Rev. David Burrows is an ordained minister of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church and president of Burrows-Muse Agency, Inc., a company that provides financial services to 4,000 clients in Enid, Oklahoma. David holds two degrees from Southwestern Christian University: a B.S. in Biblical Studies and a Master of Minister in Christian Leadership.
David's personal mission statement is to inspire leaders to infuse their culture with Truth.
David ministers in the Enid business community and has served in a variety of positions. Most recently he was accepted into membership with the Enid Rotary Club, the second largest Rotary in the state of Oklahoma. He is a past-president of the Enid Noon American Business Club. He has a mayoral appointment to the Tax Oversight Committee for the city. He has served on the United States Service Academies Selection Committee and has served as a budget allocation committee chairman for Enid's United Way. He serves as the interim vice-chairman on the Board of Regents for Southwestern Christian University, and is a member of both the Evangelical Philosophical Society and the Society of Christian Philosophers.
As an Allstate exclusive agency owner, David recently was named a 2009 finalist for Allstate's Ray Lynch Community Service Award, which recognizes agency owners dedicated to making positive contributions in the communities they serve.
In his own words David shares the following about the role of SCU in his life:
It has been said there are three main questions you must answer in life: 1. Who are you going to live for? 2. Who are you going to live with? 3. What are you going to live your life doing? I went to SCU to build on the answer of the first question, look for a possible answer to the second, and prepare myself for the third. SCU has enhanced and impacted my life in every possible way.
I had the first date with my wife 17 years ago this month. I remember seeing April Looper standing in front of the business office on the SCU campus, and wondering, "Is this the April I have heard about all my life?" I remember what she was wearing that day, which is no small challenge for a guy! When people ask how we met, I tell them what my parents told me, "We met in a bathtub." Both of our parents went to SCU many moons ago. When they were first beginning their families we were together for a short time. As the story goes, all of us (April, Michael, her brother, Damon, my brother, and I were a mess) so to save time we were all plopped in the tub for a good washin'. I believe it was love at first sight. For the next two decades my dad would report of all the crazy situations the Loopers got in and out of in their quest for missions. Coming from Costa Rica, SCU brought April back home and thankfully played an important roll in placing her in my heart.
Following SCU, April and I married in June of 1996. I was the vice-principle of Christian Center Academy in Wichita, Kansas and served as an associate minister at Cornerstone PHC. Life was busy and wonderful. I had amazing students, some of which I am Facebook friends with to this day. After almost three years I received a call from Stephen Strang, the CEO of Strang Communications, publisher of Charisma Magazine and many other interests. After a three-month long interview process, he asked me to be his executive assistant . April and I moved to sunny Florida and made our home in Lake Mary. We had Disney, Universal Studios, the beach, cool jobs, a great church, lots of new friends. Life could not have been better.
Then something went wrong. My job was terminated and for a lack of a better term, I was fired. There were a lot of changes going on in my boss's life and after 22 assistants (I was told) number 23 didn't measure up either. This put me in a place that I later learned to identify as a "boundary" from Dr. Bobby Clinton, professor at SCU Graduate School. Needless to say, life stopped, I stopped and everything stopped including the flow of resources. Everything stopped except the bills.
As I began to stop looking back and start the look up, God spoke to me. A messianic Jew by the name of Jeffery Levinson pulled me into his office before I left Florida and said, "God told me to talk to you." Jeffrey said, "I see you in a pit". Well, it didn't take God to reveal that! But, he was right. I was in a "pit". He said, "Above this pit are two doors, of which you must choose the right door." Jeffrey went on to describe a detailed vision God had given him. Little did he know I was faced with a decision that had two choices: one was to move back to SCU and enroll in Graduate School of Ministry with Dr. Garnet Pike.
That night I received a call from another fellow-employee at Strang Communications. He said, "God told me to call you". This man proceeded to tell me that God had told him to tell me the difference between "Success" and "Significance". For two hours he went on and on, the whole time unknowingly labeling the two doors from Jeffrey's vision shared earlier that day. I felt I had double confirmation. I knew April and I were to move back to Oklahoma and enroll at SCU's Graduate School of Ministry. I told April and she said, "That's good, because I have already been packing!"
Then, the phone rang again. This time it was April's father, Ralph Looper. He said, "God told me to pack my bags and come get you, and move you back to Oklahoma." What!?!? I told him of the previous two conversations and he said, "That's great! We will be there in a couple of hours." I said, "A couple of hours? You live 22 hours away." Ralph laughed and said, "I know! We left two days ago!" Two hours later, there was my father-in-law, my brother-in-law and my grandmother-in-law, who hadn't left the state of Oklahoma in decades! I called this triple confirmation!
Needless to say, I shortly began my studies at SCU Graduate School of Ministry, started my own business and ten years later, here I am. I consider it a privilege to be on this ride with God.
Whether his success came overnight or through years of "boundary processing" (graduate school students will understand) SCU is honored and privileged to recognize Rev. David Burrows as an alumnus making a difference everyday as a minister in the marketplace. He is serving family, community, church and this institution with character and commitment.
Posted on
Thu, December 31, 2009
by Jonathan Chasteen