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Steve's Path to Preaching · The Wesley Word

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Wesley Word.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Bailey Meehan.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Brynn Beaton.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome, Brynn.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm happy to be here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me, Bailey.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I can start by talking a little bit about myself.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm a junior marketing major and I joined Wesley second semester of my freshman year.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm currently on the communications team as the social media coordinator and have previously helped on the outreach team.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: What have you brought me today, Brent?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've brought an awesome interview with Steve that I did a while back in March 2021.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was for a graphic communications digital e-media class.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we had a week to uh do a podcast, so I decided to interview Steve because I wanted to construct a set of deep questions.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that Steve would impress me with the depth and meaningfulness of his answers.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's just what he did.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I was interested in hearing more about Steve's background with his family, faith, and career choices.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Great, let's check it out.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: In the sweet city of Clemson, South Carolina, Steve Simeneau is here today to share his journey as a pastor and ministry director.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: What was your life like before you chose to become a pastor and campus ministry director?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've just been married right out of undergrad, graduated from Clemson in 2004, so just spent time in the Clemson area as a teacher, youth director, even a janitor for the church for a little bit of time, but eventually after four years or so, I just knew it was time to go in a different direction.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Can you describe your job titles and responsibilities?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a lead pastor of the Vine, so I preach every Sunday at Clemson UMC, and then I'm also the director and campus minister for Clemson Wesley, which is our campus ministry here.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: My main role is to spend time with students, spend at least half my time in one-on-one conversations, and then also leading small groups.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: So overall, uh preaching on Sunday mornings and then also leading small groups, and we're also a nonprofit, and so making sure that the finances are straight and the building is secure and all that kind of stuff as well that goes into the day-to-day.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: How has your career affected your family life?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: The plus side of what I do is that I'm very flexible.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, don't have to miss football games for kids or gym meets or different things like that.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm able to be there all the time for that.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: But it also does require some strange hours sometimes.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not always there to took the kids in bed and that sort of stuff.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: But the family's sort of all in, and we see ourselves as the whole Semino clan is here, all in a campus ministry, so it's cool to be in it together, so to speak.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Does your career improve your relationships with your friends and family?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: As you plan, you study, you talk about grace and forgiveness and that sort of stuff, time and time again.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: It helps.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: I know, especially my marriage, preaching and talking about forgiveness all the time.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's then easier to have it in the forefront as you begin to practice it.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is there one person in your life who has impacted or influenced you to be the individual you are today?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Several people have made me who I am today, but I would go with Lang Glaze, my previous campus minister.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: He sort of encouraged me and said that real people can be pastors, right?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so that sort of opened the door for me and just was really encouraging every step of the way when I was here.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: He came in my sophomore year as my Clemson Wesley pastor and really made this a vibrant ministry again.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: This was pretty well oiled machine, and so I put my own stamp on it and made it my own, so to speak.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of the things that he was doing was important to carry over into what we are.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: What aspects of Clemson Wesley ministry have you implemented that you would like to see grow?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: The biggest thing for me, again, is this idea of welcome and hospitality.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: People come from all over the US, all over the world, looking for a place in college and looking for a home, looking for friends, the community.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think everyone wants to belong somewhere.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Part of what I try to vision for Clemson Wesley is to be a place of belonging where you don't have to fit in, you don't have to be a certain way, a certain thing.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: You just belong for who you are.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so we don't always get it right, but that's a big part of what I see in my calling in ministry as well, is helping people feel welcome and be a part of this community.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: What inspires you and what is your typical thought process for creating sermons and preaching?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great question.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I always say I want to be answering questions that people are asking.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to be answering questions that no one cares about, right?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so how how do we go about doing that?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: What is going on in the world today?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: What's going on in the lives of people that I'm speaking to and with?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then as I prepare sermons, I've got some great advice one time that I always try to make people think throughout the sermon.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: I want to make them laugh and I want them to feel something, right?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so if I can accomplish three of those things, it's a great sermon.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: If I can get two of the three, you know, I did a great job.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I also try to be authentically me.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's been helping my preaching.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't try to be someone who I'm not, and I try to just be a normal person and engage in a conversation type of sermon.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so I try to think, what is it that people are asking?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: How can we present it in a way that helps them feel, helps them think, and you know, let's laugh a little bit, right?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because life is too serious sometimes and we gotta laugh along the way.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so I try to do that and make it in a way that I gotta sit through someone talking for 18 minutes, right?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: What I want to hear that is it hope-filled.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm only 38 and so I've sort of quickly run out of life experience, so to speak.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I try to make it personal.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I also know, too, I'm better preaching when I'm reading more.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so I hear other people's stories, and so I try to mix in part of me and then part of some other stories.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: But I think there's some power when you can say, This is what I've been through, or this is how I feel, you know, or I'm struggling with this as well, and so it's okay to struggle with it.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so you have to be personal in your preaching, or I think you just come across as rigid and inauthentic.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any memorable moments in your life that you wish to share that have impacted you as an individual or as a pastor?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'll share probably the biggest moment that sort of affected me, I guess for the individual and pastor.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like I grew up in a denomination that you had to do certain things to go to the communion table.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't do those things, and some of that's from family history and whatnot.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was always denied access to the communion table.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh maybe I get a little blessing from the priest, but it wasn't welcome there.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember going to a United Methodist church one day as a junior in high school and thinking about my faith, am I Christian, am I not?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And the pastor was up there and said, hey, all are invited to this table.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, nah, you you're not real.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, no, all are invited to this table.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I went up there for the first time and received God's grace.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so that welcome was radical to me at that point in time, that realizing that God's grace is available even to me.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so that sort of drives me in my ministry and as an individual.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I said earlier that I'm big on hospitality and welcome.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that's partly because I was that person at that time that didn't really fit there and didn't know what.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so receiving that invitation, receiving God's grace has spurred me on to, I mean, I love communion.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome people to the actual communion table, but I always believe there's always an extra seat at whatever table we're at.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so trying to bring people in and let them know there's there's always room for them too.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the toughest moments or interactions with people you have faced inside or outside of the church?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: For right now, I'm in the Methodist church itself is going through some struggle, some turmoil, and it looked like division on the on the horizon.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: For me, again, going back to this idea of welcome, I've wanted this to be a place of full inclusion for racially based, gender-based, for our LGBT community, and knowing that the church is not there yet has been a real struggle for me.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so conversations with people outside the church saying, oh, watch, why are you part of a system that's not open, right?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And you say, right, from the standpoint of I want to be a voice that says, no, we we're gonna get there, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And being active role in that and letting people know that they're loved.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so the church not being there, the global church not being where I want it to be, or not being as inclusive as I think we should be, has been a challenge in and outside and having conversations.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: There are people that are leaving because they feel we're not progressive enough, and others say we're too progressive, and all this sort of stuff.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so, but knowing that it's also real people's lives that are involved aren't feeling that sense of welcome yet.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that that grieves me and that's been tough.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm hopeful that in the next few years we'll have some breakthroughs in that, that we can truly be the people that we're called to be.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: What are some important things you've learned over time from being a pastor and campus ministry director?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: One thing that I've tell often to sometimes I'm discussing things with leadership and different people, is that I've learned that it's people over perfection as we try to do this ministry thing.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: We can try to get things perfect, have the right music and all this kind of stuff, but it really boils down to people.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: So if we've got to not have the best to have someone else involved in worship, that's great.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean lives matter, right?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so what we what we're here is to to see people, to let them be seen, to be known.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And if we forget about the people that we're called to serve and to to welcome and have a sense of belonging, we've sort of lost our way.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes we, like I said, we get caught up and wanting to make this perfect or whatever it might be.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: But bottom line, am I loving the people that I'm around?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And if not, what what am I doing?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, that was Steve Simoneau, Clemson United Methodist pastor and Clemson Wesley Ministry Director.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Bryn.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: That was great.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think that was that was a great look at Steve's background and his philosophy um on why he chose his career and and how he goes about uh being the best minister that he can be.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I totally agree.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um a lot of things that he said really stood out to me and surprised me.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I learned a lot more about him and and a lot of things kind of started to line up about why he's so awesome and really impactful to all these students.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um specifically, he right away he mentioned with Clemson Wesley he wants uh to create a sense of hospitality, a sense of belonging belonging.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, you don't have to fit in, but we want you to feel welcomed into the ministry.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that really spoke to me because uh personally when I uh joined Wesley, right away like my college experience changed for the better.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um it improved so much because I felt like I could be myself.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like I finally found my my people to be myself around and um in general, like and and he also mentioned like questioning he even questioned his Christianity and like how much Christian he was or what level of Christian he was.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that really struck me as well because um he said when he s received God's grace for the first time in in high school, or whenever he said um that was super meaningful to him.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And coming from someone who's from out west, I'm from Boulder, Colorado, and um I I kind of had preconceptions about the South and like religion in the South, and I was always scared to join a ministry, which is why I was waited a semester because I wasn't sure like um if people would accept me for like not knowing as much about the Bible, maybe, or like kind of questioning my faith a lot, but I really felt so welcomed and um felt like I belonged right away in Wesley.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that really stood out to me.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um have you ever dealt with questions like that, Bailey?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, for sure.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, definitely.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: I um did not grow up in the Methodist church.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um I uh grew up and still go to a Catholic church, and so um I was a little bit worried coming into a a Methodist ministry that you know it would only be for Methodist people or whatever.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um and Wesley does a great job of welcoming people, um, no matter what your background is, which I think is great.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um I really enjoyed that you you opened the interview asking him a lot about his family life and his friends and and kind of you know outside of work activities.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think that's a a neat dive into his background and kind of what drives him to do things the way that he does.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it it makes him more personable, right?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because he is a pastor, but he's also a college minister.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's you know, he's a friend to us too, and and he's already all always told all of us that um, you know, please reach out to him.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's always around to talk.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've gone on a few coffee dates and things with him to make sure um, you know, everything in my life is going okay, which is really important.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, instead of just looking at him as a pastor, he really is um an awesome person.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And another thing that stood out to me was uh the topics he chooses, which obviously revolve around his uh uh everyday life and his family, but also he chooses relevant topics that are happening in present day, like he keeps up with the news and things like that.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really important because um we are college students, so we want relevant things that like make sense in our lives.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he also wants people to laugh, feel, and think.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think those three are like the ultimate trio.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he's always authentically himself, which is really important, and it encourages us students to be our authentic selves as well.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Great, thank you, Bren.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: I uh look up to Steve a lot, and I really enjoyed uh hearing his perspective on all these things.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for bringing this for me.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, and thank you.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Steve for letting me interview him and uh letting uh us uh display his his wonderful thoughts.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: The Wesley Word is a production of the Clemson Wesley Foundation.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: For more information about Clemson Wesley, check out our website or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, get out there and love your neighbor.