Lead Pastor
Pastor Roscoe D. Cooper, Jr.
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Roscoe D. Cooper Jr, AACB
(African American Christian who is Baptist), is Lead Pastor of Metropolitan African American Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia. He is the first born child of the late Rev. Roscoe D. and Mrs. Virginia White Cooper. He was born in Camden, New Jersey. He lived with his grandparents in Petersburg, Virginia from nine months to age four. He was raised by his parents and many extended Christian family members in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he lived from age four to twenty-one. He received his cultural education from Philadelphia Public Schools. He graduated in 1964 from the Thomas Edison High School. He continued his education by attending Cheyney State University, Cheyney, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Cheyney with a BS in Secondary Education in 1968.
Pastor Cooper accepted Christ as his Savior at the age of 12 and was baptized and became a member of the True Friendship Baptist Church under the pastoral leadership of Rev. J. Millard Levester. He continued to grow in Christ as a member of the King Solomon Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where his dad had been called to serve as pastor. It was through the Christian education, love, encouragement and support provided by the saints of this church family that he grew in his knowledge, trrust, love and desire to serve God as a disciple of Jesus Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Cooper was licensed to preach in 1966 and ordained to the Gospel Ministry in 1969 by the King Solomon Baptist Church. He continued his theological education by attending and graduating (M.Div., 1971) from Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Massachusetts.
Pastor Cooper has been blessed by God through the love, care, support and partnership of four church families where he has served as lead pastor: Calvary Baptist Church, Haverhill, Massachusetts, 1969 – 1971; Western Avenue Baptist Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1971 – 1973; Fifth Street Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1974 – 1993; Metropolitan African American Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1994 – present.
By God’s grace and the kindness of the members, Pastor Cooper has served in numerous offices and as President of The Baptist General Convention of Virginia. By the grace of God and the largesse of Dr. T. J. Jemison, Dr. Henry J. Lyons and the kindness of the people of the NBCUSA, Inc., Pastor Cooper has had the opportunity to serve as Editor of The National Baptist Voice and General Secretary of the NBCUSA, Inc. He has also served on the governing boards of the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention and the American Baptist Churches USA.
God’s greatest gift to Pastor Cooper, after life and salvation, is his beautiful, charming, gracious and loving wife, the former Christa Carrie Williams. She has been his life companion and partner in ministry since 1968. God brought and has kept them together, made and continues to make their lives a blessing to each other and all through whom they serve together. They are the proud parents of three children, Alexis Lynn, Rev. Roscoe D. III, and Chadwick R. Cooper. They have 4 grandchildren.
Pastor Cooper’s life is living testimony to the faith fact that the the Lord God, revealed in the Bible, supremely in Jesus Christ, and active as Holy Spirit in the Church and in the lives of those who come together in the church, is real, good and faithful and that if you serve this God, this God will bless you with every blessing in abundance so that you will always have enough of and be able to provide in abundance for every good work.
To God be the Glory! AMEN.
roscoe d. cooper jr, aacb
