After 35 years, lead pastor of Orem’s Centerpoint Church stepping down
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- Centerpoint Church Associate Lead Pastor Mike Smith, left, and current Lead Pastor Scott McKinney pose in front the church’s mission statement Thursday, June 27, 2024.
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- The outside facade of Orem’s Centerpoint Church is shown Thursday, June 27, 2024.
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- Scott McKinney, current lead pastor of Centerpoint Church in Orem, stands in front of the church’s mission statement Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Pastor Scott McKinney will lead service for the last time at the Centerpoint Church in Orem this Sunday.
McKinney, who will turn 70 this summer, has served as lead pastor of the congregation for 35 years. Associate Lead Pastor Mike Smith will take over as the congregation’s leader.
“It’s been a wonderful, long, hard story, something that was dying (and) was brought back to life, and I give the Lord credit for it,” McKinney said, describing his tenure as lead pastor.
His calling came in 1989 after numerous pastoral changes at what was known at the time as the Orem Evangelical Free Church.
McKinney and his family moved to Utah Valley from Southern California where he’d been an associate pastor. However, he admits leading a church congregation wasn’t initially how he envisioned his future. “I was willing to do anything but be a pastor and, you know, somehow I figured out that that’s what I was,” he said.
As Centerpoint’s congregation has grown, the need increased for more space. In 2007, the church purchased the 5.5-acre property where Centerpoint Church currently sits at 1550 S. Sandhill Road in Orem.
However, it would take nearly a decade before the congregation gathered in the new building.
McKinney recalls challenges in selling off the church’s old property. That delayed the building of the current location, so services were held in various schools around Orem for a time. “We kind of felt like we were digging a hole every week, you know. We would move in and out of schools,” he said. “Every week, we had a moving van, and we would move in and then we would move out.”
They eventually moved into the new site and began holding services around March 2016, a memory that sticks with him. “When we got into this building, it just seemed so impossible. But that was the Lord (at work),” McKinney proclaimed.
McKinney and his wife, Sarah, have raised their four children in Utah Valley going to the church, and he’s grateful for the many connections that his family has encountered over the years.
But now that he’s getting up in age, McKinney said it was time to consider taking a step back.
“I think we live in a world where people need to know when it’s time to step aside, you know, turn it over to another generation, believe in people,” McKinney said.
Smith, who became Centerpoint’s associate lead pastor four and half years ago, began getting primed for his new role during that time. “The conversation started about Scott’s one day succession. He was hoping to have someone take the role of lead pastor around the time he turned 70, and that’s where we’re at now,” Smith explained.
He plans to continue McKinney’s vision for the church into the future.
Centerpoint’s Sunday attendance is averaging around 1,000 people, with some services hitting around 1,400 people. For that reason, the church is looking at possibly expanding further south in Utah County.
“Right now, we’re seeing a lot of people who are spiritually hungry and looking for hope in Jesus. And so I hope just to carry that mantle into the future and continue doing what we’ve been doing up to this point,” Smith said.
McKinney told the Daily Herald he plans to stay involved with Centerpoint Church, just in a different role. “But it will be no less deep and profound to me than the one that I have had,” he said.
As the pastor prepares for his final sermon, he’s been reflecting on the many years of service in the community. “It has been the privilege of my life to pass through this church in this place. And I say that from the perspective of I love the people of Utah Valley and love the people of this church,” McKinney said.
