About Ross Rhoads

Ross S. Rhoads, B.A., M.A., M.S., D.D., serves on the Board of Directors of Samaritan's Purse and World Medical Mission. Franklin Graham is the President and Chairman. Dr. Rhoads and his wife, Carol, are the national representatives of Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. Dr. Rhoads is associated with Franklin Graham in his festival crusades and speaks for various ministries of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Dr. Rhoads attended Pennsylvania Military Academy. He received the President's medal and graduated as the most outstanding cadet, having the highest rank and honors. He also graduated from Philadelphia College of the Bible and Wheaten College. He studied at Wheaten Graduate School, Wheaten, Illinois, and received his Masters degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He also received a Master of Science degree from National Lewis University in Evanston, Illinois and a Doctor of Divinity degree from Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois.

In 1992, Dr. Rhoads founded the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. He called Dr. Norm Geisler, Ph.D., to serve as the first dean and formulator of the faculty and curriculum. His vision and purpose is to unite the highest academic disciplines and church-centered, practical training in a church environment.

For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Rhoads traveled extensively and conducted over two hundred evangelistic crusades. In addition, Dr. Rhoads had a radio program entitled, Something to ThinkAbout, which aired twice daily. He appeared for three years on a nationwide television program, Youth on The March, which included occasional dramatic roles. He was the associate of the late Dr. Charles E. Fuller and the featured speaker on the radio broadcast, The Old Fashioned Revival Hour.

Dr. Rhoads pastored Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, for over twenty-two years. Under his leadership the church grew from 125 to over 3,600 members. The church initiated a full-time counseling center, a Crisis Pregnancy Center, the largest church-centered day care center in the country, outreach banquet ministries, the concert series, and annual conferences. He is the author of three books: The Power to Cope, Hope forTomorrow, and Personal Evangelism.

Dr. and Mrs. Rhoads live in Charlotte, North Carolina. His wife, the former Carol Dugan, is an accomplished pianist, a contributing author, and has coordinated fifteen group study tours to Israel and Europe with her husband. The Rhoads have a married daughter, two married sons, and eight grandchildren.