Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 21:25:44 -0600
To: Stone-Campbell <stone-campbell@BIBLE.ACU.EDU>
From: Joyce Deckler <jpdeck@dallas.net>
Reply-To: STONE-CAMPBELL@BIBLE.ACU.EDU
Subject: Wayne Dockery
Status:

What a good email friend he was!


I'd copy some of this but it is copyrighted.

An Office of Commendation
from Celebrating Common Prayer

http://www.oremus.org/liturgy/ccp/22comend.html

This service may be used on hearing the news of a death, or on the day of the funeral by those not able to be present or on any suitable occasion.

Joyce Deckler
jpdeck@dallas.net
Fort Worth, Texas
http://www.dallas.net/~jpdeck

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 05:32:44 -0600
To: stone-campbell@BIBLE.ACU.EDU
From: George Butterfield <gbutterf@iglobal.net>
Reply-To: STONE-CAMPBELL@BIBLE.ACU.EDU
Subject: Death of a Friend
Status:

Dear friends,

Our brother, Wayne Dockery, died last night. He was 50 years old. Many of you have counted him as one of your friends. If you never met him, perhaps you know him from his participation on this list. Wayne went into Baylor Medical Center in Dallas on December 15 for a bone marrow transplant. Although the transplant itself appears to have worked, penumonia, a punctured lung, and infection in one of his lungs finally weakened him until his heart finally gave out. Please pray for his wife, Roberta, and their sons, David (26) and Joshua (12). Wayne has been one of my elders, a fellow minister of the gospel, and, above all, a friend. I praise God for him. His was a life well lived.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

God give you peace.
George Butterfield +
gbutterf@iglobal.net
Church Web Page: http://www.iglobal.net/socc/
World Wide Pager: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/1245968

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 06:16:09 -0600
X-Sender: gbutterf@iglobal.net (Unverified)
To: Joyce Deckler <jpdeck@dallas.net>
From: George Butterfield <gbutterf@iglobal.net>
Subject: Re: Memorial material on Wayne
Status:

At 11:24 PM 01/19/2000 -0600, Joyce Deckler wrote:
>George,
>
>Do you have any material for a web page memorial to Wayne? I wanted
>to do something and Bill Denton suggested doing a memorial web page.
>What do you think?

I also got to thinking that I can send you the comments others make at the Memorial. I'm sure we'll want to tape everything said. There will be three different ones who participate in the eulogy (not counting my sermon) and there will be comments by the one presiding at the communion. Perhaps those comments will be appropriate.

God give you peace.
George Butterfield +
gbutterf@iglobal.net
Church Web Page: http://www.iglobal.net/socc/
World Wide Pager: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/1245968

From: "Casey, Mike" <mcasey@pepperdine.edu>
Reply-To: STONE-CAMPBELL@BIBLE.ACU.EDU
To: "'STONE-CAMPBELL@BIBLE.ACU.EDU'" <STONE-CAMPBELL@BIBLE.ACU.EDU>
Subject: Wayne Dockery
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 09:27:01 -0800
Status: O

Hans,

I echo what you said about Wayne. We first met at one of the early Christian Scholars Conference sometime before 1985. I cannot remember if I went up to him or the reverse but he was a bit surprised when I told him that I was Jack Colvin's ex-brother-in-law. Wayne succeeded Jack as the Education Director at the Glenwood Church of Christ in Tyler, Texas, one of the largest Churches of Christ in the state. I was surprised to learn of his M.A. in Communication. We kept in touch a various meetings, usually the CSC. In 1985 Dwayne Van Rheenen and I organized a conference focusing on Comunication in the Restoration Movement held at ACU. Wayne had written his M.A. on the John Allen Chalk's Three American Revolutions series on the Herald of Truth some 12-13 years earlier. Wayne graciously agreed to present his M.A. material at the conference. I introduced him to John Barton who had done his Ph.D. diss. on HOT. They had a great discussion about their mutual interest in HOT.

A couple of years later, I was researching William Webb Freeman and discovered that his daughter lived in Denton, Texas. Wayne had left the security of Glenwood to preach for a small "E" church (Mac Lynn's category). This small church's fiercely independent members had broken from the ultrconservative Denton churches. After some time they wanted a preacher. Wayne came. I went to stayed with Wayne and met Roberta for the first time. I stayed over a Sunday and heard Wayne preach. I visited with Leroy Garrett, one of the members of that church. Leroy, for those of you who do not know, does not believe in located preachers. Wayne would say (tongue-in cheek) that Leroy did not believe in him or his sermons.

Wayne grew frustrated at times with the small church. They reacted so adamantly against authoritarian churches and preachers that Wayne had difficulty developing congregational leadership and getting them to do much. Also the large Singing Oaks church was now on the scene offering an alternative to the churches his congregation had rejected. With courage Wayne decided to make himself unemployed by urging a merger of his church with Singing Oaks. He thought there was no need for his congregation's existence and it was the right thing to do. It worked and he was out of a job. For a long period his family lived off Roberta's income as a nurse.

Wayne applied for many preaching positions. Once the Conejo Valley church in Thousand Oaks invited him to tryout. I went over for the sermon to support Wayne. Wayne was an unconventional preacher. Conejo had a rotation of members filling in the pulpit and they decided to preach through the Gospel of Luke with each man taking an assigned portion of the narrative. Wayne said "Give me the assigned text for my scheduled Sunday." He was audacious. I still remember Wayne saying from the pulpit: "If you want a preacher who will come to implement church growth, then don't hire me. Growth is the task of the church not the preacher!" Wayne was "too liberal" for many in Conejo and made many nervous. I felt they made a mistake in not hiring him. And so it went for Wayne with other pulpit tryouts. No one gave him a chance.

At one Pepperdine lectureship, Mark Love approached Wayne and Lynn Mitchell and I about starting a new journal. Mission was folding. Wayne and I had come on board the Mission editorial board the same year in its waning days. He and I were struck by how out-of-touch the Mission board was with the trends in the Churches of Christ. Almost all of them had never heard of Image magazine, edited by Reuel Lemmons. Most were now outside of the Churches of Christ. I guess Mark Love thought that Wayne and I would provide a bridge between some of the Mission Board and this new journal. We met in Malibu, Ft. Worth, and Temple to plan and organize the journal which became <Leaven>. I just did a quick check and Wayne apparently did not edit one of the early issues--Mark, Lynn and I did. Wayne, however, had sermons appear in many of the early issues. I think Wayne precarious financial situation precluded him from being too involved in the issues of Leaven but he was an invaluable part of the startup.

The last time I saw Wayne was at the ACU lectureship in 1996 and we spoke all too briefly. Wayne and I kept in touch via e-mail but it was a poor substitute for our conversations. His absence is a loss for all of us. I will miss him but look forward to seeing him again.
Mike Casey

From: PDWoodhous@aol.com
Reply-To: RM-BIBLE@BIBLE.ACU.EDU
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 12:29:55 EST
Subject: [RM-Bible] Dockery funeral?
To: RM-BIBLE@BIBLE.ACU.EDU
Status: O

RM-Biblers in Denton area,

Please keep listers apprised as to funeral arrangements for Wayne Dockery. Also, would it be possible for someone to transcribe the remarks made at his funeral. This is a tall order but it would be wonderful for those of us who must grieve at a distance.

Paul Woodhouse
Springdale, AR