Touch: The Power of Touch in Transforming Lives

By Robin Caldwell

Author: Rudy Rasmus with Christian Washington and Pat Springle

“…I grew in my boldness to fight for the right of each person to sit in the pew, to feel the love of God and God’s people, to be touched by God, and to experience a taste of the kingdom of God …” (Excerpt, Touch by Rudy Rasmus)

In the foreword of Touch: The Power of Touch in Transforming Lives (Baxter Press/Spirit Rising), Reverend Kirbyjohn Caldwell (no relation) calls Rudy Rasmus, the author, a remarkable man. That’s no small claim coming from a man who counts a U. S. president as a close friend, and who has also empowered many to live godly and prosperous lives. I love Rev. Caldwell and his ministry (Windsor Village), so I thought; Rudy Rasmus truly must be remarkable, if he said so.

One thing I knew before reading Touch’s foreword was that Pastor Rasmus, a self-described urban messenger, was an eccentric man, a Christian after my own eccentric and peculiar heart. I loved the braids donning his goatee. I loved the fact, also, that his parishioners—the rich and famous, the poor and infamous— have invested heavily in his mission at St. John’s in Houston, Texas, which speaks volumes about the mission and the missionary – Pastor Rasmus.

Like the black men I’ve come to love and admire in my life, Pastor Rasmus strikes me as one cool cat – a deep brother that is multilingual and understands the language of the streets, the language of corporate America, and any other language in between, especially the language of love. This is a guy who quotes the Bible, jazz and R&B singers, and critical thinkers like Malcolm Gladwell. God has dealt kindly with Pastor Rasmus and poured a multitude of gifts into him, which is evident in the sincere, straight-shooting, and intellectual tone of Touch. Yet, the tone only complements the giftedness of Touch; its ability to preach to the choir and to those listening off on the sidelines. Touch, like Rudy Rasmus, is incredibly approachable, easy to read, and understand.

Here is the thrust of Touch in Rudy Rasmus’ own words:

“Before I could be a channel for the grace of God, I had to experience it first. Nobody on God’s green earth expected Rudy Rasmus to be touched by the love of God, but I was. Jesus didn’t appear to me in a vision or dream, but He showed Himself to me through the strong love of a few people … They were God’s grace with skin on.”

Appropriately, the book’s cover is a black and white photograph of a pair of large, male hands soiled with dirt. The palms are outstretched and open. As I read Touch, it became painfully clear how symbolic those dirty hands were in the telling of Pastor Rasmus’ story and in the points he illustrates throughout the book. On one level those filthy hands represent the hands of Christ who touched and transformed the lives of people like me – people whose lives were deemed dirty and untouchable by the religious and self-righteous.

In simpler terms, those hands represented the risk we take whenever we present ourselves as God’s grace with skin on – we risk getting dirty, not abandoning our holiness, but rather shedding the pristine image of a Christian to sometimes meet people where they are like our Savior did and does.

Transforming lives can be dirty work.

Touch is a brilliant book, to say the least. It is Pastor Rudy’s testimony, in part, and a chronicle of the spiritual lessons he’s learned over his years as a Christian and in ministry. It is a sly teaching device, a discipleship tool, that both comforts and challenges. Much of what Pastor Rudy teaches snuck up on me, rolled up on me, and caught me unaware. Just as I was lulled into a false sense of security reading about his journey in Christ, I was challenged with re-evaluating my own journey, and for that alone, Touch is a treasure.

At the end of each chapter is a section, Going Deeper, that serves as part Bible study guide and part probing mechanism. The questions Pastor Rudy poses are simple enough, but so profoundly illustrative of his point that before anyone can function as a transformer, they must be first transformed.

The sense of touch is extraordinary. Years ago, a group of researchers conducted a study on preemies or prematurely born babies. Babies, who received a healthy and affectionate dose of touch by human hands, thrived and grew rapidly. Babies, who were not touched in the same manner, in some cases, willed themselves to an early death or developed slowly from a condition termed as “skin hunger.” Pastor Rudy beautifully articulates a person’s need to receive a sincere and affectionate touch – from God and His grace in skin – to thrive and to grow.

In a nutshell, Pastor Rudy doesn’t want anyone to perish because of skin hunger. He has a pure motivation to disciple people to become touching and transforming followers of Christ; to move away from being the distant Christian who would prefer to give money and things to the least of these to move toward being deeper in our empathy and compassion for the world God so loves.

Touch dispenses invaluable wisdom on serving others as led by the Lord, trusting His lead, and not our own. Pastor Rudy writes about service burnout, self‑righteous service, and even service that really isn’t service at all. He states, “Caring for ‘the least of these’ reveals our values and challenges our security.”

Touch is about living an authentic Christian life that isn’t afraid to touch people’s lives in the model of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a clarion call to the Body of Christ to, in the immortal words of B. B. King, “live the life that” we “sing about in” our songs – every last one of those glorious songs of faith and love for God we sing on Sunday mornings. It is a clarion call to shun a smoke and mirrors Christianity that is all about the bling-bling and mean, mean green to embrace a path of integrity and genuine love for our neighbors.

He writes, “The great preacher D. L. Moody accurately observed, ‘Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible; the other 99 will read the Christian.’ They’re looking for authenticity. Let’s not let them down.”

That stated, Touch is the rare jewel of a book written with the same fervor and enthusiasm as Revolution by George Barna and a few other tomes about an active and revolutionary faith that glorifies God and His vision for a dying, starving, and hurting world.

Touch is available at Amazon.com and at www.spiritrisingmusic.com or by calling 866-ALL-ACCESS.