My friends guess what? I'm starting a podcast pasture experience inspired by Psalm 23. This podcast is come out of the seasonal Gatherings and the weekend Retreats that I hold and facilitate in our Tennessee home. What is past your experience? You ask? Well, I founded pasture which is inspired by Psalm 23 as this intimate.Singing experience where women gather for the purpose of deep connection and soul nourishment in my living room environment. And so my hope is that this pastor experience this podcast will offer you just that is your own experience to listen and be honest with yourself to come to know the trinity in a really intimate ways and join Soul nourishing conversations, wherever you are on your spiritual journey on your specific pasture and so here We're going to bridge the beauty between play and contemplation and pasture Experience Podcast will be sort of like Soul Care met spiritual Direction met this deep Whimsy conversation all tethered and connected and rooted in Psalm 23. For those of you who are maybe new to the term Soul Care or spiritual Direction. I think the best way that I could describe this is spiritual direction. Is this Co companioning Journeying with you, wherever you are and your spiritual journey the questions that you're asking the stirrings that you're experiencing the ways that you're hearing and listening to Jesus and the spirit and the father in maybe out of the box ways. And so I'm just honored to get to code Journey with you and that's really what I want. This whole experience to be is is one that is yours that you feel known you feel heard you feel a deeper awareness of God alive in you as you Journey em in your day to day. So that's my hope and my prayer for this podcast with pasture experience and I love to share with you how pasture experience came to be when we felt a stirring to move from California to Tennessee two years ago. I met this really Whimsy Soul. Her name is Kim and she owns the city farmhouse in Franklin and at the time she had this Whimsy Venue at the And she sold her, you know found Treasures that she you know, her hubby found when they went exploring and and and then she had this just this beautiful venue where she would create these spaces and events. And so she invited me to come and share a little bit about my heart about authenticity, especially in the social media world. And so something a bit magical happened that night because 20 women showed up the youngest was probably around 18 and then the oldest Soul was in her early 70s and we gathered at this long farmhouse table and there was wine and nibbles and just in this beautiful environment and we just talked about matters of the heart authenticity. What does that look like to live out faith in the everyday? We talked we had questions. We listen to one another we connected and it was just this really beautiful evening and I came home and I just felt this sense inside of me of what was that? And how can how can I experience that more? And so from there this this idea of pasture started stirring and my spirit and it was something that I know that God had put their even the year before but the the hold the beautiful part about pasture is this this imagery that it brings to mind of this level Green Field where It's full of these cooks and these valleys but there's not this hierarchy. It's not this mountain. It's this it's this safe environment where we all kind of come and we coexist but we're were individually Journey our own path among one another and and that is exactly what pasture experience is inviting you into as how are you experiencing your own pasture journey. And so that's where this idea of pasture kind of came to be and So I just thought how can I do that again? How can I offer these experiences where there's connection and there's Beauty and there's honesty and we're having these Faith conversations about our spiritual Journeys, but it's not necessarily Tethered to a church or a Bible study, but it's it's inviting Jesus and it's almost bringing church outside of the walls. It's inviting him into our living rooms. It's in fighting him on our porch has its its offering Sanctuary. It's offering pasture. ER these experiences in in ways out it just outside of a church. And so I just started praying about what would this look like to offer this experience in the in my community? And I mean women just came out of the Woodworks just saying, I don't know what what what God string but I want to be a part of it and I think that's one of the most beautiful things about this journey is that when God puts something on our hearts, and I know that he's putting things on your heart the beauty of Being into obedience without without even maybe having a plan or a 5-point itinerary, which is new for me. But when people come along and they say I want to support this I want to I want to be champion this the beauty of what that looks like and so women can out of the woodwork and I was talking to my dear friend Rebecca who owns the antique mall in our town in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and I just asked her one day I said, Have you ever thought about holding an experience here? And she just looked right at me and she said I don't know what you're talking about. But I what you know, I want to make I want to make that happen. So whatever you need you may use this Antique Mall as your space. And so for for a fall season, we held pasture experience in this antique mall and women came from the community and we opened up this beautiful space, which is this antique mall. That is held an old gym. And there was Beauty and safety and this longing just to have honest authentic conversations and invite all of us to really just carve out space and listen to ourselves share our stories encourage vulnerability and talk about how how Jesus is inviting us into that in a different context. And so it was a joy to hold these pasture experiences for The Fall season and And I really just felt called to pause for a bit about that time a dear friend of mine Kelly invited me to she was offering up her home to host for a spiritual Direction cohort. So this training is a couple of your training to become a spiritual director and I just knew that when I thought about that idea I felt so drawn to and Alive with that and so I was stepping into this this training program this schooling for to I'm a spiritual director and really just fell up a draw to pause and just listen and figure out if that that's something that I wanted to continue holding in the mall and so an antique mall. And so I just really got quiet for a season and one day we were at cohort with a small group of us and I found myself talking about pasture and chest feeling so alive about the need to have those safe spaces to wrestle and Confess and share openly and be messy and know that God is doing a deeper work in that but but where do we find those spaces and and I know that that is in the context of offering up a pasture experience. And so I found myself crying saying I know that I want to I want to do this, but I suddenly feel like just this need to intentionally shrink the room even more at that time. We were having about 65 women coming to the pass. Your experiences and I and I just felt like gosh that's so beautiful, but I didn't want it to become another event. I think so often we have events where people can easily, you know, come in the back and sit in the sit in the back row and not engage and you can come and you can listen but but you don't leave feeling known and my heart beat really is that by shrinking these experiences that women can come and sit in a circle and look in one another's eyes and be listened to and Heard without feeling like they need to be fixed that they could bring the matters of their heart in a safe context and we could wrestle and we could journey and here one another where where are you most resonating with your pasture experience? You know, where does God have you and your own journey and and leave feeling known and and like there was an experience instead of this being an event. And so I just really began like listening to that and praying about that and I paused for a whole year and I knew I knew when the time had come that I that I realized. I want to offer these experiences in my living room and I want to keep it at no more than 12 women and this podcast is for men too because it's about you know, Soul nourishment and our Journeys and honest conversations, but I knew that those experiences I wanted to be intimate because I believe that's where healing truly begins as when we can say I want you. No all of me and watch you not walk away. I want you to hear my heart and know that I say I'm I don't need to be fixed. I don't need a versed tagged on the end. I don't need a bow. I just need to be offered a safe space to be heard and listened to and to really invite us to do that hard work of listening to ourselves first talking with that with Jesus and then going to people last and so I prayed about this. That and I just realized that I really do believe that that small is sacred and that something beautiful happens in a safe intimate group. We're healing and being known can happen in the context of Psalm 23, and so I sort of shifted that vision from the Antique Mall into our living room and began holding local Gatherings for those that are in Tennessee in the fall and in the spring and then I had people reaching out saying I want to Soul Care time, but I'm in Texas, or I'm in Missouri. Would you do a weekend retreat? And so I thought oh my gosh, I'd love to so I had our first Soul Care weekend retreat last April and our home and I had women come and fly in from all over and it was just this really beautiful space of inviting inviting us to listen, you know, sort of turn that that lift let listening that talking upside down and And we gathered and we connected and there was wine and we're in our living room and there's wild flowers and my boys are helping set the table and my husband was cooking all these incredible meals and it was just a weekend intentionally carved out to listen to ourselves getting that rhythm of listening to to what God's saying and then listen to one another stories. We had a time of confession. We had a time of Celebration we had space. Just go and be and recharge and something in me. Just I just realized I want to offer this all the time and so amazingly enough it brings us to this moment right now because one of the one of the souls that was at the weekend retreat called me recently and and side note When We Gather one of my values for pasture is that we don't talk about what we do. We really do a lot of Of the Interior listening we focus in on the heart and it's so easy to focus on our circumstances and you know our jobs and our roles, but I really try to invite us to you know, one of our values as we don't talk about our jobs or what we do and so she called out of the blue and said Becca. I came home from that weekend feeling so alive and Experiencing God in such out-of-the-box unique ways, and she was telling her boss. Who unbeknownst to me is a media producer and he said I don't know what Becca needs but I want to sew on hurt so into her Ministry and so would you offer her could we gift her podcast? And so you guys I'm here so humbled, but just so honored that I get to meet with you wherever you are. If you're if you're driving if you're on a walk if you're if you're sitting in a hospital bed recovering. That that this literally has been gifted to me and it is my joy to just turn it around and offer it at back to you as a gift. I think it's really beautiful when God sees our heart and he funnels us into who he wants us to be so that he ultimately gets the glory and this is one of those moments and so I am recording this in a studio that was gifted by bhima media Studios, which is just south of Nashville. And they're amazing staff has just been such a gift. And so I humbly say thank you and I think it's just one most beautiful parts of the story. And so this podcast is a gift and it's my joy to offer it back to you as a gift gift. And so what can you expect with listening to pasture Experience Podcast? You know, why would you want to join us here? And and here's really my heartbeat. My heartbeat is to take the The culture that we have right now the culture that we we talked at one another and we listen last and I want to take that and I want to turn that upside down. I'm a bit of a status quo Shaker upper if you will and so a lot of my journey has been one of desperately needing a safe space to wrestle and process and listen and I think that unless we intentionally make time for that. It's so much easier to Listen to other people first and I think that there's an incredible voices out there from pastors and influencers and speakers. But but really my my challenge of my encouragement and my invitation offering to you is to gift yourself the permission to listen to yourself first to listen to yourself because in listening to yourself you then get to talk with God about that about all the matters that are stirring up in your heart. and then the confidence that he tethers in you the ways that he speaks and he meets you the ways that you will experience his presence and his protection and his provision in your journey that will tether you in a way that that no matter who says what he will be unshakable because you know his voice and you've done the hard work of really listening and staying and listening, you know first for yourself and then when You go to people they're like the cherry on top because we get to go to enjoy them and being community and share Soul nourishing conversations and encourage one another but my heartbeat and my prayer really is to turn that that ID upside down. So we first come to listen and then we we do the talking and we listening to others lastly. And so the way that I'm going to set up these these podcasts. This is sort of our Trailer our intro if you will and then the next episode will be this listening offering that you and I will be having a conversation but a lot of this is going to be me asking you questions and just offering you sometimes space sometimes quiet to really do a lot of that pondering and processing on your own, you know having conversations with God listening to him offering yourself quiet. And then the next episode will lead up to a conversation with somebody that I'm inspired by in their Journey that has to do with the episode before so that's sort of how I'm going to set up these times that we're going to listen first pay attention to what's going on inside of us and then I'll invite us to join this Soul nourishing conversation with a guess that I've invited on which I cannot wait to introduce you to some of the people that we have they are. Incredible and have life experience and ironically so many of them would we had conversations shared about their experience with experiencing peace and hearing God's voice the majority of that came in the hardships and in the Stillness and in the unknowns and I just think there's a hunger that so many s of so many of us have to know him and experience. Hope glimmers and we're looking for those. Relations and so my hope is that you will find that here in this space. I'm so and then at the end of every every podcast I'm going to close us just by reading Psalm 23 over us just really inviting you to pay attention and notice where you most resonate in your own Journey knowing our pastures going to change constantly, you know, I think it's no accident that when David wrote this prayer he you know talks about like how God makes us lied. Noun, and then he leads Us beside Still Waters and there's you know, there's a part where were all at the dark Valley but ultimately God is inviting us to the banquet table with him to no mercy and to dwell in his home forever. And so I will just be ending that time with us reading Psalms 23. I'll ask questions. If you are a journaler I invite you to maybe get a journal and you know write down some of these nuggets or if you're in the carpool line, maybe write a quick note on. Your phone just to kind of go back and pay attention to later. But really this is your space. This is this is something that I'm inviting you into but we're going to journey together. And so I invite you to let it be what it feels most congruent most organic for for your processing and then we'll just continue that Rhythm that listening and then conversations and then listening conversation. So, how can you find out about this? I would invite you Subscribe to pasture Experience Podcast, wherever via whatever podcast app you are most comfortable with you can also find it on my website which is pasture experience.com. And you can also find out where the local and the weekend retreat. Those are as well in Tennessee. And then you can also go to my website at Becca poke.com again, I just if you resonate with any of these conversations or the topics that were talking about I invite you to share it with people that you love and again, I know your time is so precious. And so really if you hear anything in this in this podcast experience, it's I just really want to invite you to listen to yourself because God's already speaking to you and it's probably in completely out of the box ways and there's nothing like this confidence that comes when we really tether ourselves and know him. In our unswayed, even when circumstances would say otherwise, so that is that is my heartbeat for you, and I'm just so excited to get to Journey with you. I would love to close our time before I read Psalm 23 with one of my favorite quotes by Madeleine l'engle her book walking on water. It's amazing. So She says in a very real sense not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work to bear his glory if we are qualified. We tend to think that we have done the job ourselves. If we are forced to accept are evident lack of qualification, then there's no danger that we will confuse God's work with our own or God's glory with our own and that is my heartbeat. Is that as we journey this together will realize that He does all things in it's nothing that we need to do on our own. And then in closing I just invite you wherever you are today just to maybe just to start paying attention kind of get in the Rhythm that we're going to be by listening to Psalms 23 as I read this over you notice where you resonate notice where the shepherd is meeting. You notice where your heart kind of comes alive at that hearing these verses Psalms 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I have all that I need He lets me rest in Green Pastures. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along the right paths bringing honor to his name. And even when I walk through the darkest Valley, I will not be afraid for you are close Beside Me Your Rod and your staff protect and comfort me you prepare A Feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor Me by anointing my head with oil my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. Thank you for joining us Grayson space to you today friends.
Hi Friend! Welcome to Episode One of Season One of Pasture Experience Podcast. I'm Bekah Jane Pogue and am so honored to journey with you. This podcast emerged from the retreats I host + facilitate in our near-Nashville, TN home. This is your invitation to be honest and listen to yourself, know God's voice, and join soul-nourishing conversation's, wherever you are on your Psalm 23-inspired "pasture" journey. A bit like soul care + spiritual direction + a whimsy conversation! In this 23-minute episode, I'm sharing the story behind how Pasture Experience came to be; how this has evolved from a local meet-up, to gathering at the Spring Hill Antique Mall, to weekend retreats. And now? It's my humble honor to turn this back around and offer this time to YOU as a gift. What can you expect here? 100% honesty. This is a safe space to wrestle, ask all the questions, and not feel like we have to have the answers. Just our own personal experiences of how God is meeting us in our current pasture season. Anticipate the initial episode to bring us into listening to ourselves and God. The following episode will be a soul-nourishing conversation with a guest about that very topic. This intentional rhythm will be throughout Season One: listening and then talking, listening and then talking. :)   I'll close every episode by reading Psalm 23. Notice where you resonate with the pasture. Today. Hoping you feel known and loved here. Grace & Space, Bekah  Show Notes: Listen/watch on YouTube Learn more about Pasture Experience Find out more information on my website: www.BekahPogue.com Instagram: @BekahJanePogue Buy Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle Buy Choosing REAL Book Buy Choosing REAL Devotional Thought Journal  Humble thanks to: Bema Meda Production + Team Andrew Cache, Editing Sel Thomson, Graphic Designer Jeniece Harris, Original Art Kim Leggett, City Farmhouse Rebecca Stilwell, Owner of Spring Hill Antique Mall (SHAM)      ---   Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bekah-pogue/support 