Within the late Fifties, a younger man named James O. Maxwell enrolled at Southwestern Christian Faculty in Terrell, Texas, about 30 miles east of Dallas.
Maxwell’s time at Southwestern — the one traditionally Black larger training establishment related to Church buildings of Christ — modified his life, and he grew to become one of many fellowship’s most influential ministers.
Associated: Editor displays on James O. Maxwell’s life and legacy
“I used to be impressed to evangelise after I attended Southwestern and witnessed college students preaching at such an early age,” Maxwell advised The Christian Chronicle in 2010. “Earlier than this time, I believed that preachers needed to be ‘good,’ however after I noticed that a lot of these college students’ deportment was not so good as mine, I used to be satisfied that I may preach.”
James O. Maxwell
Maxwell, who preached the Gospel for six a long time, served in distinguished management roles at Southwestern for a half-century and labored to foster Christian unity throughout racial traces, died Jan. 14 after a six-year battle with dementia. He was 86.
“Our ‘Lion within the Manner’ … has formally entered into candy relaxation. He fought battle,” his son James A. Maxwell, minister for the West Finish Church of Christ in Terrell, mentioned in saying his father’s passing. “As 1 Corinthians 16:13 says, be brave, trustworthy and powerful. This describes Dad to a tee. Relaxation effectively, Daddy.”
Simply final 12 months, Dallas-area preachers and church leaders introduced James O. Maxwell with the Dwelling Legend Award throughout a citywide lectureship.
The Cedar Crest Church of Christ hosted the 2024 occasion. Maxwell’s “imprint on the town of Dallas and the nation will transcend generations to come back,” Cedar Crest minister Jonathan W. Morrison mentioned then.
Leonardo Gilbert, nationwide director of the Campaign for Christ evangelistic marketing campaign and gospel assembly, mentioned he joins “the worldwide group of believers in mourning” Maxwell’s loss of life.
Maxwell — preacher, educator and writer — made “a profound imprint on Church buildings of Christ and the 1000’s of lives he touched by means of his ministry and management,” mentioned Gilbert, minister and elder of the Sheldon Heights Church of Christ in Chicago.
Kristopher Ok. DarDar Sr., minister for the East Pointe Church of Christ in Fort Value, Texas, was certainly one of quite a few preachers mentored by Maxwell.
“I’m grateful for his love for younger preachers, his tutorial rigor and humble spirit!” DarDar wrote in a tribute. “He won’t ever be forgotten because the brains of a religious and scholastic motion, and now he has lastly obtained the reward” about which he preached for many years.
James O. Maxwell preaches on the 71st annual Nationwide Lectureship in Chicago in 2015.
Lynn McMillon, who retired because the Chronicle’s president and CEO in 2019, recalled Maxwell as “an amazing pal and Christian man.”
“He was the first, if not sole, purpose that the Chronicle lastly broke by means of to the African American fellowship,” McMillon mentioned, noting that Maxwell helped join the Oklahoma-based worldwide newspaper for Church buildings of Christ with 1000’s of latest subscribers.
Born Oct. 13, 1938, to Eddie and Mable Maxwell in Tulsa, Okla., James O’Leary Maxwell later moved to Toledo, Ohio. At age 12, he gave his life to Jesus on the Dorr Road Church of Christ in Toledo.
Maxwell graduated from Southwestern in spring 1959 — simply the primary in a lengthy listing of levels he earned at establishments starting from Pepperdine College in Malibu, Calif., to Southern Methodist College in Dallas.
He married Betty, his spouse of 60 years, on Oct. 31, 1964.
He served as the tutorial dean at Southwestern from 1971 to 1978 after which as his alma mater’s vice chairman of institutional growth from 1978 to 2019 — working alongside the late Jack Evans Sr., the faculty’s longtime president.
He usually traveled on the weekends to evangelise, serving because the minister for congregations in Mississippi, Ohio, Kansas and Texas from the mid-Seventies till the late Nineteen Eighties.
He preached for the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Dallas from 1990 to 2006, when he “retired” solely to just accept a second stint as minister of improvement and outreach on the Roswell Church of Christ in Kansas Metropolis, Kan. For years after that, he flew forwards and backwards from Dallas to Kansas Metropolis.
Sammie Berry, minister and elder of the Dallas West Church of Christ, presents the Dwelling Legend Award to James O. Maxwell in 2024.
In addition to his spouse and son James Apollos, Maxwell’s survivors embody daughter Miriam Renee Smith, son Julian Deshawn Maxwell, six grandchildren and a number of different kin.
The household famous in his obit:
“He was a trooper till the top. Though his reminiscence light and physique weakened, the spark in his eye, his wit and dynamic smile by no means left him.
“He was a trooper till the top. Though his reminiscence light and physique weakened, the spark in his eye, his wit and dynamic smile by no means left him.”
“He attended companies of the Church as a lot as doable till his well being wouldn’t permit. As his reminiscence light, he saved his treasured books on the couch by his aspect. Dr. Maxwell cherished boxing and watching the NBA on TNT. The Los Angeles Lakers had been his favourite basketball group. He cherished wings, soup, studying, the information, present occasions and Westerns. Dr. Maxwell was an amazing pal and confidant to everybody. For years throughout the holidays Dr. & Mrs. Maxwell invited college students who weren’t capable of go to their houses over to his dwelling for dinner. Dr. Maxwell usually spent his personal cash to help college students and folks in want. Not solely beneficiant along with his time and assets, he would often mortgage his personal autos to college students who wanted transportation.”
His funeral service is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Jan. 30 at Southwestern’s auditorium.
Hours earlier than a celebration of Jack Evans Sr.’s life in 2019, longtime Southwestern vice chairman James O. Maxwell visits a particular room on the school that pays tribute to pioneer African American preachers.
BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Attain him at [email protected].
