Books

Making a Difference

The God Who Hung on the Cross is a vibrant chronicle of an 81-year-old man’s mission

The God Who Hung on the Cross Dois I. Rosser Jr. and Ellen Vaughn Zondervan, 244 pages, $18.99

Complacent, comfortable Christians should find this somewhat uneven book a stirring call to make a difference in the world. “We need to be relentless in the quest to bring help to those whom God loves,” writes Dois Rosser, an 81-year-old former car salesman on a mission to use his time, money, and talent to make a difference wherever he can.

The heart of the book is in its stories: lepers in India constructing a church from scratch; a Down syndrome boy raised by monkeys in Cambodia; or the condition of children’s prisons in India. Despite the heart-rending nature of many of the anecdotes, plenty of wry humor keeps the book from becoming heavy-handed.

Ellen Vaughn, an award-winning author, travels with Rosser and shares her perceptions of him, his work, and how it affects her life. The dual authorship weakens cohesiveness (the reader encounters chapters by Rosser and then by Vaughn in no particular pattern), and the narrative slows when it delves into the details of Rosser’s foundation. But the appeal of the book is in the vibrant enthusiasm Rosser and Vaughn bring to the timeless message of what God can do through individuals.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

The God Who Hung on the Cross is available at Christianbook.com.

For more book reviews, see Christianity Today’s archives.

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