Chances are you don’t know Dudley

Photo by: Henoc Kivuye

 

Dudley Chancey, a well-known figure around the Oklahoma Christian University campus, put his degree in family studies to work in ways he never dreamed.

With a Ph.D. in family studies and family systems, Chancey spent the past 25 years working in youth ministry. During that time, he learned that you have to look further than surface issues to truly understand what is going on with a person

“You really see things deeper than a bunch of teenagers with a bunch of problems,” Chancey said. “You begin to realize that when kids are acting out, it’s really not as much that they’re just being jerks or being stupid or whatever, but a lot of times it’s just saying ‘Hey, our families are screwed up.’”

Youth ministry wasn’t Chancey’s dream career. In 1974, shortly after marrying his wife Vicki, youth ministry fell into their hands – and they have been working with kids ever since.

“Vicki and I got married very young and we lived in a town where we knew one family,” Chancey said. “We were there about two weeks and a guy walked up to us with the books that you fill out in the classroom with teenagers. He handed us the books and said ‘Hey, you guys are young; you look like you could do good with teenagers. God bless you.’ Then he ran.”

The complexities of mentoring teenagers were enough to propel Chancey further into education.

“I did a master’s in youth and family and then I did my Ph.D. because I just wanted to know … how can we help people be more healthy,” Chancey said.

Chancey finished his Ph.D. in 1997 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. After graduating he had offers from Harding University and Lipscomb University but turned both down.

“I was just kind of sitting around playing golf,” Chancey said. “Until I got a call from Dr. Lynn McMillon, talking about Oklahoma Christian.”

Chancey had never heard of Oklahoma Christian and had no way of knowing the path he was about to walk down. It was April of 1998 and his sons Drew and Matt were on spring break, so he packed up the family and they came to visit.

“We spent the whole week out here: did chapel, taught some classes and then went back home,” Chancey said.

Oklahoma Christian made an offer soon after.

“We were at the point where we were ready to go see more of the world, so we packed up and moved to Oklahoma,” Chancey said.

Chancey stays highly engaged outside of the school campus.

“As a person, he’s really involved in a lot,” junior Jonathan Parker said. “He does Winterfest, he does NCYM [National Conference on Youth Ministries], he goes on mission trips to Honduras and he does so much for students.”

Many people know Chancey from his work with Winterfest,  a weekend retreat held annually in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and Arlington, Texas.

“We started Winterfest at a little state park in 1987,” Chancey said. “We had 125 kids show up. We moved to Gatlinburg because some other people heard about Winterfest and they said ‘Hey, can we come?’ We had about 400 the second year. We had about 1,000 the third year. This year we’ll have somewhere around 1,300.”

Chancey makes a point to invest physically in other communities.

“Dudley is a person who doesn’t just teach, but a person who is an example and goes out and does things,” Parker said.

In 1998 Chancey became involved with mission work in Honduras and remains close, visiting every year since.

“North Americans like to build things and say, ‘Look what we did,’” Chancey said. “We did that for a couple of years. But then one night I was at a soccer game with a friend and we saw these little boys huffing magic markers in zip lock bags. I just looked at him and said, ‘I’m not coming back here unless we do something about that.’”

They did.

10 years ago, Chancey and a couple of his friends from Honduras went out and bought property to build a boys home.

“We raised a lot of money and built Jovenes en Camino,” Chancey said. “There are 60 boys there. This is our 10th year anniversary. We’ve graduated our first boys out of there – they’re in college now. These are boys that grew up on the street; [they] didn’t have a chance.”

Chancey’s life is, according to Adams, defined by a dedication to help people in whatever capacity he is presented with.

“He’s very open,” senior Ethan Adams said. “He really cares about people. Not the whole fake thing. When he says, ‘How are you doing?’ he honestly cares about the person.”

Behind all of Chancey’s efforts is a deep, driving faith.

“I totally believe in that our whole existence on earth is to tell people about Jesus,” Chancey said.

That faith does not go unnoticed.

“He’s really all about doing what Jesus said,” Adams said. “He doesn’t really care about anything else but being a Jesus follower.”

Chancey certainly isn’t quiet about his beliefs, according to Parker.

“At the end of each class, he says ‘Remember every day people are dying and going to hell,’” Parker said. “It’s a motivation for us to go out and tell people about Jesus.”

Perhaps most uniquely, Chancey remains open and approachable for all his students.

“He’ll email me and be like, ‘Yo dude,’ and I’ll be like ‘Ya dog,’” Adams said.

Chancey’s work with different groups of youth over the past 25 years has proven expansive, unflagging in efforts to make changes in the university, in church and in the mission field. As a person, however, he can be slightly more difficult to put on paper.

“You have to experience Dudley,” Adams said.