His Rules

Christopher L. Burge has been the faithful facilitator of a dynamic “thirty-something” bible study in New York City for the past 13 years. The midweek, midtown study now boasts a list of more than 600 attendees. Burge is a graduate of Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he received three years of biblical and pastoral training. When he returned to New York, Burge further utilized his teaching and counseling gifts at Covenant House, working with homeless teenagers. The oratory skills he acquired administering “tough love and straight talk” have now become his sought-after signature.A native New Yorker, Chris Burge was born and educated on Long Island. Sought after by Dartmouth and Columbia universities as a high-schooler, he chose to attend Brown University where he graduated with double Bachelor’s degrees, one in Economics and a second in African-American studies. After graduation, Burge was offered a position at the prestigious Salomon Brothers investment firm where he was promoted to vice president of Fixed Income and Institutional Sales at age twenty-five. In this position, Burge managed client investment portfolios for some of the largest money managers in the country. After 10 successful years on Wall Street, he heard the call to formal ministry. “A career I loved the day before suddenly became drudgery by 9:05 a.m.,” he recalls, “I knew it was time to move on.”Today, Burge uses his sound biblical training and sharp wit to teach his peers how to live healthy, successful lives through Chris Burge Ministries, Inc. “My assignment is to help people reach their divine potential by applying biblical principles to their personal development,” he explains.“I can’t imagine being more fulfilled.”

Pamela Toussaint began her career as an author with the publication of her first co-authorship Mama’s Little Baby (Penguin Putnam, 1997), a unique guide to pregnancy, childbirth, and baby’s first year with pediatrician Dennis Brown of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. The book received favorable reviews in Essence magazine, Publisher’ s Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, and The Washington Post, and received endorsements from esteemed authors Dr. James Comer (Yale), Dr Alvin Poussaint (Harvard), Julia Boyd and Drs. Derek and Darlene Hopson. She followed with her own book, Great Books for African-American Children (Penguin Putnam, 1999), which reviews 250 excellent books for toddlers to teens. Pamela also made her debut in the Christian market in 1999 as co-author of I Call You Friend: Four Women’s Stories of Race, Faith and Friendship (Broadman & Holman), which chronicles the life journeys of four girlfriends. She and co-author Jo Kadlecek, were featured on a one-hour ABC News/Lifetime special discussing ways to promote authentic relationship across ethnicity, along with educators, activists and journalists, including Lisa Ling of “The View” and “Any Day Now” co-stars Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint (no relation). Her literary contributions include Signs of Hope in the City (Judson Press, 1997) and Boys Into Men (Penguin, 2000) with Drs. Nancy and A.J. Franklin. In addition to serving as an editor at Essence magazine, Pamela has been published in Black Enterprise, HFD, Decision (Billy Graham Evangelistic Asso.), and Discipleship Journal magazines. In the early 1990’s she served as media spokesperson at the American Red Cross in New York and made numerous appearances on local television and radio representing the organization’s disaster relief efforts. She is a graduate of Fordham University with a B.A. in Communications.