About Pastor Rossman
Living Water’s Senior Pastor
About Pastor Rossman
Pastor Rossman came to LWLC in March 2014 after serving as pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in Pompton Plains, NJ, for nearly two decades (1995 to February 2014). Prior to that he was pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Greenock, PA (1988 to 1990) and then associate pastor and director of youth ministry at Saint Luke Lutheran Church in Silver Spring, MD (1990 to 1995). He succeeds the Rev. John Cockram, a retired ELCA pastor who graciously served as LWLC’s interim pastor for one year.
Born in Brady’s Bend, PA, Pastor Rossman spent his childhood in western Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from Clarion University of Pennsylvania in 1983 and his master of divinity from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1988. He was ordained as a minister of the ELCA, the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States, on June 18, 1988.
Pastor Rossman is firmly committed to leadership by example and what he refers to as “stewardship living.” Driven by his conviction that “what we have been given is to be used not for ourselves but for the world around us,” he responded to a need for volunteer ambulance drivers in New Jersey in the mid-1990s. His subsequent 15 years of volunteer service as an EMT included assisting in 9/11 search-and-rescue efforts. In 2011 Pastor Rossman was instrumental in his congregation’s partnership with Lutheran Disaster Response and another congregation to meet short-term needs related to recurring local flooding. His congregation then became involved in an initiative for longer-term needs: a collaborative effort of religious, governmental, and business leaders to develop a countywide system to distribute financial assistance to people impacted by disasters such as Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy.
In his free time Pastor Rossman enjoys reading, hiking, and pursuing fun activities to enjoy with his children. His son Mason lives with him in Arizona. His son Logan and daughter Emma reside in New Jersey.
