HAMPTON — Dois Rosser claims that his story is not a testimony of what one man can do for Christ. Rather, he says it is a testimony of what God can do with one man.
Dois Rosser isn't a preacher. That fell to his brother, Aubrey (Buddy) Rosser who served several Virginia Baptist congregations as pastor. He isn't a missionary in the classic sense or a Bible professor. Before his retirement, he was a hard-driving businessman. He was in real estate development and owned car dealerships. He was very successful! And in retirement, Dois Rosser is seeking the Spirit of God to do unimaginable things through the Church of Jesus Christ.
Rosser grew up in a Baptist home and accepted Christ as a 12-year-old in 1933. He and his wife, Shirley, have been faithful Christians through the years, but he never imagined that one day he would establish an organization that would be responsible for building thousands of churches world wide.
Jim White
Dois Rosser's ministry has funded nearly 2,700 churches in 45 countries.
To date, International Cooperating Ministries has provided funding for nearly 2,700 churches in 45 of the world's current 193 countries.
Rosser is a walking atlas. Point to a country on the map of the world in ICM's conference room, and he can tell you how many square miles lie within its borders and how many church buildings are required to blanket the country with one every 25 square miles, which is ICM's goal.
The ministry is an outgrowth of his service on the board of Trans World Radio. Overseeing the spread of the 1 million watt broadcasts from Central and South America into India, China and Pacific Rim nations and from there into Russia, the Ukraine and Arabia, he began to see the great need for church buildings.
His first encounter in church construction was in India where a building could be finished for $5,000. He built one in memory of his parents then another in memory of his brother, Buddy, who had recently died. The idea caught on and others became interested. “Jack Eckerd of the Eckerd drug chain gave me some money and said, ‘Build some more!' ”
“Buildings are not the church, of course,” says Rosser. “Buildings are tools for doing the work of the church. But buildings are very important. They house the church which is the presence of God in community. In some parts of the world, groups without buildings are considered cults.”
Christians in India (above) and Ukraine (below) have benefitted from funding for church buildings provided by International Cooperating Ministries.
Noting that they are able to build churches for $6 to $10 per square foot, he shares, “We think what we are partnering to do in these countries is cutting-edge. You can do things quickly if you have a plan.”
Coca Cola has served as an inspiration. “We were building a church in a village so remote that the women carried water on their heads from a spring 3 miles away to the church so mortar could be mixed. When we were there to celebrate the completion of the building they brought out bottles of Coke. Coke doesn't just show up in these remote villages around the world. They have a plan!”
Rosser also has a plan. His years in business taught him the value of sound principles and accountability. He brings these to the work of building churches. ICM doesn't just hand out money. A four-phase disbursement plan has been developed with the church providing photographic proof to ICM's website that it has met the standards for each phase before money for the next phase is sent. The church must also commit to starting five new congregations within three years and to participate in a Mini Bible College during that time as part of the partnership agreement.
This requirement has been exceeded in most cases. In India, six churches built 1,400 other churches in three-and-a-half years.
“We don't want to just build churches,” informs Rosser, “we want to nurture them.” For the nurturing, he has turned to the teachings of a man whose life and teachings have been an inspiration. “Dick Woodward was leading a Bible study for 350 men on Thursday mornings when I met him. He had a way of teaching that I could understand. He put it on a shelf that even I could reach!”
Churches in Russia (below) and China (above) represent the presence of God for many Christians in those countries.
ICM has developed the Mini-Bible College featuring Woodward's Bible survey material. Using what Dick likes to call “God Pods, hand-held solar-powered devices into which the survey material in the language desired is inserted.
Costing only $250 each, inclusive of the study materials, three God-Pods are presented to each church when the building is completed. In this way ICM intends to equip “barefoot evangelists” to take the gospel to the masses and nurture their maturity as Christians.
“Think of it! Two-and-a-half billion people out of the world's 6 billion live in India and China,” he muses. “Did you know that 75 percent of the world's construction cranes are at work in China?” Rosser asked incredulously.
Currently, 50 churches are under construction there and by year's end ICM will have surpassed its goal with 232 churches completed or nearing completion in China. Noting that China is home to 100 million Christians, he is confident that this is only the beginning.
Working across denominational lines, Rosser decries the bureaucracy that is a part of so much global mission work. Complicated programs of good intention and the machinery of bureaucracy can too often soak up funds intended for the work. It seems to me that the important thing is presenting Jesus Christ as Savior and the gospel message.” As long as a church agrees with the doctrines outlined in a covenant established as an outgrowth of the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism in 1975, ICM is willing to enter a construction partnership with it.
ICM is funded through a foundation Rosser established to cover the administrative costs and the salaries of its employees. “When a church or an individual gives money to ICM for building a church, 100 percent of all the money given goes to the intended purpose” he says.
Each construction project carries its own stories of victories and changed lives. In a Pigmy congregation in the Congo area of Africa a congregation built a building and the chief and his wife became Christians. Each morning they arise and go to the church building at 5 where they sit by themselves until 7. Someone asked him, “Chief, why do you go each morning to the church? You can't read. No one else is there. Why do you go?” The chief replied, “We go each morning to the church to let God look at our hearts.”
Dois Rosser's heart desires to see people, communities and nations transformed through Jesus Christ and his Church.
Editor's Note: I admit that I sometimes get emotional. Sitting in the conference room at ICM's modest headquarters in Hampton watching the pictures of church buildings completed and under construction flash on a screen was one of those times. Dois Rosser is a humble man who would never claim to be more than ordinary. But this “ordinary” man has been used of the Lord to do some extraordinary things.