Let's Talk, with Rev. Zach Bay: Recent Episodes
Zachary L. Bay
Let's Talk, with Rev. Zach Bay seeks meaningful and transformative dialogue with both listeners and guests through a variety of subjects. Some episodes feature Zach responding to the questions or comments sent in by listeners. Other episodes feature guests who have graciously agreed to come and share their thoughts, talents, and life experiences. Questions or comments? Email Zach at zach@fbcmiddlesboro.org.
My guest this week is Dr. Cindy Dixon, Assistant Professor of Anatomy in the College of Veterinarian Medicine at Lincoln Memorial University. Since her family moved here in November 2020, Cindy has been a regular online attendee of First Baptist Church--through online worship, Facebook Live broadcasts, and this podcast. Cindy and I talk about her, her work, and what it's been like to try to remain faithful in religious practice in a new place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Check out the LMU College of Veterinarian Medicine here: https://www.lmunet.edu/college-of-veterinary-medicine/index
Check out online services of First Baptist Church of Middlesboro, KY here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaUciDulz6qCRnbl2n0sU1w
And please, follow and share this podcast with someone you think might enjoy it.
My guest this week is Carol Borneman. Carol served as a park ranger in national parks her entire working career. When she got to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park next door to Middlesboro, she decided never to leave. She recently retired after a long, successful run loving the people and the terrain of the Gap.
Check out CGNHP here: https://www.nps.gov/cuga/index.htm
Check out FBC Middlesboro's work with the Amish community in southern Indiana and CGNHP here: https://fbcmiddlesboro.org/appalachian-immersion/
Want to come to the mountains to learn and serve? Call First Baptist Church at 606-499-5564 between 9 AM and 1 PM, Monday through Friday.
First Baptist Church of Middlesboro and I are on a great pastoral and congregational adventure--a pastoral sabbatical. I will be away for 3 months this spring/summer after 8.5 years of service for a time of rest and renewal.
The centerpiece of my sabbatical is a 500-mile, 1,200-year-old walking pilgrimage path across northern Spain. People of Christian faith have walked the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) from St. Jean Pied de Port in southwestern France to Santiago de Compostela in western Spain, near the Atlantic Ocean. Post-Camino, I will spend time in New England with Baptists in some of the oldest Baptist places in the United States pondering and writing about my experience so as to be able to share it.
My guest this week is the Rev. Dr. James Lamkin. James is now retired after 23 years as Pastor of Northside Drive Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, and 49 years in pastoral ministry. James is my mentor and a good friend. He walked the Camino in 2012, and shares his experience of this 500-mile-long, 3-feet-wide classroom for spiritual growth.
For more on the Camino de Santiago, check out these resources:
Camino de Santiago Information Site - https://santiago-compostela.net/
American Pilgrims on the Camino - https://americanpilgrims.org/
Two interesting books I'm using:
A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago, Camino Frances, by John Brierley
Walk in a Relaxed Manner: Life Lessons from the Camino, by Joyce Rupp
This week, the Christian season of Lent begins. Since the 600s CE in the West, Ash Wednesday has been the first day of this 40-day season of pilgrimage preparation for Easter's empty tomb. But Ashes? Lent? Latin? There's a lot going on that can be confusing to the average--even the committed--person of faith.
In this episode, I talk about Ash Wednesday, the season of Lent, fasting, the purple everything that shows up in worship, and why it all matters even now, in 2022. As I say midway through: "
"No matter how you slice it, all of that means when you step into the flow of Lent on Ash Wednesday, you join your sisters and brothers in faith across the millennia. You walk a religious/spiritual path that billions of Christian people have walked before you, and millions and millions of Christian people with you today. As Joyce Rupp says in her book on pilgrimage, 'Let the historical route empower you.' By keeping Lent, those who've gone before us have somehow consecrated and made sacred the path, with God's help. On Ash Wednesday, we step onto that path and feel its gravity and grace. "
My primary source material for this podcast is the wonderful one-volume Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church: Third Edition Revised, particularly the "Ash Wednesday," "Lent," and "Refreshment Sunday" entries. I recommend this book to clergy and laypersons alike as a wonderful companion to your studies of the Bible and the church.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church meets in the oldest church building in the City of Middlesboro, one of the last remaining wooden Gothic church buildings in the United States. St. Mary's Episcopal church may also be the oldest organized congregation of Christians in Middlesboro--if not the oldest, one of the oldest.
My guest today is the Rector of St. Mary's, Father Aelred Dean. He is a dear friend and pastoral colleague, and has served Christ as pastor of St. Mary's for 5.5 years. We enjoyed a free-flowing and energetic theological conversation about doing faith the way Jesus teaches his disciples: by loving God and loving neighbor. Christianity is as simple and as complicated as that.
You can check out St. Mary's Episcopal Church on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/st.marys.mboro or on the web at https://www.saintmarysmboro.com/.
This week, Zach shares a recording he made of snow falling in his yard. With the help of Presbyterian theologian Belden Lane and some of Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount, he reflects upon what it means to really, truly pay attention to your life. It matters more than you may think when it comes to the health and growth of your soul.
Related sermon: https://youtu.be/igCieZgIfck
Related book: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Conversation-Nature-Care-Soul-dp-0190842679/dp/0190842679/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=
For 43 years, Middlesboro's Cooperative Christian Ministry has followed this mission statement based on Matthew 25:35-40: "We the member churches of the Cooperative Christian Ministry, believing in one God, covenant together to work in partnership in service to our community obedient to the words of Christ that we should feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and seek out those imprisoned by fear, weakness and lack of opportunity, believe that what we do for the "least of these," we do for Jesus."
My guest today is CCM Executive Director Eric Martin. In this episode, we talk all things CCM. If you'd like to visit, learn about, or volunteer at CCM, you can contact Eric at 606-248-8022 or emartin@ccmky.org. If you'd like to make a financial donation to the work of CCM, you can mail a check made out to CCM to P.O. Box 721, Middlesboro, KY 40965.
CCM is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CooperativeChristianMinistry and the web at https://ccmkentucky.wixsite.com/ccmky.
This week, Zach welcomes Middlesboro historian Ann Dudley Matheny. Zach and Ann first met in the library of the Bell County Historical Society in 2020, but Zach's relationship with Ann's book, The Magic City: Footnotes to the History of Middlesborough, Kentucky, and the Yellow Creek Valley, go back to his time in Atlanta, GA. Zach and Ann sat together in Ann's living room and discussed her story, the story of her book, and a few of the stories in her book.
Beautiful hardback copies of Ann's book can be purchased in-person or by mail from the Bell County Historical Society. Copies of the newly published Best of Gateway, which Ann worked on as a member of the publication committee, are also available. Contact the Bell County Historical Society at 606-242-0005 or P.O. Box 1344, Middlesboro, KY 40965. Proceeds go to support the work of the BCHS.
This week, Zach welcomes his dear friend Ben Barnett. Ben and Zach sat in Zach's study and talked for a long while about Ben's Roman Catholic faith. Ben is originally from Bell County, KY, where he and Zach both live. He is a faithful member of St. Julian Catholic Church in Middlesboro, where he handles all things IT and A/V, and volunteers widely in the life of the parish.
Some funky wintry weather kept us from meeting in person today at First Baptist Church. This special episode of Let's Talk is a fun look at the culprit: snow. Where does the word "snow" show up in the Bible and how is it used? That's the focus of this podcast episode. For reference as you listen along, the 23 occurrences of the word "snow" or "snows" in the Bible are these: Exodus 4:6, Numbers 12:10, 2 Samuel 23:20, 2 Kings 5:27, 1 Chronicles 11:22, Job 6:16, Job 24:19, Job 37:6, Job 38:22, Psalm 51:7, Psalm 68:14, Psalm 147:16, Psalm 148:8, Proverbs 25:13, Proverbs 26:1, Proverbs 31:21, Isaiah 1:18, Isaiah 55:10, Jeremiah 18:14, Lamentations 4:7, Daniel 7:9, Matthew 28:3, Revelation 1:14.
Last week, I said in the course of my wonderful conversation with Tony Maxwell, "Whatever else religion is, it is relationship." In this episode, I elaborate on that claim. This fifth episode, like the previous four, continues to give shape and definition to the stated purpose of this podcast experiment: to seek "meaningful and transformative dialogue with both listeners and guests through a wide array of subjects."
Please feel free to be in touch with me at zach@fbcmiddlesboro.org.
This week, Zach talks with his good friend Tony Maxwell. Tony is a longtime educator with Middlesboro Independent Schools and Lincoln Memorial University. Zach and Tony dialogue about the first and most critical component of transformative education: a real and mutual relationship. Tony is a graduate of Lincoln Memorial University. He earned a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree from East Tennessee State University in 2007.
[The windchime you hear at the beginning and end of the podcast episode is a testimony to the enduring power of relationship. It was gifted to Zach when his beloved grandmother, Ruby LaMonda, died. She loved to sing, and her chime has hung from Zach's porch and sung with the wind for six years now. Today--January 5, 2021--is the sixth anniversary of Ruby LaMonda's death.]
I'm reading--and very much enjoying--Frederick Buechner's 2017 book The Remarkable Ordinary. When the wind blows, I hear Mamaw Ruby's wind chime out on the back porch. The two fit together quite nicely.
Zach's in-laws are in town for the holidays. In this one, he interviews his father-in-law Glen, a longtime elder of Glen Ellyn Bible Church in Glen Ellyn, IL. Glen and Zach discuss ministries FBC Middlesboro and GEBC have for and with people experiencing poverty in central Appalachia and suburban Chicago.
A listener asked, "Do you believe there is a difference between "religion" and "spirituality?" Let's talk about it in this episode.
Please always feel free to submit your questions for future episodes of Let's Talk. You can do that by emailing me at zach@fbcmiddlesboro.org.