From the Pastor

This is a weekly devotional space where our pastor, as well as staff members on occasion, offer reflections, spiritual insights, and words of encouragement rooted in Scripture and everyday life. These writings are intended to challenge, inspire, and draw us closer to God and to one another as we strive to live out our faith with boldness and compassion. Whether offering comfort, conviction, or a call to action, each column invites us into deeper discipleship and shared community. When The Columns does not run, there is no new entry for From the Pastor.

May 10, 2026

Eugene Peterson once said pastoring is the most context-specific job in the world. You can’t copy off your neighbor. At least, I’m pretty sure it was Peterson. I read a lot of books on pastoral theology and practice. Eugene Peterson is one of my favorites on the subject.


This year, 2026, marks 15 years since I graduated from seminary at Mercer University and began my life’s work in congregational ministry. To be precise, January 11, 2026, was the day. Two and a half years at Northside Drive Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA, immediately following seminary, twelve and a half years at First Baptist Church of Middlesboro, KY, and now a whopping three months here with you at Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in Huntington, WV. I’m still turning the wrong way in the hallways between my office and the Fellowship Hall, still figuring out which floor is the third floor and which is the fourth, and still learning calendars and rituals here at FAB. Fifteen years of experience in ministry followed me here, and yet, pastoring is the most context-specific job in the world. FAB is not FBC is not NDBC. And none of those is St. Patrick Catholic Church in Maysville, KY, or Milford Christian Church in Milford, KY.


Three months in, I’m getting better with your names and faces. Better, but not perfect. I’ve got my office mostly set up, and at least the core Bible dictionaries and commentaries out of the boxes and onto shelves. I’ve even got a few of my own personal relics on display again.


From my desk chair, I can see the cards the children at FBC Middlesboro made for me, “Thank you, Pastor Zach,” on their covers. Next to those is my Camino de Santiago passport, full of stamps, from my 500-mile pilgrimage from the French Pyrenees to the Archcathedral Basilica at Santiago de Compostela, where legend holds that the remains of St. James the Apostle is buried. Speaking of St. James, Papaw Louie’s People's Mass Book from a lifetime of worship at St. James Catholic Church in Brooksville, KY, is up there, too, underneath the shelf with the baseball signed by Mamaw Ruby. My did she love the game! And of course, I got my model USS Enterprise, NCC-1701, on display in my office just as soon as I unboxed it, too. The starship, not the aircraft carrier. It was a gift from a dear friend in Middlesboro. It even lights up! Live long and prosper.


There is still shelf space left empty up there, too. Some of my relics I’ve not yet found in all the boxes that are in our garage. Some of my relics I’ve not yet discovered among you, here in Huntington, WV. There’s plenty of time for that yet.


Many have asked me, “Are you settling in okay?” The answer is yes. Box by box,

conversation by conversation, day by day. Many have asked me, “Are you liking it here?” The answer is yes. So far, all good. Steady as she goes. And one of these days, I’ll even figure out how to use all the features on this high-tech desk phone and that hallway thing. It is, after all, the most context-specific job in the world. And as Peterson did, I do love it.


~ Rev. Zach Bay