prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church. The passage describes Jesus proclaiming good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind. Different presidents, different political moments, but the same underlying conviction: that faith must speak to power, and that power must be held accountable to something beyond itself.
A Living Room Epiphany in Bethlehem
Rodriguez was raised by Puerto Rican parents in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a city named for a place of arrival. At 14, he sat in front of a television and watched two programs in succession. The first featured televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, a figure of charismatic fervor and spiritual intensity. The second was a PBS documentary on Martin Luther King Jr., a man whose faith had been inseparable from his fight for civil rights. The juxtaposition was not accidental. In that living room, Rodriguez describes experiencing an epiphany: that Christianity required both dimensions, both the fervor of personal salvation and the commitment to social justice.
By 16, he was delivering his first sermon. By 1992, he had been ordained as a minister in the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination known for its emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the urgency of evangelism. The path seemed clear, but the vision was more complicated than a single tradition could contain.
Building a Conference, Defining a Movement
In 2000, Rodriguez founded the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. The organization describes itself as the world’s largest Hispanic Christian organization, representing tens of thousands of churches in the United States and over 450,000 churches throughout the Spanish-speaking diaspora. The numbers are substantial, the reach extensive, but the underlying question was always about voice: who speaks for Hispanic evangelicals, and what do they say when they speak?
Rodriguez has consistently articulated a position he describes as neither left nor right, but rooted in what he calls the Word of God. In a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters’ International Christian Media Convention, he stated that the battle is not political but spiritual, a conflict between light and darkness, between truth and relativism. The formulation is striking in its refusal to cede the language of truth to any single political camp.
His argument, articulated in interviews and sermons over two decades, is that Christianity has received an inappropriate and skewed definition. He points to Luke 4 and Matthew 25, to the fishes and bread of compassion, of love, of tolerance, of mercy. It is a Christianity of Christ, he says, one that addresses both the vertical relationship with God and the horizontal relationships with other human beings.
Advising Power, Maintaining Distance
Rodriguez has worked with and advised three U.S. presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald J. Trump. The continuity across administrations is unusual, a testament to either his diplomatic skill or his ability to articulate concerns that transcend partisan categories. He became the first Latino to participate in multiple presidential inauguration ceremonies, a historical marker that carries symbolic weight in a nation where Hispanic evangelicals represent a growing and politically significant demographic.
Yet the role of advisor is fraught. In 2009, he participated in Obama’s inaugural prayer service. In 2017, he read scripture at Trump’s inauguration. The optics were different, the political contexts nearly opposite, but Rodriguez has maintained that his presence was not an endorsement of policy but an assertion of faith’s relevance to public life.
He joined the Board of Trustees at Oral Roberts University, a school founded on the premise that God is a good God and that faith can bring about miraculous change. He became a board member of the National Association of Evangelicals in 2006, a coalition that represents a broad spectrum of evangelical denominations and institutions. His work on the Global Council of Empowered21, an initiative focused on Pentecostal and charismatic renewal, positioned him within a movement that emphasizes the present-day activity of the Holy Spirit.
From Pulpit to Screen
Rodriguez serves as lead pastor of New Season Church in Sacramento, California, recognized by Newsmax as one of America’s most influential megachurches. The church operates across multiple campuses, a model that reflects both growth and strategic expansion. But his influence extends beyond the pulpit.
He became an executive producer for Breakthrough, a faith-based film that received a GMA Dove Award for Inspirational Film of the Year. The movie tells the story of a boy who falls through ice and is revived after his mother prays. It is a narrative of miraculous intervention, of faith against odds. He also executive produced Flamin’ Hot, a film about the creation of a popular snack food, a story that blends entrepreneurship with cultural identity.
Rodriguez has authored multiple books, including You Are Next, which uses the New Testament account of Jesus healing the paralytic man to explore themes of spiritual paralysis and divine timing. He writes that when people depend on others more than they depend on God, perpetual paralysis defines them. The theology is straightforward: encounter with Christ ends paralysis, and no one misses their turn.
Recognition and the Weight of Influence
In 2011, Rodriguez received the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award from the Congress of Racial Equality. In 2015, he was given the Rosa Parks Courage Award. In 2016, Alveda King and the King family presented him with the Defender of the Dream Award. The awards connect him to a legacy of civil rights activism, a lineage he claims through his insistence that faith must address issues of justice and equality.
In 2024, he received the Jerusalem Award from the Friends of Zion Museum, an honor that reflects his advocacy for Israel and his engagement with Jewish-Christian relations. He has also received honorary doctorates from William Jessup University, Northwest University, and Baptist University of the Americas, institutions that span evangelical higher education.
CNN, Fox News, and The New York Times have all described Rodriguez as America’s most influential Hispanic Christian leader. The designation is both descriptive and prescriptive, shaping how his voice is received and amplifying the platform from which he speaks.
A Mission Without Compromise
Rodriguez describes his mission as singular: to glorify and magnify the name of Jesus in every sphere of society. The formulation is theologically precise and culturally expansive. It means preaching in churches, advising presidents, producing films, writing books, and speaking at conferences. It means engaging with immigration reform, civil rights, Israel advocacy, and evangelical renewal.
He has stated that Jesus is not coming for a church that complains or compromises, but for a church that is firm. The metaphor is architectural: a structure that can withstand pressure, that does not bend to cultural or political winds. In another formulation, he warns that complacency today is captivity tomorrow, a call to vigilance that applies to both spiritual and social life.
The Horizontal and the Vertical in Samuel Rodriguez
Rodriguez continues to pastor New Season Church, to lead the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and to navigate the intersections of faith, culture, and power. His work remains defined by the tension he first encountered at 14: the vertical call to spiritual devotion and the horizontal demand for justice and compassion. He insists that the two cannot be separated, that the Christianity of Christ requires both. Whether advising presidents or preaching to congregations, producing films or writing books, his ministry has been an extended argument that the cross has two beams, and both matter.
