Mike was born in Jersey City, NJ, the eldest of four boys. At the age of eight, the family moved to the Texas Gulf Coast, where he was raised in the Galveston area. Mike graduated from high school and received a senatorial appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He was converted to faith in Christ during his Plebe Year and discipled during his midshipman years through association with The Navigators 

 

Upon graduation from the Academy, he was commissioned and served as a junior naval officer on the USS DWIGHT D EISENHOWER (CVN-69) and USS HAYLER (DD997). He resigned his commission after five years to give his life in service to Christ. He applied to, and was appointed by, an international, interdenominational mission agency, SIM International, and worked on a missionary church planting team in South America.  

 

Mike had met Sara his wife while both were in the missionary appointment phase and were married thereafter.  As newlyweds, they left for Latin America, traveled to Costa Rica for language school, then ministered in both Paraguay and Brazil. Three of their five children were born in Latin American countries. Mike worked as an evangelism trainer for young adults while also serving as the preaching pastor in an indigenous church needing help and revitalization.  

 

In 1996, the Cosses returned to the USA and received a ministry call to a Wisconsin pastoral staff position. Mike served as Pastor of Adult Ministries in a medium-to-large suburban church, Kettle Moraine Evangelical Free Church in Delafield, WI, today Oakwood Church in neighboring Hartland. 

 

In 2003, Mike founded Summit Harvest Church. His vision was to place a Bible-teaching, elder-led congregation along the I-94 corridor between Milwaukee and Madison, where the demography turns decidedly rural and today remains undeveloped. The aim is to place a biblical congregation in advance of anticipated future development along I-94. 

 

Mike took a hiatus from vocational ministry and returned in 2022 by invitation to help the congregation recover from losses incurred in the post-Covid timeframe. The vision for Summit Harvest Church remains the same: to establish a biblical congregation centered on Christ and the Gospel, emphasize simplicity in ministry organization, foster the good of traditional values, stress community and relationships in a culture rapidly losing both, and underscore biblical heart development in the personal pursuit of devotion to Jesus Christ.