Pastor Rand Bentley says he had “a calling.”
The pastor and visionary moved to Lemmon four years ago with his wife, Andrea, and his two kids to lead the New Hope Worship Center, affiliated with the North Central Region Church of God (NCR). The church grew quickly, and Rand needed a solution to accommodate the community.
The former Lemmon High School came up for sale, and Rand says he saw an opportunity to help grow the youth church programing. In the summer of 2024, what is now the Branded Building was up and running and was able to host seven mission trips its first year.
Along with the former high school, the Lemmon Country Inn was purchased by Rand and has now become the Branded Inn, acting as an additional safe space for mission groups to find lodging.
“The name [Branded] comes from Galatians 6:17, and that verse says we bear the brand marks of Christ,” explained Rand. “The Branded Youth is what we call them.”
Read more about the pastor of the New Hope Worship Center of Lemmon.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A PASTOR & HOW DID YOU GET TO LEMMON?
I was a youth and young adult pastor before my wife and I got married. After we got married, we did couples ministry together in upstate South Carolina. In late 2007, some friends came over to pray with us, and we prayed. That was the birth of a church we started in our living room, and we met there for two years. Our church grew, and we got a beautiful building where we pastored for 11 years. We were then invited to come to the NCR by David Kemp, the administrative bishop. He asked if I would come out and meet the folks at New Hope and consider relocating to Lemmon. I answered him with an, “Absolutely.”
HOW MUCH HAS THE NEW HOPE WORSHIP CENTER GROWN SINCE YOU’VE TAKEN LEADERSHIP?
The church is about 100 years old. When we got here there were about 20 people, and now we’re running 120 to 130 people consistently, which is amazing. We’re thrilled we’ve seen such wonderful growth. A lot of that growth is because of our young people. I remember telling my two sons, “You’re the first two in our youth, and that means we can only go up from here,” and that’s what’s happened.
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO RENOVATE THE BRANDED BUILDING AND GET EVERYTHING OPERATIONAL?
It’s a work in progress. It’s still not done. As a major overhaul and undertaking, we’ve put some large heaters in certain parts of the building. The school district chose to build a new school because the boiler system in the high school was obsolete. I’m grateful for that, because I got the benefit from them selling the old building. It’s taken some time, and we’ve seen a lot of change. We’ve taken floors up, put carpet down, put all the beds in, we’ve redone some bathrooms. We’ve worked really, really hard.
HOW HAS YOUR COMMUNITY EMBRACED YOUR VISION?
It’s been a great journey, and we’re so thankful to be here and see these wonderful things happening. I thank God every day for calling me out here and for leading me and guiding me to see the wonderful things we’re seeing. It really is changing our community and the surrounding areas. In 2024, we were in four Native American reservations grilling hamburgers, giving out bottled water, and handing out around 550 backpacks we call “Backpacks of Hope.”
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE BRANDED BUILDING?
We built a youth room, and that’s my favorite room in the whole building. When people walk in there and see it, they’re just overwhelmed and overtaken with emotion because it’s such a beautiful, beautiful building. The room our youth are in is amazing. It’s breathtaking. We are extremely grateful we were able to do that.
