Dr. Maxie Burch

Dr. Burch is a graduate of the Citadel (The Military College of South Carolina) where he learned to take orders, survive “sweat parties”, march with a sword without hurting himself and appreciate the irony of eating in a building referred to a “mess hall”. These unique skills and experiences equipped him with a peculiar sense of humor and perspective that served him well in later years when life events happened without warning.

When his career plans to be a college soccer coach failed to materialize, he went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he finished an M. Div. and then spent four years as a college minister in Washington, D.C. The fact that he is a university teacher can be partially attributed to the many college students who persistently bugged him during those years as a college minister to become a professor and to Josh McDowell who took him on a whirlwind tour of college campuses in 1982. So, after a brief stop in Scotland at the University of St. Andrews, he attended Baylor University where he completed his Ph.D. in 1994.

As a historian and theologian he is convinced that God is pretty big and therefore a great mystery that one lifetime on this planet will be insufficient to figure out. So since we’ll never be finished knowing this God, let’s be sure to enjoy Him. His favorite historical rules of thumb are: most of history is the history of the unintended and history is about transition, not this and then that, but rather this to that.

Dr. Burch arrived at JBU in the fall of 2011 after fourteen years in Phoenix, Arizona. Living in Siloam Springs where there are four defined seasons a year has proved to be a great joy. Teaching and serving JBU students with his colleagues has proved to be a greater joy.

He has the privilege of sharing life with his beautiful wife Sophia, whom he somehow tricked into marrying him. They have 6 grown children and 15 grandchildren. He enjoys backpacking, working out, and fly fishing.