During early spring of 2020 Devin Birdsong, pastor of a church in central Oklahoma decided to buy a piece of equipment to record messages and testimonies to connect with the congregation he serves as pastor. Born in a pastor’s home, Devin got a glimpse of the ministry that few people have enjoyed. He saw men who carried the glorious news of Christ live out the principles that they had preached. With that background, he decided to start a podcast as a way to share other people’s stories. Thus, Pod’N Me was started. Devin’s original plan in the beginning was to release an episode once a month.

The expectation wasn’t in the beginning that many folks would listen so Devin decided to act as if there was only one listener, who he named Hershall. One day while trying out what the sound quality would be like recording with remote guests, Devin called a friend, Pastor Jud Ingram and said, ‘Let’s record something to see how the sound quality turns out and you be Hershall today.’ Jud agreed and the conversation was recorded with one goal… talk until someone laughs. Devin has always been a lover of humor and Jud made up the fictitious personality of Hershall on the spot. They recorded until one of them broke with laughter. Devin decided to release the episode and Hershall (Jud Ingram) became a new person added to the podcast.

A few months in, he asked Dustin Wakley, a deacon of the church, and Brad Cottrell, the song-leader of the church, to sit down and record an interview. After the first episode was released, they all three felt like it was something that they could see themselves doing on a somewhat regular basis. Their first commitment was an every two week episode. They quickly figured out that there was enough material between the three of them that they could release an episode on a weekly basis.

Over the many months to follow Pod’N Me evolved into the show it currently is with regular visits from Hershall (Jud Ingram), a feedback segment that Brad heads up and some humorous Biblical insights from Dustin Wakley. The podcast has been called by Devin “The Ministry of Low Expectations” as well as a “Virtual Church Service.” The weekly episodes are mixed with lots of humor, oftentimes useless information, as well as some serious talks about faith. The goal is to give the listeners a glimpse of what we experience on a regular basis outside of our regular church services. True fellowship and friendship.