MOUNT VERNON — Twenty-six years after walking across the graduation stage at Mount Vernon Nazarene College, Scott Sharpes has returned to Mount Vernon, now situated just across the field from his alma mater in the office and pulpit of Lakeholm Church of the Nazarene. Sharpes delivered his first sermon as the new pastor of Lakeholm on Aug. 28, filling the position left vacant by former pastor Larry Hall in 2010.
Growing up mostly in Ohio while moving a few times in his early years as his father was moved to different pastorships, Sharpes attended high school in Salem, Ohio, before enrolling in MVNC. Earning a bachelor’s degree in religion in 1985, he then entered Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, completing a master’s degree in 1989.
Sharpes married his wife, Wendy, in 1984, and she has been a teacher in private and public schools for 25 years. They have two daughters, Bethany Sharpes and Brittney (Ben) Hoffman; and one granddaughter, Riley, age 2.
Sharpes then spent one and a-half years as a youth pastor at his father’s church in Fairfield before taking senior pastor jobs in Florida in Live Oak and Monticello. He then took a position at West Side Church of the Nazarene in Wichita, Kan., where he has been for the past 12 years. Also on staff currently as youth pastor at West Side is his brother, Greg, who is also a graduate of MVNC.
