Dale Osteen

October 22, 1949 – September 20, 2026

Dale Osteen was an eye-smiler. It meant he never gave you a fake smile, because it's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if there isn't some joy behind it.

That was true of most things about Dale. What you saw was what you got. The man people knew at church was the same man his family knew at home, around the dinner table, on the golf course, or sitting beside someone in a hospital room. He was kind because he was kind, and when he laughed, which he did often, you usually saw it in his eyes first.

Dale loved God, Elaine, his family, golf, the Dallas Cowboys, and Dr. Pepper. (After God and Elaine, there is some disagreement about the exact order.) He also loved mountains, camping, books, classical music, sci-fi, Ronald Reagan, and lemon pie. He was a scratch golfer, an exceptional skier, a violinist, an avid reader, a lifelong Baylor Bear, and a devoted teller of dad jokes.

His blue eyes were still smiling right up to the end. Harbin Dale Osteen, 76, died peacefully on September 20, 2026, in Plano, Texas, with Elaine, his wife of 53 years, by his side.

Dale was born October 22, 1949, at Fort Hood, Texas, and raised by his mother, Doris Osteen. He graduated from John Tyler High School in 1968, attended Tyler Junior College, and was active in the Baptist Student Union, serving in summer missions for three summers. During high school and junior college, he played violin in the Tyler Symphony. He graduated from Baylor University in December 1972 and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in December 1974. During college, Dale also found time for Baylor's club fencing team and starred opposite Sandy Duncan in a production of Peter Pan.

He married Lois Elaine Cagle on December 28, 1972, in Tyler, Texas. For the next 53 years, they built a life around faith, family, ministry, laughter, and a willingness to go where they were called.

Many will remember him first as Brother Dale.

Dale began his ministry as Minister of Youth and Recreation at First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, Missouri, and later served as Minister of Recreation at Richardson Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas. He went on to serve as pastor of East New Hope Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant, Texas; Gateway Baptist Church in Whitehouse, Texas; Highland Baptist Church in Denton, Texas; First Baptist Church in Buffalo, Texas; and First Baptist Church in Jacksboro, Texas. Different towns, different congregations, but the same man walked into every one of them.

Across those churches, Dale preached and taught, but his ministry was never confined to Sunday morning. His family's door was rarely locked. People came when they needed help, and Dale went when someone needed him. He left dinner tables for hospital rooms, sat with families as loved ones died, picked people up from jail, counseled marriages and people struggling with addiction, and became one of those ministers families specifically asked for when life was at its hardest.

He led mission trips to Honduras, church ski trips, and for roughly 30 years took men and boys from the church and surrounding community on week-long camping trips to New Mexico and Colorado. His ministry happened in sanctuaries, but also around campfires, on ski slopes, at kitchen tables, and wherever somebody needed him.

Dale believed you should build your life around God, not try to fit God into your life. For him, that meant listening with empathy, staying true to your values, taking responsibility for your actions, and believing.

People saw faith in the way he lived. One former church member put it simply: “He was like Home.” Others remembered that Dale made them feel seen, loved, and encouraged, and that the way he lived his faith changed the course of their lives.

He wanted his children and grandchildren to carry those same values with them: read, travel, stay curious, be kind, and never doubt how completely he loved them.

Dale is preceded in death by his mother, Doris Osteen, and is survived by his wife, Lois Elaine Osteen; his daughter, Amy Natasha Osteen, and her husband, Houston; his son, Jeffrey Osteen, and his wife, Toshie. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Micah, Maddox, and Ally; his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Ernie and Becky Cagle; their sons, Stephen and Christopher, and their families; and generations of friends and church members who were fortunate enough to call him pastor, teacher, friend, or simply Brother Dale.

A celebration of Dale's life will be held Saturday, September 26, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at Lloyd James Funeral Home in Tyler, Texas. Lunch will follow at the home of Ernie and Becky Cagle.

In lieu of flowers, Dale would have been honored by donations to Operation Christmas Child, a ministry that provides gift-filled shoeboxes to children around the world while sharing the Christian Gospel.

If you would like to remember Dale in a way he would understand, go to church. Read your Bible or The Lord of the Rings. (Dale certainly did, often in the same week.) Tell your wife she's beautiful. Take a kid camping. Spend a day in the mountains. Help somebody who cannot do anything for you in return. Have a Dr. Pepper.

Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you.

And know that "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16, KJV)