Kevin DeYoung, moderator of the 52nd General Assembly, has selected the elders to serve on the Ad Interim Committee to Revise the Directory for Worship. The committee will consist of four teaching elders, three ruling elders, and one advisory member.
The committee members are Nate Shurden, Gabe Fluhrer, Joel St. Clair, Adriel Sanchez, Jim Sheppard, John Wingard, and Nathan Partain. Chad Van Dixhoorn will be the committee’s advisory member.
“I am enthusiastic about the group that has come together,” DeYoung said. “There may be no more important and more glorious issue in the world than the worship of God, so the work of this committee is critical.”
Nate Shurden is the senior pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, which he planted in 2011. Before moving to Franklin, Shurden was the minister of discipleship and young adults at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and the assistant editor of reformation21, the online magazine of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
Gabe Fluhrer is the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He has served on the pastoral staff of churches in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, and PCA, including First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, and First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi.
Joel St. Clair is the pastor of Mosaic Community Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, which he planted in 2013. He has served as an officer in the Army and as a registered nurse in several hospital systems.
Adriel Sanchez is a teaching elder and organizing pastor of North Park Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California, and the host of Core Christianity, an online Bible answer program .
Jim Sheppard is a ruling elder at Perimeter Church (PCA) and a member of Perimeter’s Generosity Ministry team. He is the chairman and principal of Generis, a firm helping churches with their fundraising.
John Wingard is a professor of philosophy and dean of humanities at Covenant College. He is a ruling elder at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.
Nathan Partain is a ruling elder and the director of worship and culture at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis.
Chad Van Dixhoorn is a teaching elder in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and professor at Reformed Theological Seminary Charlotte. DeYoung called him “one of the world’s experts on the Westminster Assembly.”
The 52nd General Assembly approved Overture 26, which instructs the study committee to “propose revisions to portions of the ‘Directory for the Worship of God’ not yet given full authority, in accordance with Scripture and the Westminster Standards, for authoritative use in the Presbyterian Church in America.” The overture includes instructions to use the Directories of Public Worship of various NAPARC denominations as guides and include Scriptural and confessional references.
The $10,000 budget for this study committee comes from designated gifts to the Administrative Committee and has been fully funded.