About Dudley

When Dudley Rutherford was in the ninth grade, sitting in the back of his father’s church and not paying much attention to the sermon, the Lord suddenly and unexpectedly grabbed a hold of his heart. During the altar call, his dad looked at him perplexed, because he knew his boy had not been listening to his message. Dudley’s father asked, “Son, why have you come forward today?”

“I want to dedicate my life to being a preacher,” was the young man’s sincere reply, and he has been obedient to that calling ever since.

Dudley earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Ozark Christian College and his Master’s Degree in Church Growth from Hope International University. He also obtained an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from St. Charles University. In 1987, he moved across the country to California, to pastor Hillcrest Christian Church in Granada Hills (Los Angeles). Under his leadership, the church grew from 350 to 1,000 people. In 1995, God united Hillcrest with Shepherd of the Hills, and the merger became the present-day Shepherd of the Hills Church, where Dudley is the senior pastor. Since that time, the church has grown to about 10,000 people in attendance within 20 different worship services each weekend, including four daughter churches and four satellite campuses.

You might say that his future in the ministry was inevitable: Dudley is a third-generation preacher who has been blessed with a strong Christian heritage in which his grandfather, father, uncles, brothers, and in-laws are all pastors. Like them, he has a passion for telling the world about God’s love and salvation through Jesus Christ.

Dudley is a gifted, cross-platform communicator—delivering biblical messages via weekend church services and television, radio, and internet ministries. He shares the Scriptures in a relevant and personal way, and hearers have often expressed that they feel as though he is speaking directly to them! (Dudley credits the always-timely truth of God’s word and the power of the Holy Spirit.) He has had the distinction of speaking for several professional sports teams and was also a featured chapel speaker for the World Series. Dudley currently has the honor of serving as President of the 2011 North American Christian Convention. He is the founder of CallOnJesus.com, an internet ministry, as well as Dream of Destiny.org, a ministry designed to encourage and instill ethnic diversity within the Christian Church and Churches of Christ.

On occasion, Dudley has been known to compromise his preaching voice by cheering for his beloved sports teams: the Oklahoma University Sooners, Los Angeles Lakers, UCLA Bruins, and St. Louis Cardinals. It is at those times he believes in the soothing power of ice cream, golf, pumpkin pie, fishing, and Mexican food—not necessarily in that order. Dudley and his beautiful and patient wife, Renee, and their three, beloved children reside in Porter Ranch. His published works are Proverbs in a Haystack, Romancing Royalty, and Keeping a Smile on Your Faith.