The Permanent Committee on Mission to North America has selected the elders who will constitute the MNA national coordinator search committee. At a called meeting on Wednesday, April 29, the Permanent Committee appointed a search committee consisting of two teaching elders and three ruling elders, all of whom are drawn from the ranks of the Permanent Committee itself.

The search committee met for the first time on Monday, May 11 and elected officers to serve for the duration of the search, which is expected to bring a nominee to the 54th General Assembly, to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2027. This year, the Permanent Committee is recommending that the General Assembly appoint Ruling Elder Steve Dowling to serve as national coordinator for an additional year in an interim capacity.

The committee members are Zachary Groff (Chairman), Nate Shurden, Mark Kaiser (Secretary), Eric Manthei, and Timothy Threadgill.

Zachary Groff is a teaching elder who serves as co-pastor of Antioch Presbyterian Church in Woodruff, South Carolina, which he reorganized with co-pastor Joseph Pipa Jr. in 2020. He serves as the chairman of Calvary Presbytery’s Mission to North America Committee and is a founding board member of the Carolinas Collective Church-Planting Network.

Nate Shurden is a teaching elder who serves as senior pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, which he planted in 2011. He is the chairman of the Ad Interim Committee to Revise the Directory for Worship and an adjunct professor at New College Franklin.

Mark Kaiser is a ruling elder at Jacob’s Well Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and was a part of the core group that planted the church in 2009. He is a retired business owner and present chair of the Wisconsin Presbytery Missions Committee, which oversees the On Wisconsin Church Planting Network.

Eric Manthei helped plant Riverside Presbyterian Church in Beaumont, Texas, and was installed as a ruling elder at its particularization. He serves on the presbytery’s MNA committee and as stated clerk of Houston Metro Presbytery.  As an IT consultant, he volunteers his time and expertise on a technology subcommittee of the PCA’s Administrative Committee in addition to his service on the MNA Permanent Committee.

Timothy Threadgill is a ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and is an employment attorney who advises employers on workplace issues, employment litigation, and restrictive covenant matters. He is actively involved in church-planting efforts in the Presbytery of Mississippi Valley, currently serving on the provisional session of Sojourner Church in Jackson. He is on Mississippi Valley’s Campus Ministry Committee.

Dowling has served as MNA’s interim coordinator since October 1, 2025. He assumed the role after Irwyn Ince’s resignation in September 2025.