Greg Busboom, Springfield, Ill., was elected June 3 to serve a six-year term as bishop of the ELCA Central/Southern Illinois Synod. The election took place during the synod assembly, March 25 via Zoom and June 1-3 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in East Peoria, Ill.
Busboom was elected on the fifth ballot, with 158 votes to 82 votes for Elise Rothfusz, director for evangelical mission in the Central/Southern Synod.
The bishop-elect has served as lead pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Springfield since 2011. He previously served as pastor of outreach and discipleship at St. John from 2007 to 2011 and as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Carthage, Ill., from 1999 to 2007.
Busboom earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995 and his Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, in 1999. He earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., in 2018. Trinity and Luther are two of seven ELCA seminaries.
He will take office Sept. 1 and be installed Sept. 23.
S. John Roth has served as the synod’s bishop since 2011 and will retire on Aug. 31.
