Rev. William D. Phillips

William Phillips began his professional career in sales and worked at such companies as Metropolitan Life Insurance, New York Life Insurance and the Xerox Corporation. When he relocated from Detroit to Piscataway, New Jersey in 1982, he became a real estate broker and, with two partners, purchased a Century 21 Real Estate Franchise. In this endeavor he headed the Commercial Division and was also in charge of property management and purchasing and rehabbing buildings.

It was in New Jersey in 1984 that he first became involved in Youth and in Married Couples Ministry, as well as in teaching an adult Church School class. He and his wife both received the “call” in 1989 and were ordained Itinerant Elders in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Detroit in 1993.

While at Oak Grove AME Church in Detroit William designed and implemented a Rites of Passage program for boys ages 8-15. Over 50 young men at Oak Grove AME Church, Detroit and Smith Chapel AME Church, Inkster have been impacted by the program, which included goal setting, leadership training, community service and appreciation of family and ethnic heritage. One particularly insightful project for the students was to have them interview a member of their family or in the neighborhood who was over 65 years old to find out what life was like growing up for them. Many of the youth were greatly moved by this intergenerational experience.

Rev. Phillips pastored Parks Memorial A.M.E. Church in Romulus, Michigan from 1995-2012. While there he engineered a partnership with the Boy Scouts of America and implemented a Venturing Summer Program. He also received the inspiration for Samaritan Way of Michigan, a multifaceted non-profit corporation designed to impact the community at many different levels.

He has always been involved in building communities with such projects as:

• The Vision Builders Leadership and Entrepreneurial Training program, which was implemented multiple times and in multiple locations in the Metropolitan Detroit area.
• Neighborhood revitalization programs
• Establishing a Holyween program to take kids off the street, yet give them a positive, entertaining experience on Halloween night.