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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate wish to
3congratulate Dr. William DeShone Rosser on serving five years
4as senior pastor at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in
5Springfield; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser was born in Great Lakes on May 30,
71973; at the age of 10, he began working at Spring Hill M.B.
8Church; while attending St. Paul M.B. Church in Millington,
9Tennessee, where his father preached, he became a
10deacon-in-training; he graduated from the University of
11Memphis with a bachelor's degree in liberal studies in 1997;
12and
 
13    WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser was licensed to preach as a Baptist
14minister in April of 1997 and ordained in 1999; he served as an
15associate minister at Oak Grove M.B. Church while residing in
16Orlando, Florida; upon returning to Memphis, he reinstated his
17membership at St. Paul under his father's leadership and
18served again as associate minister and ex-officio member of
19various ministries; he moved to the Christian Methodist
20Episcopal (CME) denomination in January of 2006 and was
21ordained a CME deacon and elder during the annual conference
22that same year; he received his Master of Divinity (Summa Cum
23Laude) from Memphis Theological Seminary in 2008; he served as

 

 

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1pastor of the Belmont CME Church in Mason, Tennessee until
22010; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser received his Doctor of Ministry in
4Pastoral Leadership in 2012 with a doctoral project, More than
5Just Preaching: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the
6Development of Associate Ministers in the African American
7Baptist Church; he received the David G. Buttrick Certificate
8in Homiletic Peer Coaching Certification at Vanderbilt
9University Divinity School; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser returned to his Baptist roots and
11joined Historical Mt. Pleasant M. B. Church in Memphis until
12August of 2013 when he moved to Shiloh Baptist Church; while
13there, he initiated a scholarship program, refurnished the
14sanctuary and retired the associated debt, instituted the
15millennial Sunday school class, developed bereavement and
16benevolent policy with funding, began a DVD/Blu-Ray worship
17recording ministry, and trained and ordained three deacons; in
18February of 2018, he accepted a position at Pleasant Grove
19Baptist Church in Springfield to serve as the senior pastor;
20and
 
21    WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser worked on a book and several
22compendiums to train and inform the next generation of pastors
23and preachers; he published a sermon illustration in the

 

 

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1African American Lectionary website and was a former director
2of the Dr. James L. Netters Certificate in Congregational
3Ministry Program and an adjunct professor in worship and
4preaching at the Memphis Theological Seminary; he has
5developed a program for Baptist church pastors to matriculate
6ministers from licensing to ordination; additionally, he has
7developed a compendium to effectively train and prepare the
8diaconate for ministry; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser is retired from the Memphis Police
10Department, where he was a crime analysis officer; he also
11served as a Police Readiness Entry Program (PREP) Explorer
12Advisor and uniform patrol officer; prior to this, he worked
13for FedEx as a station operations manager in St. Louis,
14Missouri, training specialist in Orlando, Florida, and
15secretary in Memphis; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser has two children, William DeShone II
17and Camryn Jaeleel; therefore, be it
 
18    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL
19ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Dr.
20William DeShone Rosser on serving five years as senior pastor
21at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Springfield, and we wish
22him many more wonderful years; and be it further
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
2presented to Dr. Rosser as a symbol of our respect and esteem.