My contacts with Avery Willis as I recall them can be
divided into three stages.
Stage 1:
About 1974 I was
living in Singapore to develop the house church movement there. At that time
Avery was president of the Baptist seminary in Semerang Indonesia. He invited
me to come over and spend a couple of weeks with him. He had a few missionaries
he assembled to train to write programmed learning materials. He had done great
research and had compiled A little booklet that I think I still have but cannot
locate after much searching. This was a
booklet that walked through all the stages of how a person learns,
including the cognitive, affective, and
psychomotor domains. He also taught me the basic facts so I could write
programmed learning material. It has remained
one of the most profound learning experiences of my lifetime and has influenced
all my writing of training materials through the years. I remember the many hours we sat on the
veranda overlooking the river below and sharing our common vision of the changes
that had to take place in the body of Christ. He was a godly, wise mentor and
became a close friend.
Stage 2:
Avery and I reconnected through Dr. Roy Edgemon when we were both writing and working with
the church training department at the Baptist Sunday school board. It was at this time I wrote the survival kit
for new Christians, following his coaching and collaborating with A man who
recommended who did the program learning segments of the book. He wisely
counseled me about the problems I was making for myself by being overly
outspoken about denominational politics. At this time I was writing A sequel to
the Survival Kit and he gave me A suggestion that I took for the name, Life
Basic Training. I carefully followed his
suggestions about how to create each division of that training manual.
At that same time, Avery was commissioned to prepare a
discipleship series, MasterLife, for the Sunday School board and he retained me to write portions of
it. It was a great joy to help him as he
pieced together what I gave him along with other writers as he put it
altogether. It became the most valuable discipling tool the denomination has
ever had.
Stage 3:
I learned that Avery had contracted cancer and had come to
Houston to work with the hospital here. I quickly phoned him and began to visit
him on a regular basis in his apartment near the hospital. These hours with him
were very precious because at this stage he had discovered a cell group style
of church that he felt was a final answer to the problems in Baptist circles.
Once again, as in previous contacts, I had my notebook in my hand to jot down
his many thoughts that shaped my further thinking.
So when I think of Avery, I remember him as a missionary on
the field seeking to mentor those around him and shaping vital parts of my own
future by what he deposited in my mind and heart. Then I recall the doors open
for me, both in my mind and in the contacts he opened at the Sunday school
board related to becoming one of his
writers. Then I lovingly remember his
courage as he slipped downhill in the recurring visits to Houston for
treatment. His passion never waned in its intensity all the way to his home
going.
I consider him among the five most important influences that
have touched my life.
