Tribute to the Life and Ministry of Wayne Herring

Wayne Herring was a beloved teaching elder and founding father of the PCA who served as a pastor, church planter, and pulpit supply during his five decades of pastoral ministry. He concluded his ministerial career by serving as a church relations officer with the PCA  Administrative Committee.

Since his death on March 11, 2025, many have joined the AC in thanking God for Wayne’s life and ministry, for his impact in the churches he served, and even the denomination at large. Though we mourn his passing, we also celebrate the many ways God used him in the life of the church. Wayne is remembered by those who sat under his ministry as a man who loved God and His church and gave his whole heart to following Him.

A native Mississippian, Wayne was born on June 13, 1946. He received his undergraduate degree from Mississippi State University and attended seminary at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson. Following seminary, Wayne served congregations in South Carolina and Forest, Mississippi before planting Faith Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

He eventually moved back to Jackson to teach at RTS before serving as pastor at Woodland Presbyterian Church in Hattiesburg and Faith Presbyterian Church in Brookhaven. Wayne was then called to serve on the pastoral staff at Independent Presbyterian Church in Memphis before planting St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Cordova. After it was organized, Wayne accepted an opportunity to serve as assistant pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville.

The final call of his pastoral ministry was serving as a church relations officer with the PCA’s Administrative Committee. In this role, Wayne worked with churches to connect them with the resources and support provided by the AC.

Dr. Paul Kooistra, a colleague at the AC and close friend to Wayne, remembers, “Wayne was very energetic. He was always moving fast. He was thankful for the things God had already done and was always anticipating more and wanted to be a part of that work.

“What I appreciate more than anything else was that whenever we got together, we were focused on Christ and how what we and the institutions around us were doing would more and more reflect Christ’s kingship”.

Additionally, Wayne spent the later years of his life in a consultancy with James “Bebo” Elkin to help recruit and place pastors in churches and ministries across the PCA. As Bebo puts it, “He loved God and God loved him. That was Wayne. Wayne was a spiritually-minded guy, and dear to me.”

One of Bebo’s earliest memories of Wayne was when Wayne shared his testimony at a beach bonfire shortly before the two men started seminary. Bebo recalls that, “the Lord used him in that moment to give me the confidence to know I didn’t need a radical testimony for it to be a good testimony.”

Wayne and his first wife, Joyce, had five daughters whom they loved deeply. After Joyce passed away in 2014, God used Bebo to introduce Wayne to another companion for life, his second wife Dena.

The legacy Wayne leaves behind as a pastor, husband, father and friend is one of love and faithfulness. He allowed God to use him in many ways and the fruits of his labor will continue to unfold long after his passing. We are thankful for his service to the AC and the ways his gifts have been used to strengthen the Presbyterian Church in America.