Stories From the Pews of Faith
Members and staff of Faith share personal experiences that highlight God's love, mercy and guidance.
Eric Enskat
Accompanying us as members of this congregation is a group of talented and faithful ministry and professional staff members. Today begins a series of occasional stories about some of these remarkable people. Featured here: Eric Enskat, Office and Building Administrator.
It’s always hard to name the points in your life when you started down the path(s) you now follow. That’s also true for Eric Enskat, Faith’s Office and Building Administrator. How he got to this point in his life is as fascinating—and perhaps as inspiring—as your story about “then” turning into “now.”
If you ask Eric about his career starting point, he’ll say something like, “In the beginning I was a machinist.” Some of that vocational choice goes back to Eric’s two grandfathers. His father’s dad was a German wagon builder and wheelwright, raising Eric’s father to be resourceful and creative with materials and mechanics. His maternal grandfather, Grandpa Bloch, was also creative and more like a numbers engineer, loving how surfaces relate to one another. When he emigrated to the United States, that skill set helped him to work as the stairwell designer for noted Chicago architect, Mies van der Rohe.
Eric’s father carried on his multi-skilled tradition. He taught himself how to drive a truck, which connected him with the US Army, and also helped him to emigrate to the United States. He built his own machine shop in the family’s back shed, where he worked with wood, building cabinets for custom limousines. When Eric was young, he began part-time work for his father—polishing and finishing items. He got pretty good at machining—metals, plastics, wood—especially at making prototypes, models for the specially machined parts his father handcrafted.
Eric went to college first to study mechanical engineering—the mathematical fundamentals for what he calls his “hand-intelligence”—and then to study business. Eric learned that, like his grandfather and father, there was high value for him in being an artisan with a sense for the business world: They can craft something exquisitely useful from what might otherwise seem ordinary.
What he learned from being a machinist has come in handy as his career(s) developed. “Machining takes in a lot,” Eric explains. “Skills from one thing bleed over into other skills. If it’s tangential, you can figure it out. You learn by doing.”
Those two mindsets—being an artisan and machining—have served Eric well during his subsequent career choices. Working as an engineer, he applied both skill sets as a dependable, loyal worker. Another skill set developed along the way was a kind of people wisdom: At one company, he came to realize that other employees were coming to him with problems or to get advice. This skill then became a central part of his work life. When he became a project manager for another, larger manufacturing company, he honed his capabilities for honest, reliable sales and service for his customers. He summarizes those new learnings with a thought that still guides his life, regardless of the risks: “My ethics and my people are a higher calling than making big money.”
Although he wasn’t brought up in church, somewhere along the line Eric learned those ethics and that higher calling. “We never went to church, but my parents dropped us off for Sunday School and Confirmation while they went grocery shopping.” The spark of that minimal exposure to matters of faith may have come to life when Eric was in his late 20s. He was invited to attend church by a family friend named Maudie. He remembers her persistence. “I think you’d like my (Presbyterian) church,” she told him. He didn’t know what that was—"I thought it was some kind of Pentecostal religion” but she kept inviting him.
When he finally relented to her insistence, he noticed how friendly the people were. He saw how these folks really knew their Bible and who they were as Christians. Looking back now, he also realized that “the Spirit had been working on me through all my previous experiences.” That’s how he came to faith—through the side or back door. He says, “No hitting-bottom experience, just seeing how very natural it was for people, living their lives of faith each day.”
He's been growing in faith and his various ministries ever since. In his present congregation, Presbyterian Church of Barrington, Eric began working with youth. Starting with a computer lab for kids, he transitioned to youth mission trips for teens, and writing about those experiences. “Youth work and working with kids strikes my heart,” he says. Over the years, he’s served the full range of congregational leadership positions, including the mission and youth committees, and several terms as both Elder and Deacon.
His faith now? “My faith is not a book faith; it’s a faith of interaction with others.” There’s a bit of modesty in that statement, though: Eric has been trained in the Chicago Metro Synod’s Diaconal Ministry program. He’s organized and participated in domestic and international mission trips with both youth and adults. These events brought together both Christian and interfaith communities. Earlier this spring, he completed Stephen Minister training and was commissioned by his congregation. The thread that runs through all of that: well-developed and carefully practiced interpersonal skills, now fully useful in his congregation and his work here at Faith. “My whole story is following the teachings of Jesus,” he summarizes.
And what about this congregation? Eric has built on the roles of previous office managers at Faith. That role has expanded to include an array of responsibilities extending to the entire facility—and the implicit coordinating and communicating with the individuals and groups that are housed here. “This is a calling, a vocation,” he says. “Not a job.”
He brings to his personal ministry at Faith—all that has preceded his eight years here. The wealth of his life experiences—coming to faith as an adult, computer skills, attention to detail, social intelligence, sales/service sensitivities, employee management, spiritual depth, congregational leadership—is evident in his approach to being Faith’s administrator for both the office and the building. As a man of details—the vestiges of being a machinist—Eric takes on and enjoys both the mundane and the big-picture parts of this work.
He understands how his past experiences have led to this part of his life-journey. “My job is to facilitate connecting people to God. I’m spackle—I smooth out things to make it easier for people to find God.” He sees congregation members as peers, empathizing with everyone who walks into the office.
As an artisan and machinist of relationships and congregational life, Eric considers his work as an adventure. “When things go smoothly, that’s success,” he says, “I’m like a sailor, following the winds of the Spirit, working with whatever comes my way.” He adds another qualifying bit of wisdom: “And smooth is different than perfect. It consists of being connected to God, creating spaces for grace to fill people’s lives.” Eric looks at people with grace. “Grace-filled people have taken me under their wing, and I have learned to do that for others.”
At a personal level, Eric has taught downhill skiing and coached Special Olympic cross-country skiing. Years ago—before joining his church—he put in hundreds of miles of bicycle riding each week and participated in weekly sailing regattas. He’s a compulsive optimist, always willing to do whatever it takes to get a job done. The kind of guy who will drop everything when people need something. Although he doesn’t consider himself “one of the cool people” on mission trips or in social situations, he knows that he’s good at listening and asking questions. That those are necessities in a life of service.
When you talk with him, you’ll come to realize how Faith Lutheran Church is well-served by this artisan/machinist. This wise and kind administrator. This people person.
This man of God!
Accompanying us as members of this congregation is a group of talented and faithful ministry and professional staff members. Today begins a series of occasional stories about some of these remarkable people. Featured here: Eric Enskat, Office and Building Administrator.
It’s always hard to name the points in your life when you started down the path(s) you now follow. That’s also true for Eric Enskat, Faith’s Office and Building Administrator. How he got to this point in his life is as fascinating—and perhaps as inspiring—as your story about “then” turning into “now.”
If you ask Eric about his career starting point, he’ll say something like, “In the beginning I was a machinist.” Some of that vocational choice goes back to Eric’s two grandfathers. His father’s dad was a German wagon builder and wheelwright, raising Eric’s father to be resourceful and creative with materials and mechanics. His maternal grandfather, Grandpa Bloch, was also creative and more like a numbers engineer, loving how surfaces relate to one another. When he emigrated to the United States, that skill set helped him to work as the stairwell designer for noted Chicago architect, Mies van der Rohe.
Eric’s father carried on his multi-skilled tradition. He taught himself how to drive a truck, which connected him with the US Army, and also helped him to emigrate to the United States. He built his own machine shop in the family’s back shed, where he worked with wood, building cabinets for custom limousines. When Eric was young, he began part-time work for his father—polishing and finishing items. He got pretty good at machining—metals, plastics, wood—especially at making prototypes, models for the specially machined parts his father handcrafted.
Eric went to college first to study mechanical engineering—the mathematical fundamentals for what he calls his “hand-intelligence”—and then to study business. Eric learned that, like his grandfather and father, there was high value for him in being an artisan with a sense for the business world: They can craft something exquisitely useful from what might otherwise seem ordinary.
What he learned from being a machinist has come in handy as his career(s) developed. “Machining takes in a lot,” Eric explains. “Skills from one thing bleed over into other skills. If it’s tangential, you can figure it out. You learn by doing.”
Those two mindsets—being an artisan and machining—have served Eric well during his subsequent career choices. Working as an engineer, he applied both skill sets as a dependable, loyal worker. Another skill set developed along the way was a kind of people wisdom: At one company, he came to realize that other employees were coming to him with problems or to get advice. This skill then became a central part of his work life. When he became a project manager for another, larger manufacturing company, he honed his capabilities for honest, reliable sales and service for his customers. He summarizes those new learnings with a thought that still guides his life, regardless of the risks: “My ethics and my people are a higher calling than making big money.”
Although he wasn’t brought up in church, somewhere along the line Eric learned those ethics and that higher calling. “We never went to church, but my parents dropped us off for Sunday School and Confirmation while they went grocery shopping.” The spark of that minimal exposure to matters of faith may have come to life when Eric was in his late 20s. He was invited to attend church by a family friend named Maudie. He remembers her persistence. “I think you’d like my (Presbyterian) church,” she told him. He didn’t know what that was—"I thought it was some kind of Pentecostal religion” but she kept inviting him.
When he finally relented to her insistence, he noticed how friendly the people were. He saw how these folks really knew their Bible and who they were as Christians. Looking back now, he also realized that “the Spirit had been working on me through all my previous experiences.” That’s how he came to faith—through the side or back door. He says, “No hitting-bottom experience, just seeing how very natural it was for people, living their lives of faith each day.”
He's been growing in faith and his various ministries ever since. In his present congregation, Presbyterian Church of Barrington, Eric began working with youth. Starting with a computer lab for kids, he transitioned to youth mission trips for teens, and writing about those experiences. “Youth work and working with kids strikes my heart,” he says. Over the years, he’s served the full range of congregational leadership positions, including the mission and youth committees, and several terms as both Elder and Deacon.
His faith now? “My faith is not a book faith; it’s a faith of interaction with others.” There’s a bit of modesty in that statement, though: Eric has been trained in the Chicago Metro Synod’s Diaconal Ministry program. He’s organized and participated in domestic and international mission trips with both youth and adults. These events brought together both Christian and interfaith communities. Earlier this spring, he completed Stephen Minister training and was commissioned by his congregation. The thread that runs through all of that: well-developed and carefully practiced interpersonal skills, now fully useful in his congregation and his work here at Faith. “My whole story is following the teachings of Jesus,” he summarizes.
And what about this congregation? Eric has built on the roles of previous office managers at Faith. That role has expanded to include an array of responsibilities extending to the entire facility—and the implicit coordinating and communicating with the individuals and groups that are housed here. “This is a calling, a vocation,” he says. “Not a job.”
He brings to his personal ministry at Faith—all that has preceded his eight years here. The wealth of his life experiences—coming to faith as an adult, computer skills, attention to detail, social intelligence, sales/service sensitivities, employee management, spiritual depth, congregational leadership—is evident in his approach to being Faith’s administrator for both the office and the building. As a man of details—the vestiges of being a machinist—Eric takes on and enjoys both the mundane and the big-picture parts of this work.
He understands how his past experiences have led to this part of his life-journey. “My job is to facilitate connecting people to God. I’m spackle—I smooth out things to make it easier for people to find God.” He sees congregation members as peers, empathizing with everyone who walks into the office.
As an artisan and machinist of relationships and congregational life, Eric considers his work as an adventure. “When things go smoothly, that’s success,” he says, “I’m like a sailor, following the winds of the Spirit, working with whatever comes my way.” He adds another qualifying bit of wisdom: “And smooth is different than perfect. It consists of being connected to God, creating spaces for grace to fill people’s lives.” Eric looks at people with grace. “Grace-filled people have taken me under their wing, and I have learned to do that for others.”
At a personal level, Eric has taught downhill skiing and coached Special Olympic cross-country skiing. Years ago—before joining his church—he put in hundreds of miles of bicycle riding each week and participated in weekly sailing regattas. He’s a compulsive optimist, always willing to do whatever it takes to get a job done. The kind of guy who will drop everything when people need something. Although he doesn’t consider himself “one of the cool people” on mission trips or in social situations, he knows that he’s good at listening and asking questions. That those are necessities in a life of service.
When you talk with him, you’ll come to realize how Faith Lutheran Church is well-served by this artisan/machinist. This wise and kind administrator. This people person.
This man of God!
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Graciela Bredehoeft
Art Oberwetter
Beatrice Ndayisenga
Karen Finerty
Cole Swanstrom
Melanie Rohla
Kathy Dibadj
Bob and Sylvia Wulffen
Jason Loebach
Bob Hawkinson
Molly Hall Barrett
Grant and Mary Kelley
Retta Hennessy
Alan Foster
Pilvi Innola
Amy Kerman-Gutzmer and Patrick Gutzmer
Andrew Sells
Beth Nyland
Tom Wendorf
Cindy and Jeff Crosby
David Hooker
Leroy Boeckelman
Zach Pehta
Emil and Mary Petereit
Chris Bettin
Lee Boyden
Brent Ellerbee
Craig and Sue Warner
Jane Stroh
Michael Kozakis
Lois Evans
Wally Becky
Joe Malm
Rich Daugherty
Garrett Glawe
Mark Stauber
Graciela Bredehoeft