Senior Pastor –
Rev. Christopher E. Burcham
Contact Pastor Burcham:burchpastor@triad.rr.com
In November, 2008—Rev. Christopher E. Burcham accepted the call to serve as our Senior Pastor, becoming the 50th man to fill the Union Hill pulpit. We are so pleased to welcome him and his lovely wife Amanda to the ministry of this church!
Pastor Burcham is a native of Winston-Salem, having grown up under the ministry of Dr. C. Mark Corts at Calvary Baptist Church—where he accepted Christ as a young child. He studied locally at both Piedmont Baptist College and Wake Forest University before earning a degree in Biblical Studies from Bryan College in Dayton, TN and pursuing a graduate degree in Christian Ministries at Huntington University in Indiana.
Pastor Burcham came to us with more than 20 years of ministry experience. In addition to 11 years as a classroom teacher (High School Bible and History), he pastored churches in Illinois and Florida over a period of some 14 years before returning to North Carolina. Immediately prior to coming to Union Hill, he served for more than two years as Assistant to Dr. Stephen Corts, Senior Pastor of Center Grove Baptist Church in Clemmons.
Though diminutive in stature, he more than makes up for it with the size of the Saviour Whose Gospel he so forcefully preaches and proclaims each week! Taking to heart the admonition to “preach with the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other,” Pastor Burcham is particularly adept at weaving current events and the latest developments of pop culture into his timely messages each week—messages that are invariably interesting, entertaining, and thoroughly grounded in Scripture. With a theatrical background, he is known for particularly dramatic narratives that allow his audience to feel as if they are stepping into the very sandals of those who walk the pages of Scripture. Characters long thought familiar seem to spring vividly to life as if we are meeting them for the first time!
A widely sought speaker and author, Pastor Burcham writes a regular column that appears in each month’s issue of the Villager Voice magazine (www.villagervoice.com). He has more than one book in progress—that we’re all hoping that he eventually finds time to finish!
Aside from ministry, our Pastor has one primary hobby: dabbling in history, politics, and all things presidential! An avid history buff, he has traveled to more than 300 presidential sites in all 50 states and been privileged to meet the last eight presidents (from Richard Nixon through Barack Obama). You’ll find the walls of his office lined with photographs from these encounters!
Our pastor’s wife, Amanda, grew up in nearby Davie County but spent a number of years away—working as a missionary, serving in Hawaii, China, and Tibet—prior to their marriage in 2007. Raised Mormon and later becoming a flaming agnostic, Amanda was radically saved some years ago and never tires of sharing her testimony of how God has so gloriously transformed her! Amanda is a popular speaker at Women’s Conferences and Retreats and currently leads a Bible study and discussion group for our “Ladies’ Night Out” on Tuesday of each week.
Pastor and Mrs. Burcham are hoping and praying that God may soon see fit to bless their union with children of their own; until such time, however, they’ve contented themselves to love on all the children of our church!
Pastor Burcham is especially wild about:
Color: navy blue—but likes every color but yellow (for which he has a curious loathing!)
Food: Chinese
Restaurants: Milner’s, Bleu, Jimmy’s Seafood Shack, Mandarin, Texas Roadhouse
Movies: Passion of the Christ, Amadeus, Dad, Dave, My Fellow Americans, The Notebook, Gladiator, The Patriot, Sixth Sense, Pearl Harbor, Minority Report, A Beautiful Mind, North By Northwest, End of the Affair, Meet the Parents, Weekend at Bernie’s, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, ALL James Bond movies, etc.
TV shows: 24, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, West Wing, Smallville, Desperate Housewives, Battlestar Galactica, Perry Mason, Hawaii Five-0.
Music: Motion picture scores/soundtracks, jazz, classical, easy listening, swing/big band
Artists/bands: Mozart, Nat King Cole, John Barry, Henry Mancini, Ralph Carmichael
Authors/books: Steve Brown, Max Lucado, A. W. Tozer, Philip Yancey, Ray Bradbury
Hobbies: Politics, tanning, interior decorating, attending the symphony and theatre
Heroes: Peter Marshall, Billy Graham, Corrie ten Boom and family, Jim Elliot & Co.
Quote: “God is responsible for the consequences of my obedience.” (Oswald Chambers)