Board of Directors
Learn about the board behind Men for Nations
Mark Benz
Mark Benz grew up in Upper Midwest America, Iowa, and Minnesota, on a farm with three brothers. His schooling was from a one room schoolhouse to a 165 graduating high school class. He enjoyed sports, band, and choir.
He spent three years in the military with a year in Vietnam. While in Vietnam, the Lord called him into the ministry. During college, Mark went on a sabbatical to set up a sawmill in Papua, New Guinea for a Wycliffe Bible Translator. After finishing seminary, his wife Deb and family of five, served a parish for seven years before returning to the military as a chaplain. He retired after 20 years and started serving para church ministries, some of which he is still serving.
Mark met Dick Simmons as a pastor in the 80’s and reconnected after retiring from the military. Mark says that Dick’s call for men to “stand on the wall” and “in the gap” is still moving him to keep calling men to fervent intensive intercession for our nation and for the nations (1 Tim 2:1-8). Mark is presently serving as the Chairman of the Men for Nations Board.
Howard Beam
Howard Beam is a graduate of Pearl High School in Pearl, MS (1967), Mississippi College, Clinton, MS (1971), (where he met and married Martha Sullivan, from Winona, MS), and from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (1977). Howard and Martha have four children (three daughters and one son) and as of the date of this writing (7/11/24) they have eight grandchildren. Howard and Martha presently live in Mississippi.
Howard has been in pastoral ministry for more than 55 years (since 1968) and has pastored churches in West Virginia while serving with the North American Mission Board, and throughout Mississippi in various churches, as well as eleven years in which he and Martha and their children served as missionaries in Russia from 1991 to 2002. During their time in Russia Howard planted and pastored churches, founded and taught in the church Bible school, served for six years as the President of the network of 50 plus churches that he and the other missionaries established in Russia, as well as serving as a Regional Presbyter for GSCA. Upon returning from Russia, Howard continued pastoring in various Baptist churches in Mississippi as well as serving as a Hospice Chaplain for fourteen years.
Howard served on the Men for Nations board prior to moving to Russia in 1991 and joined the board again after returning to the States in 2002 and continues to serve to the present time. On March 18, 2024, Howard accepted the position of Director of Prayer Mobilization with Men for Nations. Our vision is to challenge men to awaken the dawn and stand in the gap in intercessory prayer and spiritual warfare for our nation and our world. One of the primary ways that this vision is being reached is through “Prayer Boot Camps.” These are half day, all-day Saturday, or weekend retreat events in which he and other leaders seek to challenge and instruct men across the nation in the need to take their God given place and to intercede for a fallen and perverted nation.
You may find more information about Prayer Boot Camps on our website at men4nations.org, or contact Howard.
George Finelli
George Finelli serves on the Men for Nations Advisory Board and is currently the Executive Vice-President and Secretary. In 1999, while on a job assignment for NASA in Washington DC, he met Dick Simmons and started a friendship that included many hours of prayer together at 117 2nd Street.
At All Nations Church, Newport News, VA, he leads the Prayer Team and is part of the Transportation Team. Prior to that, he has led prayer teams and meetings at multiple churches, taught Sunday School for children and adults, and led Vacation Bible Schools.
George retired from the NASA Langley Research Center at the end of 2021 after over 41 years of service (1980-2021). At that time, he was the head of the Intelligent Flight Systems group, which led the development of new technologies for advance flight systems with increasingly autonomous capabilities for aviation and space vehicles. Previous positions included Director of Aeronautics Research, Director of the Center Operations, and Program Director for the NASA Aviation Safety and Security Program.
Mr. Finelli holds a BA in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo, an MS in Statistics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a Master of Public Administration from Troy State University. He and his wife Susan reside in Yorktown, Virginia, and have two adult sons.
William R. Landers (Bill)
William (Bill) Landers is a member of the Men for Nations Advisory Board. He states, “I had the high honor and privilege of meeting Dick Simmons in March 2005. My life has never been the same!” Bill attended Kansas State University 1976-1978 and, graduated from The Kings College of The Church On The Way with Pastor Jack Hayford on June 16, 1998.
He is the Prayer Mobilizer for Men for Nations West and, resides in California with his “wonderful wife Carolyn for 44 years.” They have “four incredible children and four amazing grandchildren.” Bill is the Founder/Leader of Friday Prayer: CA Men’s Prayer Meeting since March 2008. It is now in every Time Zone.
He has a passion to mobilize men to come together, be men of prayer and of the Word, and take responsibility for their geographic area. He is often reminded of what Dick Simmons used to say, that “prayer is of first importance”. Then getting up from prayer to engage and stand, being relevant to the times in which we live!
Bill is a Certified California Real Estate Appraiser. He started appraising in 1982 and founded Riviera Appraisals in 1996, which is ongoing. He enjoys surfing, taking prayer walks, and traveling to see his children and grandchildren, and is a fan of Kansas State Football.
Jim Prichard
prichardjy@gmail.com
(507) 581-0783
Jim Prichard
Jim Prichard has been on the board of Men for Nations since 1993, shortly after Dick Simmons conducted a “Prayer Boot Camp” at the Minnesota church which Jim attended.
Dick’s visit initiated a 12-year season of daily, early morning men’s prayer at the church and has led to other prayer gatherings in the area which have continued to the present time.
Jim has continued to be involved in local and national ministry endeavors, including serving as a pastor for 12 years. He is an attorney, is married to his wife Tammy, and has seven adult children. One of Jim’s current prayer connections is a weekday morning prayer group which has been ongoing for over 6 years.
J Thomas Smith
jthomsmith@gmail.com
(202) 669-1452
J Thomas Smith
J Thomas Smith is an attorney who met Dick Simmons in 1987 at 33 Monroe Street in Bedford Stuyvesant, New York and was a part of a prayer revival in Nashville, Tennessee that year which saw a small team of 3-5 grow to 200 or more under Dick’s teaching.
Tom joined Men For Nations as a Board Member in 1993 and assisted him in the purchase of the prayer house at 177 Second Street, NE in Washington, DC. He was a part of the prayer support for pro-family advocacy at the meetings of United Nations following the 1994 ICPD conference in Cairo Egypt, with the leadership of Promise Keepers for their 1997 Stand in the Gap on the DC Mall and their 2009 conference with Messianic Israeli pastors in Boulder, Colorado.
Tom has also served on the Board of the Call DC in 2000, He is admitted to practice in Tennessee and before the Federal District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the Supreme Court of the United States, and has been admitted to practice pro-hac vice before various federal and state courts for specific litigation in several states. Since 2006, his practice has focused on litigation-mediation in Tennessee on behalf of churches, not-for-profit groups in addition to other clients. Tom and his wife have been married for forty-seven years.