Panelist

Ray Hughes is the Lead Pastor of The Foundry Methodist Church in Northwest Houston. Foundry has four worship communities on two campuses with plans to launch a third campus soon. Foundry has a strong history as a vibrant church in the Methodist/Wesleyan tradition and is deeply engaged in their local community. Formerly a United Methodist Church, Foundry’s name speaks to this heritage of forging faith in Christ. Their name remembers the abandoned cannonball foundry in London where John Wesley and the early Methodists gathered for worship and launched an outreach to the needy. After completing the discernment process in 2022, Foundry voted to leave the denomination and become an independent church as part of the Foundry Network.

Ray is a Florida native, former MLB draft selection and college baseball player. During college he played for Athletes in Action Baseball, touring all across North and South America. He was also a leader in FCA and directed a sports outreach ministry at a large church in Kentucky. His passion to use sports as a vehicle for the gospel led him to join forces with Astros legend Larry Dierker in spearheading the launch of Dierker’s Champs, a baseball organization that reaches kids in Title I schools in the Cy-Fair area.

Ray is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary. He and his family moved to Texas in 2007 to launch the second campus of Foundry in Cypress. He spent 10 years as a campus pastor before transitioning to Lead Pastor in 2018. Ray and his wife, Jacqueline, have been married for 24 years. They have two kids in college, one in high school, as well as two elementary-aged foster children.