#043 - Origins - pt. 5 - Seneca

Seneca

In my previous posts, I mentioned a church I worked for in South Carolina. One that made me never want to be on staff at a church again. It was a transformational experience, and I met a lot of great people. For those unfamiliar with the area or the world of working for a church, I got to know both of these areas with great familiarity, and also, because I'm me, I learned a lot of things the hard way. This is one of these writings. I would butt heads with the leadership and be focused more on building my success and career than the success of the church. The relationship would mirror another church I would contract with outside of Atlanta. Both were learning experiences and deserve their blog posts; this is one of those storied learning experiences. Now that that's out of the way, onward, Christian soldier. This time to Seneca, South Carolina. But first, a trip back in time.

Just loafing around.

In Gwinnett County, Georgia, where I grew up, enclaves and towns are known for their amusements. We're lucky to have minor-league hockey, baseball, professional volleyball, and lacrosse in our backyard. These all take place inside a sizable arena with an ever-changing name and sponsor that also attracts national touring acts and shows on ice. Around this arena are several restaurants, hotels, and churches, where you find your hero of the story, who's me- waiting tables at a magical place adorned with shrines to alcohol called The Loafing Leprechaun. I was also contracted to do lights at the church up the street and in college. The year was 2008.

I was overweight and angsty. The job I had provided me with tons of fried food and good meals, but the hours weren't me, and I spent many days trying to get people to close their tabs so we could close the bar and go home. I've never been a massive fan of drinking, so working at an Irish pub probably wouldn't be a lasting career option for me anyway. I don't want to go into too much detail about the pub - maybe in another post. This post is less about me and more about the people I met along the way, so I may call myself out for talking about myself too much—shoutout to my roommate Chris for getting me the job there.

So many wonderful people pop in and out of life, and your coworkers are much like your high school friends in how they manifest. You are all forced together for eight hours at a time with all your idiosyncratic behavior, and somehow, everyone gels. Unless it is High School. When you leave a company, they become once and a while friends who you keep up with on social media but see in person rarely. The life of a contractor or a wandering minstrel such as myself is filled with an ever-changing landscape of people, some of whom become lifelong friends. Well, others I choose sometimes not to work with, for that is my choice as a freelancer. However, I want to remind the reader that beggars cannot be choosers, and a freelancer could be considered a dirty ho.

A wandering minstrel I a thing of shreds and patches.

The musician at the church I worked for had a proposition for me. He was taking a job as the music director and sold me on this church being a place where I could thrive and grow. Little did he know that I am like a bombshell when introduced to new places, and his new home would not be the same after I made my mark. This is only to say that I do not blame him for my following situations, even though I followed him to the sleepy lakeside community of Seneca. He was building his life, too, and had a wife and kids to motivate him. I was looking for my next opportunity and an excuse to break free from my parents.

The next thing I know, I'm crashing in his guest bedroom and trying to find a place to live. His wife pressures him into doing this after he promises I can stay with him for a month, and I see a dirt-cheap place close to the church on the newly established Craigslist. I would only be staying there on the weekends anyway, as my work schedule was Friday to Monday. During my apartment tour, the landlord opened the closet, and about a dozen beer cans tumbled out. He apologized and said something about getting his son to clean up his mess. Did I also mention that the location was next to a chicken farm? Because chickens were poking around my car every morning. The rooster would crow so that I couldn't sleep in bed past six. I still can't nearly twenty years later.

The executive pastor had a trailer I could use to move my furniture and a work truck to pull it, so I packed up my room and moved. My parents hopped in and helped move everything in, and I started my work journey at this church. This journey included playing Daft Punk as preservice music, disassembling cameras to the frustration of the volunteers, and building and maintaining volunteers. Two weeks into the job, I'm sweating nervously as I travel back and forth from Atlanta, trying to keep up with my schoolwork and church responsibilities.

The executive pastor negotiated my pay down to nothing, and I was truly living the life of a broke college student. It got to me, though, and some things I did rubbed the staff members wrong. It was a church, and my desk was two blue chemical barrels and some painted pieces of MDF that I had salvaged from a set. The church had no money for a laptop or desk for me, so I had to rummage and make do with what I could find.

Samantha.

If you read my posts, you know God has placed several powerful and inspirational women in my life. One of my surrogate sisters from another mister is a woman named Sam, who was a shoulder to cry on during all of this. We still keep in touch to this day. I want to pause in the story to reflect upon this in my life and hope the universe will do the same for you. Indeed, these people are in everyone's life; if not, organizations provide shoulders to cry on and support through hard times. Churches have care ministries. Sam always encouraged me and the people around her to be themselves, and I could not have survived Seneca without her. She would also tell me to suck it up and get back to it.

Mark.

My job was lighting and set design. The pastor would brainstorm a clever series of messages and then devise a kitschy title. Then, like Aimee Simple-McPherson, I would create a theatrical set to capture the audience's attention and sell the idea. This included a set made of lightbulbs, a jungle set, and several abstract concepts dreamt up at the local hardware store. Thank you, Home Depot. It was an adventure sailing the high seas with some of my lifelong friends who I hadn't thought about in ages. A good captain needs a good crew, and I had a first mate named Mark, who was my only crew member for a while.

Mark is a 6'8" giant who, I think, still works as a welder for the BMW plant in Greenville. It's 2024, and it's been a minute since we last spoke. I honestly can't remember when he came into my life at the church, but he became one of my best friends as soon as we met. Mark had heel spurs, so he had difficulty walking, but he would walk around Home Depot with me. For hundreds of hours, I would be working on sets, and he would be by my side helping. When I needed a scissor lift, he would help me grab the same trailer and truck I had moved in with to pick it up. If we picked it up and dropped it off, the scissor lift was free from one of our members. I put some miles on that thing.

I remember Mark and I splitting Jack in the Box at two in the morning because it would take forever to do anything. He would laugh at my lame jokes and frustration with Christianity, and we would have a blast. The communications pastor once miscommunicated with Mark, and Mark threatened to leave the church. I immediately called and said I would leave, too, and the pastor apologized. After I stepped down from my staff role, I stayed at his house with his then-wife every time I was in town doing set changes for the church.

The last time we spoke was at a concert for a rock cover band, and I think he still runs lights for them. I need to contact him, but he follows my blog and always wishes me a happy birthday on Facebook.

More on Seneca in the next post. Have a wonderful day.

To read the previous parts: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4