Today we’d like to introduce you to Dwayne Burks.
Hi Dwayne, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Hickory, NC. Lost my father to heart failure at the unbelievably tender age of 36. I was only 17. This impacted me more than I would realize until many years later – years defined by an almost unstoppable drivenness to squeeze out every ounce of life. After losing my corporate job due to unexpected downsizing at the age of 38, I found myself at a full stop for the first time in my life.
In response to this professional transition my wife, 4 children, and I moved overseas to complete a short-term, six-month faith-based assignment. The trajectory of our lives was completely redirected as a result of the newfound relationship with the United Kingdom. We returned stateside; I retooled my education and ventured into human service and pastoral ministry. Now I get to direct a nonprofit that I founded to fill a void in our local community. I also teach leadership, Equity, and Inclusion, etc to adult professionals while engaging my ministerial passions as a consultant to local houses of worship. My journey is full of twists and turns, but I love what I do and do what I love. It’s a pretty sweet deal!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The extreme fundamentalist, nationalistic religious influence and indoctrination of my childhood and young adulthood have been both an obstacle and a catalyst for change in my life. By reaching a point where I did not necessarily want to die but knowing I absolutely did not want to continue living under those influences I was moved to transition from the drivenness that had come to define me to a passion that has set me upon an entirely unique and different pathway.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up under the thumb of an almost cultic religious system. This zero-sum, right vs wrong, good vs evil culture regulated every component of my life. Perhaps no belief was more damaging to good mental health and personal freedom than the religion’s (independent fundamentalist baptist) insistence that all problems were, at their root, spiritual problems. Everything from depression to obesity was reduced to a lack of solid faith by the affected. It was exhausting in every sense of the word.
Contact Info:
- Website: gatewaygaston.com and https://jpdavisonline.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwayneburks
