Samuel Rodriguez Jr. (born September 29, 1969, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is an American pastor, author, civil rights advocate, and Hollywood film producer.
He serves as senior pastor of New Season Church in Sacramento and Los Angeles, California, and as president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), a role that’s made him one of the most visible Latino evangelical voices in the country.
Rodriguez has advised four U.S. presidents on faith and immigration policy and produced major studio films, including Breakthrough and Flamin’ Hot.
If the name pulls up a different face in your search results, you’re probably looking at the Hollywood character actor Sam Rodriguez or another unrelated public figure. This article covers Rev. Samuel Rodriguez Jr., the Pentecostal pastor and NHCLC president from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
At a Glance
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Samuel Rodriguez Jr. |
| Born | September 29, 1969, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania |
| Age | 56 (as of 2026) |
| Nationality | American (Puerto Rican descent) |
| Spouse | Eva Rodriguez |
| Children | Three |
| Education | B.A.; M.A. in Educational Leadership, Lehigh University; honorary doctorates from Northwest University and Baptist University of the Americas |
| Title | Senior Pastor |
| Church | New Season Church, Sacramento and Los Angeles, California |
| Denomination | Assemblies of God (Pentecostal) |
| Ordained | 1992, age 23 |
| Other role | President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (since 2000) |
| Books | Be Light, You Are Next, Persevere with Power, and others |
| Films produced | Breakthrough, Flamin’ Hot, The Impossible |
| Website | pastorsam.com / nhclc.org |
Early Life and Background
Samuel Rodriguez was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to parents who had immigrated from Puerto Rico. Bethlehem was a Rust Belt steel town built largely by Polish, Slavic, Ukrainian, and Italian immigrant families, and Rodriguez grew up as part of one of the smaller Puerto Rican households in that mix.
His parents weren’t ministers, but they raised him in a home where Christian faith was simply assumed, not optional.
Rodriguez wasn’t drawn to ministry as a young kid. He’s described himself as a “math kid” and a self-identified Star Trek fan growing up, more interested in logic and numbers than the pulpit.
That changed at 14, when he watched a Jimmy Swaggart broadcast and felt a sudden, specific sense that he was supposed to preach.
That same evening, a separate broadcast about Martin Luther King Jr. reinforced the feeling. Two years later, at 16, he delivered his first sermon.
Education
Rodriguez earned his bachelor’s degree and a master’s in educational leadership from Lehigh University. He was ordained as a minister in the Assemblies of God in 1992, at age 23.
He later received honorary doctorates from Northwest University and Baptist University of the Americas, credentials that reflect his standing within Pentecostal academic circles rather than a traditional seminary track.
Ministry and Career
Rodriguez built his ministry career inside the Assemblies of God, one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the world, before eventually founding the organization that would define his national profile.
Founding the NHCLC
In 2000, Rodriguez founded the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), now widely described as the largest Hispanic Christian organization in the country.
The NHCLC’s stated mission centers on what Rodriguez calls the “Lamb’s Agenda”: a set of priorities built around life, family, compassionate evangelism, stewardship, justice, education, and youth, an attempt to combine evangelical theology with civil-rights-style public engagement.
Rodriguez has described the NHCLC’s goal as bridging Billy Graham’s emphasis on personal salvation with Martin Luther King Jr.’s tradition of prophetic activism.
That framing has shaped how he talks about immigration, religious liberty, and racial reconciliation for more than two decades.
New Season Church
Rodriguez serves as senior pastor of New Season Church, which operates campuses in Sacramento and Los Angeles and counts among the faster-growing megachurches in the country.
The church functions as his home base even as his national and political work has expanded well beyond Sacramento.
Rise to Prominence
By the mid-2000s, Rodriguez had become a recognizable name in both religious and political media.
CNN and Fox News both referred to him as the leader of the Hispanic evangelical movement, and a 2008 NPR interview described him as one of the country’s most influential religious leaders.
CNN’s 2009 “Latinos in America” special featured him directly. In 2013, TIME nominated him for its list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
His political visibility crossed a major threshold on January 20, 2017, when Rodriguez delivered a reading at Donald Trump’s first inauguration, becoming the first Latino evangelical and the first Assemblies of God minister to participate in a presidential swearing-in ceremony.
He read from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, in front of an estimated billion-person global television audience.
Books and Films
Rodriguez has written more than a dozen books blending personal faith, leadership, and cultural commentary.
His 2016 release, Be Light: Shining God’s Beauty, Truth, and Hope into a Darkened World, hit number one on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List.
“You Are Next“, published in 2019, landed at fourteenth on Publishers Weekly’s hardcover nonfiction frontlist chart. His 2021 title, Persevere with Power, made ECPA’s Christian bestseller lists in both English and Spanish.
Outside of publishing, Rodriguez has built a real, credited presence in film. He served as executive producer on Breakthrough (2019), a 20th Century Fox release that earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song and won a GMA Dove Award for Inspirational Film of the Year.
He also executive produced Flamin’ Hot (2023), the Fox Searchlight film about the invention of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, directed by Eva Longoria.
Variety named it one of the best films of 2023, and it was notable as the first major film with a Hispanic producer, writer, director, and leading actors in the same project. He’s also credited as executive producer on The Impossible
Personal Life
Rodriguez is married to Eva Rodriguez, and the couple has three children. They reside in Sacramento, California. Outside of ministry and his production work, Rodriguez has described himself publicly as a self-identified “Trekkie,” a detail that occasionally surfaces in interviews as a counterpoint to his otherwise heavily political and theological public persona.
Theology and Ministry Philosophy
Rodriguez identifies firmly within the Pentecostal tradition through his Assemblies of God ordination, holding to core charismatic distinctives around the active work of the Holy Spirit.
His public ministry, though, is most defined by the Lamb’s Agenda framework: a conscious attempt to hold together pro-life convictions, support for religious liberty, and advocacy for immigration reform and racial reconciliation under one theological umbrella.
That combination has made him difficult to categorize along conventional American political lines.
He’s publicly disagreed with Republican administrations on specific immigration policies while continuing to serve as an evangelical adviser to them, a pattern that’s drawn both praise for engagement and criticism for inconsistency from different directions.
Influence and Legacy
Few Hispanic evangelical leaders have built a comparable bridge between megachurch ministry, national political access, and mainstream entertainment production. Rodriguez has advised Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump (across both administrations), participating in inaugural events, White House faith councils, and direct policy conversations on immigration and criminal justice reform, including involvement in discussions that contributed to the First Step Act.
His entertainment work has arguably given him a reach beyond what most pastors achieve through preaching alone. Flamin’ Hot broke streaming records within days of release and represented a genuine landmark for Hispanic representation in mainstream film, a legacy that exists somewhat independently of his ministry work.
Criticism and Controversies
Rodriguez’s role as a Trump faith adviser has drawn sustained criticism, particularly around immigration enforcement under the current administration.
In October 2025, Rodriguez told Religion News Service that mass deportation operations were causing measurable drops in Sunday attendance at NHCLC-affiliated churches, in some cases 25 to 35 percent, due to fear of immigration raids.
He’s pushed publicly for legislation like the Dignity Act while continuing to serve in an advisory capacity to the same administration carrying out the enforcement he’s criticized.
In March 2026, more than 100 Latino Christian leaders signed a public statement arguing that Rodriguez’s influence and the NHCLC’s claimed reach, frequently cited as representing tens of thousands of churches or millions of Hispanic Christians, had been significantly overstated by both Rodriguez and the media outlets that quote him.
The Reverend Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, was among the signers, and the Reverend Carlos Malavé of the Latino Christian National Network suggested Rodriguez’s continued visible support for the administration, despite his own criticism of its immigration policy, reflected political pressure rather than a genuine change of heart.
The NHCLC responded that its membership figures were independently verified through its legal counsel, though it did not provide RNS with a specific number when asked directly.
The organization’s website also went offline for a period during the dispute, which an NHCLC spokesperson did not explain when asked.
Rodriguez has also faced criticism for comments framing immigration enforcement in stark terms, including remarks at the NHCLC’s October 2025 summit about deportation quotas, which he later clarified he was not personally endorsing.
Supporters point to his consistent two-decade record of advocating for comprehensive immigration reform and a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants as evidence that his engagement with multiple administrations reflects pragmatic access rather than political capitulation.
Net Worth and Financial Information
No audited or independently verified net worth figure for Samuel Rodriguez exists publicly. Numbers circulating online range from roughly $250,000 to several million dollars, depending on the source, and most trace back to unverified celebrity-biography websites rather than primary financial records.
What’s documented is that Rodriguez draws income from his role as senior pastor of New Season Church, his book sales, his work as a film producer, and speaking engagements, but no single combined figure has been confirmed through reliable reporting.
Awards and Recognition
- Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award, Congress of Racial Equality (2011)
- Named among “40 Leaders Who Changed the World,” Charisma Magazine (2015)
- Top 12 Latino Leaders in America, The Wall Street Journal, the only faith leader on the list
- 2015 Rosa Parks Courage Award, Montgomery Improvement Association
- “Defender of the Dream” award, presented by Alveda King and the King family (2016)
- TIME 100 Most Influential People nomination (2013)
Interesting Facts
- Rodriguez says his calling to preach came the same evening he watched both a Jimmy Swaggart broadcast and a program about Martin Luther King Jr., at age 14.
- He was the first Latino evangelical and the first Assemblies of God minister to take part in a presidential inauguration ceremony.
- He’s a self-described “Trekkie,” a detail he includes in his own social media bios alongside his pastoral titles.
- Flamin’ Hot, which he executive produced, was the first major film with a Hispanic producer, writer, director, and leading actors all in the same project.
- He helped organize discussions at the White House that contributed to the creation of the First Step Act under the first Trump administration.
- He performed the memorial service for Robert Trump, the president’s brother, in August 2020, at the request of the Trump family.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1969 | Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania |
| 1985 | Delivers his first sermon at age 16 |
| 1992 | Ordained as a minister in the Assemblies of God |
| 2000 | Founds the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference |
| 2006 | Joins the board of the National Association of Evangelicals |
| 2009 | Featured in CNN’s “Latinos in America” special |
| 2013 | Nominated for TIME’s 100 Most Influential People |
| 2016 | Be Light reaches number one on the LA Times Bestseller List |
| 2017 | Delivers a reading at Donald Trump’s first inauguration |
| 2019 | Executive produces Breakthrough; releases You Are Next |
| 2023 | Executive produces Flamin’ Hot |
| 2025-2026 | Serves on the White House Faith Office; NHCLC reach disputed by over 100 Latino Christian leaders |
Frequently Asked Questions
What church does Samuel Rodriguez pastor?
He is senior pastor of New Season Church, which has campuses in Sacramento and Los Angeles, California.
How much is Pastor Samuel Rodriguez worth?
There’s no verified figure. Estimates online range widely, from around $250,000 to several million dollars, but none are backed by audited or primary financial sources.
What is Samuel Rodriguez known for?
He’s best known as president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, as an evangelical adviser to four U.S. presidents, and as an executive producer on films including Breakthrough and Flamin’ Hot.
What are the core beliefs of Samuel Rodriguez’s church?
New Season Church operates within the Pentecostal tradition, holding to core charismatic beliefs about the active work of the Holy Spirit, alongside Rodriguez’s broader Lamb’s Agenda framework emphasizing life, family, justice, and religious liberty.
Does Samuel Rodriguez support Trump?
He has served as an evangelical adviser to Donald Trump across both administrations and to Presidents Bush and Obama before that. He has publicly disagreed with specific Trump administration policies, particularly around immigration enforcement, while continuing in an advisory role.
What movies has Samuel Rodriguez produced?
He served as executive producer on Breakthrough (2019), Flamin’ Hot (2023), and The Impossible.
Does Samuel Rodriguez have children?
Yes. He and his wife, Eva, have three children together.
What books has Samuel Rodriguez written?
His books include Be Light, You Are Next, Persevere with Power, Path of Miracles, The Lamb’s Agenda, and Your Mess, God’s Miracle, among others.
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