{"id":18,"date":"2025-11-29T01:54:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T01:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2026-09-17T00:31:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:31:31","slug":"leaders","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/index.php\/leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Church Leaders<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Our Elders<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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1 This is a trustworthy saying: \u201cIf someone aspires to be a church leader,<\/span>\u00a0he desires an honorable position.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span>2 <\/span>So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife.<\/span>\u00a0He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>3 <\/span>He must not be a heavy drinker<\/span>\u00a0or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>4 <\/span>He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>5 <\/span>For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God\u2019s church? <\/span><\/span>6 <\/span>A church leader must not be a new believer, because he might become proud, and the devil would cause him to fall.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>7 <\/span>Also, people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil\u2019s trap. <\/span><\/span><\/span>1 Timothy 3:1-7<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Brad Hamlin<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ross Bullard<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Jerry Dixon<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Mike Thomas<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Our Minister<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ben Mereness, Minister<\/strong><\/p>

Ben is a 1975 graduate of Lubbock Christian College.\u00a0 He preached 32 years for Churches of Christ in Arizona and Texas, and has spoken in numerous states and foreign countries. He is a contributing writer for Power for Today <\/em>and is author of a small book sharing ideas and philosophies on Vacation Bible School entitled, \u201cVBS? Oh, Yes!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 Which is why some refer to him as \u201cMr. V.B.S.\u201d<\/p>

He served as a Regional Development Officer for Eastern European Mission for 13 years. EEM is a ministry that prints Bibles in 25 languages and distributes them \u201cfree to all\u201d to citizens in 30 nations.<\/p>

On January 1, 2021, Ben was invited to be the preacher at the Golden Plains Church in Amarillo, Texas.<\/p>

He and his wife Jackie (of Panhandle, TX) have been married since May 23, 1975.\u00a0 They have three grown, married sons; three incredible daughters-in-law; and 9 precious grandchildren.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Church Leaders Our Elders 1 This is a trustworthy saying: \u201cIf someone aspires to be a church leader,\u00a0he desires an honorable position.\u201d\u00a02 So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife.\u00a0He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"full-screen","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"on","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":78,"href":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":789,"href":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/church.renravdesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}