Our office and warehouse is located in East Fayetteville, AR

Bobby Dockery

One of our monthly shipments ready to go out

Our History

Randall Caselman

In 1973 two close friends, Bobby Dockery and Randall Caselman, began the ministry which would become Gospel Tracts International. With personal funds scraped together, they purchased a second hand Multilith 1250 printing press and an antique hand-operated paper cutter and began producing gospel tracts and other Bible study literature. Soon afterward Tom Dockery (Bobby’s brother) and his family returned to the U.S. from the mission field of Ghana, West Africa.

Supply and Demand

Originally the trio planned to conduct commercial printing jobs in order to finance religious printing. It soon became apparent, however, that the demands for tracts from mission areas were far too great to be financed by the commercial printing alone. At that point they approached the elders of the Center Street church of Christ in Fayetteville, AR and asked if they would oversee efforts to raise funds from additional area congregations and individuals. The elders readily agreed and soon large quantities of tracts were being sent to mission points, with 200,000 pieces of literature going to Africa over the next four years

Roadblocks and Detours

In 1979, following Tom’s untimely death and the growing demands of Randall’s day job and preaching work, the tract ministry was temporarily suspended. Soon after, Bobby was approached by Don Deffenbaugh on behalf of the elders of the mission-minded Hillcrest church of Christ in Neosho, MO. They agreed to provide financial support for two years if the Baldwin church of Christ (where Bobby worked as the Pulpit Minister) would permit the relocating of operations to the Baldwin facility in East Fayetteville. Initially Bobby did the typesetting, design and printing of the materials, and volunteers from the congregation folded, stapled, trimmed and packed materials to be shipped. The Neosho elders were sent regular updates regarding the work. At the end of the two years, Bobby received permission from the Baldwin eldership to again solicit contributions from other congregations and individuals in NW Arkansas to keep the work afloat. In the mid- 1980’s, Randall Caselman became the Pulpit Minister for the Bella Vista church of Christ and was able to resume his active involvement with the ministry that had its new title, Gospel Tracts International (GTI).

It Grew And Became A Tree (Luke 13.19)

In the early years, all printing was done in-house on offset printing presses. The old Multilith 1250 eventually gave way to a larger Davidson 700 press that was purchased from a local newspaper, then later to an A.B. Dick 360 press which was the workhorse for many years. Originally, the goal was to print 250,000 tracts annually, but the work grew as other individuals and congregations became involved. Requests for tracts continued to flood GTI, and its annual input increased to one million and then two million tracts per year. Bobby continued printing all materials until Robb Hadley was hired to work as Youth Minister and Tract Ministry Assistant at Baldwin in 1985. Following Robb’s departure in 1991 to assume another work, Ken Mills was hired to work full time for the tract ministry. When Ken moved away in 2001, Chuck Easley, whose previously had worked as a Vocational printing instructor throughout Arkansas, began volunteering and conducting the majority of the printing. His devoted effort over the next six years resulted in the production of more than 5 million tracts. The Baldwin elders continued to oversee the work until Bobby Dockery’s retirement from Pulpit ministry in 2014. At that point, GTI was incorporated as a non-profit organization under a Board of Directors and moved to a rented facility in Elkins, AR. In 2017, the ministry moved into its own 4000 square foot facility in Elkins. J.C. Selph, a retired contractor and existing Board Secretary/Treasurer at the time, managed the construction project. Another of GTI’s diligent volunteers, Don Thomas, provided much of the labor. After serving as Director for GTI for more than 40 years, Bobby Dockery retired in 2019. Robb Hadley then became the first salaried Director of Operations. Although Bobby relocated to Searcy following retirement, his role at GTI has not wavered. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors, he continues to provide his expertise in editing, reformatting and production of materials.

Present-day

To date, GTI houses more than 110 different tract titles on a variety of Bible subjects. Many of them are written by native evangelists of foreign countries, while others were authored by gospel preachers in the U.S. GTI continues to do the majority of its printing in house, but digital printing has replaced the offset presses that required the use of a camera, darkroom, light table and plate burner (which emitted toxic fumes). Print jobs are sent directly from a computer to a printer which can print and stack up to 5,000 double sided sheets before the need to reload. One thing that has not changed, however is GTI’s reliance on its “true yokefellows”. Volunteers from nearby congregations gather one morning each week to participate in work sessions of stapling, folding, trimming and packing materials. Additionally other congregations in NW Arkansas, SW Missouri, and even Texas pick up materials from the warehouse to take back to their congregations so that they, too, can participate in the Great Commission.

A Missionary in the Phillipines distributes some of our materials