Wes Shortridge Interview

This week's guest was Wes Shortridge from Liberty Community Church in Bealeton, Virginia. His church is fairly new (in its sixth year) and, according to Wes, effective at reaching people who are down and out, addicted, and have life problems. His church tries to get people "saved to" a community (small home groups) where needs can be met. Wes sees the home group leaders as the pastors.

I'll be honest, Wes is not someone with whom I connected well during the interview process. From the interview, I was unable to tell if Wes has any compassion for those he leads or if he just wants them "saved to a community". That thought bothers me. Can you be a pastor and not have compassion? I'm hoping and praying that Wes has a huge heart of compassion and that it just did not convey well.

Having said that, and being bothered by the impression I received during the interview, I wanted to give Wes the benefit of the doubt and checked out LCC's website. I'm glad I did. Here are some things that encourage me: God called Wes to specifically serve the Bealeton area; even though he started off with just himself, his own family and two others, he stuck with it and the church has grown to over 200 members; Wes made a comment somewhere on the site that he has served the church more for free than he has for hire (you don't do this unless you truly care); he is reaching a lot of people that might not feel comfortable in a more traditional church; I also appreciate his organizational skills, the fact that he does 4 Sunday services (three in the morning and one in the evening), and that he goes to school. I know Wes is serving God and that my opinion of him doesn't mean a thing, but I think he should get a star on his chart for what he's doing. I'm glad he came.