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.

June 21, 2026

We went to the Cabell County Public Library’s Summer Reading Kick-Off Party this week. We got library cards and checked out our first book as West Virginians. I smiled when Eleanor came to me with a kids’ book titled, “How Do We Know Stars Shine?” I would have picked that. I had a bookcase full of such books in my room. I didn’t grow up to be a scientist, but I have loved science classes and books since I was 8. My sitting on the floor in front of that bookcase was likely foundational to my college philosophy major. I stumbled backward through a gen-ed requirement into it. One half of my Business Ethics course was

utterly riveting to me: the ethics (read: philosophy department) half. Allen Reasons’ Ph.D. is in ethics. Recognizing a fellow philosopher in a former pastor was one of the many pieces of data that helped me discern whether to come and pastor FAB.


I am perpetually intrigued by what we think we know, what we mean when we talk about what we think we know, and how much more there is to the story so much of the time. It’s the philosopher in me. Philosophers call this epistemology. Philosophers and theologians alike urge epistemological humility—that is, humility about how we hold and name what we think we know. Too many human beings, too much of the time, are far too certain in their own opinions. It’s common today to say “I did some research” in reference to a half-hour of web browsing. A former parishioner of mine loved to poke fun at such, saying, “Don’t

confuse me with facts. My mind’s already made up.”


Eleanor gasped from the back seat, “Stars don’t burn?!” I smiled. Again: me at 8. I suspect that section was on nuclear fusion, which is not quite the same thing as the campfire that “burns” wood with aid from oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.


This week concludes The Pastor’s Bible Study until August. One theme I’ve woven through our discussions of Sunday’s sermon texts since February is epistemological humility. We’ve marveled at what is actually in these biblical texts. We’ve been even more astonished by what isn’t. “Jesus rode a donkey…and a colt?!” “Thomas was the first disciple to call Jesus ‘God’? Doubting Thomas?!” “That’s not a bad preacher joke? There really are Perizzites in

the Bible?!” … “Stars don’t burn?!”


It’s been a blast. I’ve relished the time reading Scripture in sacred community with you, and with the Holy Spirit. To me, it’s felt like Pentecost. 


We’ll begin again in August. I already look forward to it.


~ Rev. Zach Bay