Major in Christian Ministry and Formation

Dr. David Vila came to John Brown University in the Fall of 1999 from Saint Louis University where he completed a Ph.D. in Historical Theology.  His dissertation, Christian Martyrs in the First Abbasid Century and the Development of an Apologetic Against Islam, focused on early Christian-Muslim relations, especially as seen in the hagiography of the period.  He spent the 1995-96 academic year on a Fulbright grant in Jordan, studying Arabic and working on his dissertation.  Prior to his doctoral work, Dr. Vila completed a B.A. in English Literature at Covenant College, an M.A. and an M.Div. at Covenant Theological Seminary, and worked for two years with a Spanish language publisher in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Much of Dr. Vila's research and publications focus on early Christian-Muslim relations and the early development of Arabic Christianity.  In addition, since 1990, he has been involved with an archaeological excavation in northern Jordan at the ancient site of Abila of the Decapolis.  In 2008, he was named Director of the Abila Archaeological Project and has been leading the excavation ever since.  In 2006, he started the Jordan Summer Studies Program at JBU which provides the opportunity for students to work with the excavation while earning JBU academic credit.  Most summers find him traveling or excavating in the Middle East.  During the 2006-07 academic year, he was a Fulbright Scholar at Jordan University where he taught in the Department of English Language and Literature and did research in the Department of Archaeology.  He is currently working on a book entitled The Churches of Abila that documents the five Byzantine churches found at Abila.  He is also in the midst of a book on the 11^th-12^th century Muslim theologian al-Ghazali. 

Dr. Vila's teaching includes the Old and New Testament Survey courses in the University Core Curriculum as well as four courses on Islam (Islamic Art, The Life of Muhammad, The Qur’an, and an Introduction to Islam) as well as a course on Hinduism and Buddhism.  He has also taught Greek, advanced Biblical Studies courses, History of Philosophy, and both Honors Integrated Humanities and Honors Integrated Theology in the Honors Scholars Program.

Dr. Vila has been married to Susan Vila since 1991.  They have four children, Samuel (’95), Charlie (’99), Henry (’02), and Alice (’12), as well as four cats and a Chihuahua.  Their home is wonderfully chaotic. 

Dr. Greg Robinson is currently the Associate Professor of Outdoor Leadership Ministries at John Brown University. Previously, he was the Program Director for HoneyRock, the Outdoor Center for Leadership Development of Wheaton College, as well as President of Challenge Quest, LLC in Pryor, Oklahoma, the Managing Member of Adventure Quest Recreation, LLC.  

Dr. Robinson has a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also has a M.S. in Counseling from John Brown University.     

Dr. Robinson's professional career has concentrated in the areas of experiential learning, team development, leadership development, facilitation and consulting with organizational change efforts.  He is the author of A Leadership Paradox: Influencing Others by Defining Yourself; Teams for a New Generation: A Facilitator’s Field Guide;  Adventure and the Way of Jesus, Lessons of the Way: Using experiential activities to explore the way of Jesus; and Leading from Where You Are: How Every Person Can Help or Hinder a Collaborative Culture.

His family includes his wife of 28 years Jeannie, his daughter Keely and her fiancée Nick LaTurner, his sons Kobe and Kyle, as well as two grandsons Lucas and Max.

As a pastor’s kid (PK), pastor’s wife, and Family Pastor, Dr. Lou Y. Cha has invested her life and work in the field of Christian Ministry - providing leadership, mentoring, teaching, training, and spiritual care and counseling for children, teens, adults, couples, and families within different ethnic-cultural faith communities.

In her dissertation, Dr. Cha conducted a multiple-case study research on the “Family Ministry Perceptions and Practices” within Hmong ethnic churches – observing the historical inculturation of the Gospel into the Hmong animistic and shamanistic culture, examining the contextual models of family discipleship instituted by Western missionaries, and analyzing the impact of these models upon multigenerational faith formation.

Developing holistic, critically contextualized, intercultural models and pathways for Christian evangelism, discipleship, and community are core values that Dr. Cha integrates into her dialogical and experiential teaching style.

Dr. Cha and her husband, Rev. Chieng Cha, have three children:  Peter, Maileah, and Matthew.  In her spare time, Dr. Cha enjoys gardening, interior decorating, and exploring different people groups and cultures.

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.

A former lawyer, Jim Blankenship came to JBU in the Fall of 2002.  He primarily teaches classes in Bible and biblical languages.  His Senior Seminar in Biblical Studies has studied the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi Codices and the Apostolic Fathers, as well as methods and issues central to Biblical Studies. Before coming to JBU, he taught classes at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary in the Philippines, at North Central University in Minneapolis, MN, as well as at the University of Pennsylvania.  
 
Dr.. Blankenship's doctoral dissertation is Subject to the Governing Authorities: A Tradition of Pauline Interpretation in Late Antiquity.  It analyzes how both John Chrysostom and John of Damascus used Romans 13:1-10, in light of their very different historical situations.  His Master’s degree includes concentrations on both HB/OT and in NT studies.
 
Dr. Blankenship's main research interests are both the role that context does play and the role it should play in shaping one’s understanding of the Bible.  He gives presentations on the Bible and its background in both religious and secular settings.  He is also involved in ministry in several local churches, including teaching and preaching.
 
When he is not preparing for classes or other presentations, Dr. Blankenship enjoys spending time with his wife and college sweetheart, Lynn.  He also trains in several martial arts, enjoys baseball, and at times will re-read the works of Chaim Potok and Flannery O’Connor.  

Dr. Cary Balzer enjoys traveling abroad with his wife (Tracy, Director of Christian Formation) and JBU students. Together and with other faculty they have led numerous JBU study abroad and mission trips to the UK.  They have two daughters,  Kelsey and Langley, both JBU grads; two sons-in law; and one baby granddaughter.

Dr. Balzer is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a Communication degree. He received a Masters of Divinity Degree from Asbury Theological Seminary and Masters of Theology and Doctor of Philosophy in Theology from the University of Manchester, England. His first book, The Devotional Wesley, was published in 2009, and along with Rod Reed (University Chaplain) co-authored Building a Culture of Faith in 2012. Dr. Balzer currently serves as Professor of Theology.

Dr. Aminta Arrington spent eight years serving with an organization that places Christian teachers at Chinese universities, most recently at Renmin University of China in Beijing. Prior to the four years she spent in the Chinese capital, she spent an additional four years in the agricultural hinterlands of eastern China's Shandong province teaching at Taishan Medical University. She chronicled those experiences in the edited book Saving Grandmother's Face and Other Tales from Christian Teachers in China, and the memoir Home Is a Roof Over a Pig: An American Family's Journey in China.

Dr. Arrington wrote her dissertation on the Lisu — a people dispersed throughout southwest China, eastern Myanmar (Burma), and northern Thailand. The Lisu converted to Christianity approximately one hundred years ago after evangelization by the China Inland Mission and other mission organizations. She spent several months living with the Lisu in woven bamboo huts on steep mountain inclines participating in the rhythm of village life: planting corn, feeding animals, eating food cooked over a fire, washing dishes, and five times a week, sitting on hard pews in church singing hymns in four-part harmony. Through the Lisu, she learned about a Christian faith that is focused on togetherness within a community of fellow believers, a faith most authentically expressed through music and song, a faith directed outward toward God and neighbors.

Dr. Arrington has traversed both major and minor waterways throughout Southeast Asia: the Mekong River from northern Thailand, through Laos, Cambodia, and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam; the Irrawaddy river from Mandalay to Bagan in Myanmar (Burma); and, trekked through northern Thailand on foot and via bamboo raft. She has explored the ruins of ancient civilizations at Siem Reap, Cambodia; Ayutthaya and Sukhotai in Thailand; and, Hue, Vietnam. She has traveled across the length of Java (east to west) and Vietnam (south to north) by rail. She spent a year studying Japanese in Tokyo. She has participated in homestays with the Karen of northern Thailand and the Bidayuh of Malaysian Borneo. She has been attacked by monkeys in Bali and eaten mango sticky rice in Thailand too many times to count. But her greatest joys are found in worshipping God with Christians from the Global South, and in teaching her students to better understand and appreciate the depth, diversity, and beauty of what the Greek New Testament calls the pante ta ethne — the world's peoples and cultures.