Bill Text: IL SR0192 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Congratulates Dr. William DeShone Rosser on serving five years as senior pastor at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Springfield.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-05-05 - Resolution Adopted [SR0192 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-SR0192-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate wish to
congratulate Dr. William DeShone Rosser on serving five years
as senior pastor at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in
Springfield; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser was born in Great Lakes on May 30,
1973; at the age of 10, he began working at Spring Hill M.B.
Church; while attending St. Paul M.B. Church in Millington,
Tennessee, where his father preached, he became a
deacon-in-training; he graduated from the University of
Memphis with a bachelor's degree in liberal studies in 1997;
and
WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser was licensed to preach as a Baptist
minister in April of 1997 and ordained in 1999; he served as an
associate minister at Oak Grove M.B. Church while residing in
Orlando, Florida; upon returning to Memphis, he reinstated his
membership at St. Paul under his father's leadership and
served again as associate minister and ex-officio member of
various ministries; he moved to the Christian Methodist
Episcopal (CME) denomination in January of 2006 and was
ordained a CME deacon and elder during the annual conference
that same year; he received his Master of Divinity (Summa Cum
Laude) from Memphis Theological Seminary in 2008; he served as

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pastor of the Belmont CME Church in Mason, Tennessee until
2010; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser received his Doctor of Ministry in
Pastoral Leadership in 2012 with a doctoral project, More than
Just Preaching: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the
Development of Associate Ministers in the African American
Baptist Church; he received the David G. Buttrick Certificate
in Homiletic Peer Coaching Certification at Vanderbilt
University Divinity School; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser returned to his Baptist roots and
joined Historical Mt. Pleasant M. B. Church in Memphis until
August of 2013 when he moved to Shiloh Baptist Church; while
there, he initiated a scholarship program, refurnished the
sanctuary and retired the associated debt, instituted the
millennial Sunday school class, developed bereavement and
benevolent policy with funding, began a DVD/Blu-Ray worship
recording ministry, and trained and ordained three deacons; in
February of 2018, he accepted a position at Pleasant Grove
Baptist Church in Springfield to serve as the senior pastor;
and
WHEREAS, Dr. Rosser worked on a book and several
compendiums to train and inform the next generation of pastors
and preachers; he published a sermon illustration in the

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

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