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Welcome, Scott Anderson

It is our privilege to welcome and introduce Scottsdale Bible’s new Executive Pastor, Scott Anderson. He will serve alongside Pastor Jamie to manage the staff and internal operations of our church. Scott and his wife Sarah are from the Twin Cities, MN, where he was the Executive Pastor at Eagle Brook Church for the past 10 years and on staff for 20 years. Eagle Brook is the 12th largest church in the nation with regular attendance of 21,000 and six campuses. We interviewed Scott to ask him a few questions about his life and thoughts on his new role at SBC.

Where did you grow up and how did you come to know Christ?
I grew up in a good churched family in Stillwater, Minnesota. We went to church weekly and were very involved. But when I was 10 years old, a neighbor kept asking my mom if she would visit her church, which was more evangelical. Finally, my mom said, ‘I have to go so she’ll stop hounding me!’ She attended a Sunday night service and came home a changed person! The next week, my dad went with her and got saved, too. By the time I was 11, I had given my life to Christ as well. Over the years, we continued to grow in that church, and eventually Sarah and I got married and began to raise a family there. It was very formative to my early spiritual experience.

Tell us about your family.
We have three adult children. Lauren (28) is married to Jeff, and they’re very involved at Eagle Brook where Lauren’s a preschool teacher. They have two kids, Olivia (5) and Ella (2), and they just became foster parents to three other young children. Our son Aaron (26) works at Wells Fargo, and our youngest, Ryan (23), works in IT at a hospital. All of them live in the Twin Cities.

How has God been preparing you for your role here at SBC?
I’ve had the opportunity to navigate through many of the ‘growing pains’ that SBC has on its horizon during my time at Eagle Brook, so I hope to help us avoid some of the pitfalls we experienced as we pursued God’s calling. Also, having worked in retail and at McDonald’s restaurants as a general manager for 17 years, I gained great insight about human behavior, running a business effectively, fixing things, and a broad array of subjects that served me well as I transitioned into full-time ministry.

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned that will help you join Jamie in leading SBC toward the future God has for us?
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that it’s about people. It’s not about process or rules or policy, although you need all those things. Other lessons I’ve learned, often the hard way, include that we must honor and celebrate the past while looking to the future, that good leadership requires strong communication and clarity, and that I am only as good as the team I lead.

What do you think are the unique strengths of SBC and how can we have a greater impact?
What Sarah and I have observed is a strong commitment to be Christ-centered and a very intentional effort to care for the people of this church. I think there is a desire to leverage what God has done here over many years of effective ministry to accomplish even greater Kingdom work! I hope to help bring some clarity to what we’re uniquely called to do and then go after it. We can’t sit on what God has done here. I sense people feel the responsibility of that. I am hopeful we will be able to make sound, faith-filled decisions about how to aggressively pursue God’s calling on this church in a way that honors the past, celebrates the present, and looks forward to an increasingly impactful future.

Your former church grew from 2,000 to 21,000 people while you were in leadership. What are your thoughts on SBC’s future growth potential?
To be fully engaged with what God has in mind for our church, we need to prepare and plan to reach our lost community, as we always have, while continuing to challenge those who are already here to the ongoing pursuit of knowing Him. We don’t pursue growth….we pursue people for whom God’s heart breaks, and growth is simply a result of that pursuit. We need to prepare for growth because people need Jesus and we’re almost out of seats!

What are you most passionate about seeing happen at SBC?
I want to see SBC continue to become what God has in mind for it. I can’t tell you what that is specifically, but I hope we will make ourselves fully available to Him in pursuit of that unique calling. I hope that when God thinks about what we are doing here, He smiles.

What three words would people use to describe you?
Driven, intentional, and energetic.

How can we pray for you and your family?
Our kids and grandkids will miss having us nearby, and we miss them terribly. We’re also trying to sell a house, and finding a buyer during the winter will be hard, but we know God can handle it. I’d also like prayer for the church we’ve left. The people there are important and special, and they are going through an important transition in leadership, too.

Anything else you’d like to say to our congregation?
I couldn’t be more pleased to be here. Sarah and I are excited to see what God has for us. I’m not naïve—it will be a challenging role, but I’m really excited about what God is calling us to accomplish as He prepares us for the next season of ministry. Sarah and I have loved what we have seen and experienced so far. We’re also very excited to avoid our first cold winter—ever!