Rick Elzinga
Pastor
Rick received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior on February 25, 1962. His heart's desire ever since that time has been to be a faithful servant of the Lord and to live out Christ's lordship in every area of life.
While teaching elementary and middle school in Concord, California, Rick completed seminary and came to Southwest Hills Baptist Church in 1984 to be the interim pastor. It's been a long interim! Now 27 years later, his desire is to continue to commit his life to the shepherding and development of the people of Southwest Hills.
He also puts a very high priority on doing his best to help each of his family members become more and more like Jesus. His wife Diane is a homemaker who ministers by teaching English to internationals and helpng people in the church who are hurting.
Rick and Diane have four children, ages 21 to 14: Stephen, who desires to use law and politics to further the Kingdom of God; Naomi, who loves to minister cross-culturally and is especially concerned about human trafficking; Andrew, who has started a ministry to the persecuted church and has a passion for North Korea; and Mat, who is in 8th grade and loves sports and drumming on the middle school worship team.
A large part of Rick's ministry is praying for people and equipping them to understand and live out the Bible. He also loves to open doors for people to minister so they can develop as leaders. God uses him to start new ministries, raise up leadership teams to lead those ministries, and then step out of the way and let them lead.
When he's not spending time with the church or with his family, Rick loves to hike the Columbia Gorge, walk in Greenway Park, or read.
Two scriptures have particularly shaped his ministry:
For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.(2 Corinthians 4:5)
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect [complete] in Christ.(Colossians 1:28)