Home : The Voice : April 2002  

Penuel Ridge: A Place
for Messages of the Spirit

by Ray Waddle

For half the morning on a bright recent Saturday, the Rev. Pat McGeachy led a roomful of retreat-goers in a discussion of the Psalms.

It was a lively exploration of religious joy, anger, yearning. But now it was time to shift the mood.

"How about we take a vow of silence for the next hour and a half, then come back for lunch," declared McGeachy, a local Presbyterian minister, author and musician.

Nobody protested. The idea of keeping silent, a startling notion anywhere else, made sense here at Penuel Ridge Retreat Center. It's why people came for this day-long retreat -- to find a place and permission to be quiet, be still, hear themselves think, or read poetry, or weep about life's burdens, or do nothing at all, and do it with great purpose.

"I found an inner calm there that's so difficult to achieve in daily life," Melissa Garner, a first-timer at Penuel Ridge, said later. "I've been to conferences and seminars, and I usually leave them with a headache because so much is crammed into the day. At Penuel Ridge the pace was slower. I was given just enough to work with and think about. It's revolutionary."

Penuel Ridge, situated on 125 acres in rural Cheatham County near Ashland City, was started in 1983. There were few retreat centers in the region at the time. But even then, before cell phones and e-mail, people complained about the fast pace of modern life. Penuel Ridge's organizers sensed the need in Middle Tennessee for a place of intentional quiet and contemplation, the sooner the better.

Today, when noise and multi-tasking invades more and more on a person's time and spirit, Penuel Ridge draws nearly 1,000 people a year. Some come for the walking trails. Others are drawn to the two hermitages, little huts designed to give a person four walls of solitude. Others sign up for the periodic weekend retreats on various themes, usually day-long sessions or overnight. There is also "The Well," a tiny circular chapel that serves as a point of community and liturgy.

Many say a combination of all these things creates Penuel Ridge's religious alchemy -- a passion for silence, spiritual discernment and social action too.

"It's a space where you can live out of the heart and not just the head, and learn to listen to the direction of your life," said Kathryn Mitchem, a United Methodist missionary who years ago moved next door to Penuel Ridge. She is now a board member and administrative coordinator.

Penuel Ridge takes its name from Genesis 32:30, the name that Jacob gave to the place where he met God face to face in a life-changing encounter. Penuel Ridge aims to "be a place where people can, like Jacob, be alone and silent, and where they can struggle with God," the brochure says.

In nearly 20 years, the retreat center has evolved slowly, patiently, relying on shoe-string budgets and a core group of volunteers, donors and congregational support. Its vision is shaped by interfaith values, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish.

"We were guided by the reality that retreat centers fail if they expand too fast," said the Rev. Don Beisswenger, retired Vanderbilt Divinity School professor and a founder of Penuel Ridge.

It was Beisswenger and his wife, Joyce, who bought the land with the intention of creating a retreat center. By the early 1990s, the couple donated most of the tract to a Penuel Ridge board so the retreat center could grow. The Beisswengers are now retired and live in Nashville but remain on the board.

Who comes to Penuel Ridge? Individuals book time there for the day. Groups of all sorts -- church staffs, hospital workers, non-profit groups -- reserve space for the day or overnight. There are 18 beds. Cost is $20 a person per day, or $25 for overnight, whether they come alone or in a group. Call 792-3734 for more information.

Penuel Ridge also explores connections between spiritual contemplation and social action -- between "the journey inward" and the "journey outward." Once a month or so, a group of homeless people meet there and discuss their own issues, a gathering arranged by Don Beisswenger and others who provide transportation.

"You don't just find God in nature; you find God in the midst of people," Beisswenger said. "It's important to connect with the poor because God cares about people who are struggling, who are sick, who are vulnerable. Homeless people find it remarkable that there's a place of silence and rest for them too."

Little messages of the spirit -- "I will be silent and hear what God will utter within me" -- are framed on the walls of the guest house, which serves as a meeting place for retreats, meals and overnight accommodations.

At McGeachy's retreat in late February, called "The Psalms: Prayer Book of the Bible," participants were at leisure to read, walk, get spiritual guidance or go their own way on the journey of self-discovery. "The commandment most vigorously broken by the human race is the one about the sabbath," he said. "It's not that people don't go to church and synagogue. But the street lights always stay on and the stores stay open, and we just never stop. Penuel Ridge is here to help us stop.'

To get to Penuel Ridge Retreat Center from Nashville, go west on Charlotte Pike to River Road and turn right, then go about 12 and a half miles, then turn left on Sams Creek Road (also called State 249), then go one and one-third miles. The retreat is on the right, 1440 Sams Creek Road.

(Ray Waddle, former religion editor at The Tennessean, is a writer in Nashville.)

Pat McGeachy

<< Previous | Contents | Next >>