BHC Officers, Directors and Advisory Member
Jim Myers - Co-Founder, President & Director
Jim brings with him a diverse background before he began the spiritual journey in 1980 that led to cofounding the Biblical Heritage Center, Inc. in 1999 with Dr. Ike Tennison. His family owned Myers Plant Co., which was the fulfillment of father's love for growing plants. His dad gave him an advanced education in botany, landscaping, as well as marketing and customer relations. Jim met a very wealthy man when he was about 17 years-old who shared stories about his business experiences and introduced Jim to a lifestyle that caught his attention. His goal became to make enough money to live like the wealthy man. Before he graduated from high school he was studying the Wall Street Journal, Barons, and the Harvard Business Review. Later, he would add the Federal Reserve Bulletin. After graduating from high school, he became manager of the office of a national consumer loan corporation. This led to become the head of the Consumer Loans department of a West Texas bank. The president of the bank submitted an application for Jim to the School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University (now the Graduate School of Banking at LSU). He was accepted and graduated from this exclusive program for professional bankers.
Jim also served six years in the United States Air Force, six-month on active duty and five and one-half years of reporting to a base for monthly training and two weeks on active duty every summer. He was a surgery technician and his duties were setting up operating rooms, preparing instrument required for specific operations, and handing the instruments to the surgeon. He was also certified as a radiology technician.
In June 1980, Jim had the spiritual experience that led to the prayer he prayed in August 1980 that changed the course of his life. In 1982 Jim graduated from the Word of Faith Bible College and was ordained as minister at the Word of Faith World Outreach Center. He founded and was President of the Believer’s Word Center, Inc., later that year. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, his church was the 20th satellite congregation in the Word of Faith Satellite Network, which transmitted meeting as well as Bible College classes by satellite to hundreds of congregations around the globe.
In August 1985 he read the book Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus by Dr. Roy Blizzard and David Biven and he understood the answer to the prayer he had prayed five years earlier! He spent an entire month in the library of Southwestern Adventist College, which was close to his home. This provided the information from which he wrote, Through Their Eyes: The Laws of Language. During this period he met Blizzard, Biven, other scholars linked to subjects he was researching.
In 1987 he knew that he had reached his limits for doing individual research and enrolled in classes at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). The classes he completed were linked the Laws of Language; specifically the classes in Biblical Hebrew, Classical Greek, Linguistics, Roman History, Greek History, and The Olympic Myth of Greek Amateur Athletics. Dr. Ike Tennision taught one of the Classical Greek courses.
Because UTA did not have a graduate program that met the requirements for expanding his knowledge base in the Laws of Language, he searched for other options and discovered Logos Bible College. It used a similar approach to the one used by LSU, so Jim met with Dr. Stan DeKoven and Dr. David Mendez and described the program he was looking for. They worked with him to create it. On June 9, 1989 Jim graduated with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. On June 21, 1990, Jim graduated from Logos Graduate School withe degree of Doctor of THeology.
Jim co-founded the Center for Biblical Analysis, the research and educational division of the Believer’s Word Center, Inc., with Ike Tennison and Sid Dosh during the time he was at UTA. The work of the Center for Biblical Analysis included research, analysis, and study of ancient Hebrew and Greek texts of the Scriptures. They developed the Linguistic Method for Biblical Analysis and the Biblical Analyst Certification Program.
Jim was appointed Chaplain at the Johnson County Law Enforcement Center by Sheriff Eddy Boggs. He completed the Jail Operations Certificate on May 10, 1991. He served as a counselor at Law Enforcement Center for inmates and law enforcement officers.
During his work there, he met John Weatherred, a man that had a passion for helping people that were addicted to alcohol and drugs. Jim and John co-founded Helping Open People's Eyes Inc., a program that operated in Law Enforcement facilities and Adult Probation departments to assist in the recovery, rehabilitation, and successful reintegration of offenders back into the community.
Over the years Jim as has also been actively involved with youth sports and coached boys pee wee football teams (first through sixth grade) and boys select basketball teams (third grade through varsity) for many years. He has served as an officer and advisory board member of the Brazos Valley Football Association. Jim also co-founded the TOV Center, Inc. with Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor and served as Vice President.
Susan Myers - Secretary-Treasurer & Director
Susan is Jim's wife and Secretary-Treasurer of the Biblical Heritage Center. She was a co-founder of the Believer's Word Center and the Biblical Heritage Center. Susan is Executive Director of Southwest Jewish Congress. Susan loves to work with and help people. She has been an invaluable member and brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and management experience to the BHC team.
Dr. Ike Tennison - Co-Founder & Past President
( b. October 16, 1935 - d. March 21, 2022)
Newton Isaac “Ike” Tennison received his B.A. degree (Greek major and Religion minor) from Baylor University and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees (Classical Languages and Literature) from the University of Texas at Austin. He has over 19 years of college teaching experience (the University of Texas at Austin, Austin College in Sherman, Texas, Dallas Baptist College, and, the University of Texas at Arlington).
Ike has over 14 years of pastoral experience (6 years for the Joppa Baptist Church in Burnet County, Texas, and 8 years for the First Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, Texas); 17 years of federal program experience in programs authorized by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act and the Job Training Partnership Act; 12 years of experience as a Consultant primarily for employment and training programs at the local, state, and national levels. He has served 8 years in executive positions (Director of Planning and Administrative Services, Fiscal Officer, Dean, Executive Director, Chief Administrative Officer); and, 12 years as a Trustee, Director, and/or Officer of non-profit corporations. Tennison has written plans, proposals, and policies at the local, state, and national levels and has published articles in several publications.
Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor - Past Advisory Board Member
(b. March 19, 1953 - d. September 16, 2020)
Jeffrey graduated from Rutgers University in 1983, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges, and a Rutgers Honors Program Scholar. He accompanied Dr. Stieglitz to Israel and participated in his first archaeological dig. Jeffrey studied Jewish history, philosophy, language, Hebrew Bible, midrash, Mishnah, Talmud and many other near eastern subjects and cultures including Christianity and Islam.
He was accepted at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, which only accepts students from the top 5%. There was a great concentration on Hebrew language, grammar and texts from all different historical periods. Jeffrey spent a second year in Israel on a dig with Professor Stieglitz and then a Hebrew immersion course called an ulpan. He also attended seminary classes and classes at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In 1989 Jeffrey graduated with a MA and was ordained as a rabbi. He decided to take a pulpit position in a synagogue in Richardson, Texas, a north Dallas suburb and spent sixteen years there.
Jeffrey also became a police chaplain for the Plano Police Department and received many certifications -- trauma, death and loss. He became a Victim Chaplain with the Dallas police Department specializing in homicide, suicide and domestic violence. He also became a Pastoral Care Specialist, Suicide Intervention Trainer and PTSD De-briefer. In addition, he has also been actively involved as a chaplain for Hospice organizations.
Before Jeffrey decided to become a rabbi he was a member of an acoustic "folk rock" trio turned into one of the premier New Jersey rock'n'roll bands of the Seventies – Stanky Brown. They had four Singles for Arista Records, three LP’s (Two with Sire / ABC and one with Sire / Warner Brother’s) and it members are listed in “Who’s Who of Rock ‘n Roll” (Charles Scribner & Sons) 1977. touring with Billy Joel, Eagles, Beach Boys, Paul Simon, Jefferson Starship, J Geils Band, Loggins And Messina, New Riders, Allman Brothers Band. They were the first band to perform at Giant’s Stadium (Rutherford, NJ) on June 25, 1978 opening for the Beach Boys, Poco, Steve Miller, and Pablo Cruise. They were also the first band to back up “The Blues Brothers” (Dan Akroyd, John Belushi) at Rutgers University.