Tom Rossman
Sharing The Light
Pool through the eyes of Christian players
This month we begin presenting our panel of Christian pool players. First up:
Tom “Dr. Cue” Rossman Testimony
I am 71 years old and was born September 1, 1949.
I have been playing pool now for over 6 decades. I started as a “rack boy” at the age of 10, then competed in intercollegiate pool and 3-cushion competitions, followed by professional play in all forms of billiards including WPA World Championships and ESPN special events. In addition, I have been involved in every facet of the billiard industry – retails sales and service; pool room operator / owner; special promotions (all billiard forms), including “founding father” and tour development of Artistic Pool (trick shots and so much more) – junior, amateur, and pro levels; professional teacher of private and classroom-style group clinics; best-selling book author / video creator / comprehensive online instructional segment programs with strong followings; professional entertainer with table-trotter style of over 5000 Artistic Pool shows “in and out” of the billiard industry; plus BCA Hall of Fame Inductee – Meritorious Category (2017).
I became a Christian in 1977 – “I was lost, but now am found” – the “Amazing Grace” of what Jesus did for us ALL on the Cross – pretty much tells my personal story of outreach ministry within the billiard industry and beyond! I was involved in a retail business called the World Of Leisure in Decatur, IL. My business partner and I were working non-stop 7 days a week, when one morning I felt this tremendous burden to change my weekly routine. On the way to work I started talking to God and recorded it on a cassette tape, which I have to this day. I made a personal surrender and accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I told God I would take a weekly day of rest and told my business partner I would do exactly that. We had some choice words with each other and eventually divided our specialty business between us. I kept a thriving bowling ball sales and service component of that venture and moved it into a new business I opened in September of 1979 called the Diamond Cue Recreation Academy.
After a rough and financially unsuccessful 5 years God sent an “angel” to buy the business and just a few days after he took over, a tornado took the roof off the building – God was revealing His amazing provision and protection through it all – I could sense He was watching over me and “found me” in a very difficult life journey accented now by depression, financial loss, failed personal relationship issues as a bachelor, and many other items of concern I was struggling with.
In November of 1984 (after the pool room sale), I went to Cleveland, Ohio to see a girl named Dawn I proposed to ten years before when I worked for the Brunswick Corporation. She refused in 1974 because she did not want to marry a pool player, especially since I had a business degree. She preferred that I get a good paying job in the corporate realm, but God had other plans. I went with her to a little church near where she lived; half way through the service, the pastor looked squarely at me with a piercing stare and said: “Don’t be a dead Lutheran rock”! I was not a Lutheran, but I knew I was a “rock” sinking fast. I started to shiver and weep…with Dawn asking me if I was OK. I told her that God was speaking to me in His own special way, and I had to leave Cleveland – drive 7 hours back to Decatur, IL where I had the pool room.
On a side note, we said our goodbyes, but headed back to Cleveland a few months later, when I proposed a second time and “she refused again” – after I told her I knew God wanted me to stay in the billiard industry, but not sure in what capacity yet.
When I left Cleveland after the “dead Lutheran rock” experience, I was just outside the city limits when I started to weep again. I had to stop and felt the amount of tearful moisture inside the car greater than the downpour from a major storm outside the car. I poured out my heart to God, asking for forgiveness for my failures to seek Him in my time of distress and backsliding in many other areas since 1977. God found me in a moment of cleansing and I made a heartfelt rededication to Jesus. I asked for the Holy Spirit to “direct my steps” – I could feel myself being filled anew, and subsequently, do not remember the long drive home.
The next day I went to my best friend and told him what happened in Cleveland. He thought I had a nervous breakdown and said that if I wasn’t his very best friend, he would have me committed. I told him I had experienced a spiritual renewal and God had found me in my deepest moment of despair and lifted me out of a dead-end road I was traveling down. I convinced him I was completely OK, so I left his home and the NEXT most amazing thing I had ever experienced in my life happened.
Note: The top seat for “amazing things” is without question what Jesus did on the Cross ‘for ALL” – providing His victory over death, sin, and anything else that might burden us in our journey of life.
I turned onto Route 128 south of Decatur, IL and an amazing manifestation / vision / image appeared in my windshield – a triangle with the “Christian cross” inside it. On the left side was the word – Recreational; on the right side – Ambassador; on the bottom side – Christ’s Kingdom! I do not remember the ride 30 miles to Decatur, but when I arrived, I took out my little blue Royal Portable typewriter and asked God to tell me what the “vision” was all about. I felt the Holy Spirit directing my hands (and thoughts) on it – typing a two-page document about “spiritual pocket billiards” and a “vison of heavenly stewardship” over the “sport gift” of billiards. The RACK (Recreational Ambassadors for Christ’s Kingdom) Vision, as it came to be known laid dormant for over 16 years…while a special equipping on how to steward over it in God’s perfect timing had to be learned by me.
Over 6 decades of equipping by God…in the billiards industry and beyond…cemented personal credentials so that people would listen when outreach ministry would be done both on and off the table. Working with Gospel Trick Shot Ministries since 2000 around the world…sharing the joy and freedom “Message of the Cross” that only Jesus can provide…has helped turn the billiard world upside down.
Final Note: In the process of God finding me in such a miraculous way, God sent my wife, Marty (“Ms. Cue”) into my life through a miraculous set of circumstances and an almost unbelievable 30+ year business and personal odyssey (created by God in eternity past) started to unfold. We committed everything to God, especially since we realized it all belonged to Him. We belonged to God as well via the bonded marriage covenant between us. We asked the Holy Spirit to guide us…with all we had been entrusted to watch over in a “harvest that is so plentiful, but where the laborers are few”!!
