“NW Welcomes Scott Gilchrist!”
By Bill MacLeod, Director
Scott Gilchrist has been Senior Pastor at Southwest Bible Church in Beaverton, Oregon since 1979. I have known him since he was pastoring Progress Bible Church off Scholls Ferry Road in 
Tigard. He and his wife Kristi were married in 1974 and have five grown children and a growing number of grandchildren.
We are delighted he will open our MissionConnexion Northwest 2027 (MCNW’27) “Built for More” conference this year and that Southwest Bible Church will host our 26th annual event for the very first time on January 15th, 2027, and he will speak at Leadership Connexion earlier that same day!
I have always appreciated Scott’s zeal to make Jesus Christ known (after college, he and Kristi joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in Salt Lake City before returning to Beaverton in 1979 when Scott was invited to become their Senior Pastor). It is no surprise that he is a frequent speaker at conferences with a passion to see God’s Word taught and understood.
Our theme this year is “Built for More” taken from Ephesians 3:20-21…“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Recently I asked him four questions to help us get to know him better as we focus on Ephesians 3:20-21, to better understand how we can fulfill what each of us was “built for”. Here are Scott’s answers…
How did you come to follow Christ as your Savior?
At a young age I heard the gospel of Christ, and it rang true. I knew I was a sinner and I realized that Jesus Christ had died on the cross for my sins. I prayed and confessed my sins to Him and asked Him to forgive me. At first, I wondered if He had because I didn’t feel anything emotionally. I was encouraged to memorize John 3:16 and over a period of a few weeks, I began to see that my faith was to be in God, and God’s Word, and not my feelings or lack thereof. I placed my name in the text of John 3:16 and realized that God so loved me, Scott Gilchrist, that He gave His Only Son for me. I did believe in Him and I, Scott, would not perish, but I have eternal life. I was learning to take God’s Word for it. I still am.
Were there any barriers you had to overcome or surrender, to come to understand, personally, how you were built for more in order to serve the Lord in the capacity you do now?
As I grew in my relationship with Christ, I knew that I should tell others of Him and I found that daunting. I knew I was “built for more” than just enjoying my salvation. I knew I should be more bold in telling others about Him. At the age of nineteen I heard Bill Bright say that many people trust Christ for their eternity but not for the next 24 hours! That fit my experience pretty well. Then he said, “Many people trust Christ for their eternity but not their next ten years.” That really fit me. I knew Christ, loved Christ, and knew that if I was going to heaven it was because of His love for me demonstrated at the cross. At the same time, I was hesitant to trust Him for my next ten years, thinking He might change my plans and priorities in ways I didn’t want. As Bill Bright spoke of the adventure of living for Christ and trusting Christ not only for eternal life, but obediently trusting for the day to day decisions of life and for the next ten years of my life, I realized how irrational it was for me to fear trusting Him. He loved me. I could trust a love that had sent Him to the cross. That evening, I told Him that I wanted Him to “call the shots” in my life and I wanted to follow Him regardless of where that might lead.
In His grace, that was a real turning point for me in so many ways, and I can honestly say that (all these years later) it is an adventure to live for Him and His love is trustworthy for both time and eternity.
How do you see the Lord using your ministry to help mobilize workers and strengthen the local church?
One of the first things that changed for me was that Christ began to empower me to overcome my fear of telling others ABOUT Christ. As I made stumbling attempts to witness for Christ, He actually began to use me to point others to Him. I was amazed that I could be involved in something that had eternal consequences: evangelism. By His grace, he has allowed me to stay involved in that highest of all activities: representing Christ as God’s ambassador and proclaiming the gospel of His Son as described in 2 Cor. 5:14-21:
“14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore, Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
I try to equip others to do the same, both in this local church and by extension throughout the world.
What would be 1 or 2 things you would want attendees to leave with as a result of attending MCNW 2027?
I would hope that anyone attending MCNW ’27 would leave with a deeper desire to be investing their life (their time, talents and treasures) to obediently point others to Christ and know the joy of being involved in His great cause of making disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ for time and eternity.
Please plan to join us January 15th for Leadership Connexion and then that evening to hear Pastor Scott Gilchrist in person!
