After a year-long discernment process, St. James’ Episcopal Church in Lewisburg announces its new ministry team: priest in charge, Rev. Zach Drennen, and priest associate, Rev. Joseph Lutz.
The Rev. Zach Drennen is a native West Virginian with a passion for the outdoors and a love for helping people along on their life’s journey with the Divine. After growing up in Charleston, he studied environmental economics at Colorado College before working on numerous organic farms across the US and South America. In his late 20s, Zach settled back in West Virginia and started his teaching career at a residential school for adjudicated teenage boys. Within a couple of years, he entered Harvard Divinity School to pursue a Master of Divinity and ordination in the Episcopal Church.
Ordained in 2002, Zach spent two years as a curate and assistant priest at The Church of the Good Shepherd in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He then moved to Pittsburg, PA, where he served for three years as the school chaplain and history/religion teacher at The Neighborhood Academy. In 2007, Rev. Drennen left the U.S. for Kenya where he served as an appointed missionary for the Episcopal Church for eight years. During that time, he started and ran The Elewana Education Project, an NGO intent on improving the resources and educational offerings in local Kenyan high schools.
Returning to the U.S. and his native state of West Virginia in late 2015, Zach soon began working on various projects focused on economic development and sustainable energy. In 2022, Rev. Drennen moved with his family to Lewisburg where he teaches humanities classes at the Yew School, a middle school devoted to outdoor experiential learning. Zach is married to Lida Shepherd, and they have three children.
The Rev. Joseph Lutz will continue in his role as priest associate at St. James’, a position he has held since 2021. Joseph is well known to the Lewisburg community, where he has been a resident for almost three decades and recently retired as a Physician’s Assistant at Greenbrier Physicians. Joseph was an elected member of Lewisburg City Council from 2011-2019. After participating in the four-year Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia’s Education for Ministry program and completing a Certificate in Theological Studies from Iona, Seminary of the Southwest, Joseph felt called to bringing the same caring kindness he used in his work as a Physician’s Assistant into pastoral care. Ordained in 2021, Joseph leads St. James’ pastoral care initiatives and works in partnership with Father Zach to lead services. Joseph has five adult children and is married to Barbara Wygal Lutz.
For more information about St. James’ Episcopal Church, visit www.lewisburgstjames.org.
