Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Conviction or Commandment? An Honest Look at Common Christian Beliefs
61 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, Dan Sanchez and pastor Ridley Barron talked about the nature of personal convictions within Christianity and how they influence behavior and community interactions. They explored the difference between biblical commandments and personal convictions, emphasizing the importance of not imposing personal convictions on others. Through discussions on prayer postures, Sabbath observance, and the importance of attending a local church, they highlighted how these practices can vary among individuals while maintaining the core objective of fostering a deeper relationship with Christ. The conversation aimed to encourage listeners to reflect on their own convictions and seek a balanced approach in their spiritual lives.
Timestamps:
01:26 Importance of addressing sensitive and theological topics
04:01 Discussion on prayer postures and personal convictions
06:42 Story of the baseball team and church attendance
10:20 The significance of local church attendance
14:32 Personal experiences and benefits of being part of a local church
21:52 Observance of the Sabbath and its different interpretations
25:28 The role of quiet times and journaling in spiritual growth
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Podcast
00:00:01
grovehillchurch
Welcome back to the Grove Hill church podcast. I'm Dan Sanchez and I'm here with pastor Ridley Baron. And today we're talking about a fun topic. It's, it's funny.
Discovery of Social Media Post
00:00:09
grovehillchurch
Cause my, ain' my wife, Amy showed me something on Facebook that was scrolling through social Facebook, like a meme post or something that you had reposted Ridley. And as soon as I read it and we had a conversation about, I'm like, oh, I'm going to ask him that on the podcast. She's like, please don't. I'm like. Yes.
00:00:27
Ridley
Yes.
00:00:27
grovehillchurch
I need to talk to him about it now. It's like, we got to find out.
00:00:30
Ridley
Yes. And for those of you who are just listening and out watching, you need to see this evil grin that Dan has on his face while he's talking about this.
00:00:32
grovehillchurch
So.
00:00:38
Ridley
He knows what he's stepping into.
Openness to Sensitive Topics
00:00:40
grovehillchurch
Yeah. because there are touchy subjects in Christianity. um But I think I've heard you enough, Ridley, to say like, I'm not afraid to talk about hard things or sensitive things or anything like this.
00:00:47
Ridley
ah
00:00:54
Ridley
right
00:00:54
grovehillchurch
um So I've had a ah ah pretty strong sense and a feeling of safety. So I really appreciate that about you, Ridley, that you're you're really never afraid to talk about things, whether it's theological things, social things, emotional things. I feel like we've in the different meetings, the podcasts and trainings that I've been in with you, you've been, you've been there and you've wrestled with us.
00:01:14
Ridley
Right.
00:01:14
grovehillchurch
And I just really appreciate that about your, your leadership.
00:01:16
Ridley
Thanks. Appreciate that.
00:01:17
grovehillchurch
Um, because then more questions get brought to the forefront and then we get to wrestle with them together.
00:01:20
Ridley
All right. Absolutely. Yeah, and that's what I desire.
00:01:24
grovehillchurch
So
Genuine Relationship with Jesus
00:01:26
Ridley
I feel like, ah I mean, my my ultimate goal as a pastor is to lead people into a deeper relationship with the real Jesus Christ. And I think a lot of that is inhibited when we set up mile markers and goals and you know role models that aren't really legitimate based on scripture. So ah let's take down some of those facades and get away from some of those pieces of misinformation that we gather supposedly from scripture. And let's get back to real real things that Jesus called us to.
Convictions vs. Obligations
00:01:54
grovehillchurch
So before I get into what the social post was, the topic that we're talking about is around convictions, convictions, which is things that you feel strongly you need to obey um that not necessarily everybody needs to obey.
00:02:11
Ridley
Right.
00:02:11
grovehillchurch
um We all have conviction. Some of us don't even realize we have the conviction and that's where things get a little messy with convictions is when you think there's a specific thing like a thus saith the Lord and this like everybody should be doing it this way this time.
00:02:16
Ridley
Mm-hmm.
00:02:25
grovehillchurch
There are certainly things that the Bible points out like yes, all Christians should do this or do it this way. There's there's a a reason for this. But then there are other things that but even that we largely accept as a a Christian culture sometimes that are actually probably more conviction than it is gospel, because it's not in the Bible, but it's things that we hold to. um So how do you how do you feel about that topic in general, Ridley, when it comes to convictions? And do you have any convictions that you hold to that you know don't necessarily apply to others?
00:02:55
Ridley
um yeah Yeah, I think it's a good topic because again, The ideal for us as we are being disciple makers is that we are introducing people to what's really biblically based information for our lives as opposed to ideas and concepts that sometimes might be loosely based in scripture but we pull them out and try to make them rules for which to live our lives by.
00:03:17
grovehillchurch
Yeah. Yeah.
Traditional Practices in Prayer
00:03:19
Ridley
A real simple one that somehow gets adopted and passed down through all these generations is that the only proper way to pray is to bow your head and close your eyes. um
00:03:28
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:03:29
Ridley
you know and And I've even had people at times come to me and say, so-and-so didn't bow their head during the prayer. And I'm like, so? you know um I mean, that if you read scripture carefully, there's all kinds of different proper stances or whatever that are allowed, lifting and looking towards heaven, your eyes towards heaven, lifting your hands, getting on your knees, laying on your face. um Of course, you can bow your head and close your eyes. There's all kinds of things. I think the idea behind each one of those is what is the proper expression of your emotion at that moment.
00:04:01
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:04:02
Ridley
And the idea behind closing your eyes is not because it makes it more reverent, it's that it removes distractions for you as you're getting ready to pray.
00:04:09
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:04:10
Ridley
So if removing your distractions means keeping my eyes open and looking towards the heavens, then that's that's a better stance for you. So i you know there' there have been many Sundays. on This may shock some people who are listening to our church. There's many Sundays when I do that last prayer, I intentionally do not close my eyes. I'm looking around the room looking for the work of the Holy Spirit in people's lives, people who may be ready to respond to whatever. And I will see other people looking back at me and they are quickly averting their eyes because they're scared. The pastor just called them looking and i you know I don't care about that kind of stuff because it's not a conviction that I have.
00:04:44
Ridley
so
00:04:45
grovehillchurch
That's funny. I also don't share in that person that conviction. I think I like to pray prayer walk. And so that would be detriment.
00:04:52
Ridley
Oh, yeah. That would be a bad move, Dan.
00:04:55
grovehillchurch
So yeah, be bad.
00:04:58
Ridley
I could hit him poorly.
00:04:59
grovehillchurch
I almost feel like that one. I'm like, did parents invent that just to keep their kids focused at the dinner table?
00:05:04
Ridley
Yeah, who knows?
00:05:04
grovehillchurch
I'm like wondering where that came from, but it's something that we've all done.
00:05:06
Ridley
Yeah. Yeah, because we always talk about folding our hands, too, when we pray.
00:05:09
grovehillchurch
Holding hands.
00:05:11
Ridley
And, you know, maybe there's some parent just saying, keep your hands off your brother and sister and close your eyes.
00:05:11
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:05:16
grovehillchurch
Close your eyes for just 30 seconds while I get this prayer out.
00:05:17
Ridley
Yeah, yeah.
00:05:18
grovehillchurch
Right.
00:05:19
Ridley
yeah
00:05:20
grovehillchurch
Um, again, it's, it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. Um, most convictions are good things. Like I've, I've rarely heard of convictions that are like ah detrimental, though I'm sure they exist. They're, they're almost always good things are in alignment, but it's when we make them law for everybody that they can start to
00:05:33
Ridley
but
Story of the Baseball Team and Legalism
00:05:37
Ridley
bright and And that's the key. I think all of us have convictions. The question is, are we trying to force our convictions on everybody else without a real true biblical background for it?
00:05:37
grovehillchurch
get a little weird now.
00:05:43
grovehillchurch
Yep.
00:05:46
grovehillchurch
Yep. The post that I saw yesterday you had reposted was somebody else's post. And it was, it's a great little story about a a team, a baseball team in Mississippi that had to forego, I think it was a pre-championship game because one of their teammates ah couldn't attend the game because they needed to attend church because apparently it was scheduled, you know, probably Sunday morning.
00:06:03
Ridley
Yep.
00:06:10
grovehillchurch
um And they did everything they could. They were ready to play one player down, which means they were ready to go and take a miss and ah's a miss on that bat and probably whatever field position they were out.
00:06:17
Ridley
Yeah.
00:06:21
grovehillchurch
They were ready to not have that position, which is a big thing to forfeit.
00:06:24
Ridley
Yes.
00:06:24
grovehillchurch
Like for any baseball team to be down one man and a competitive final game team is big.
00:06:27
Ridley
Yes.
00:06:29
grovehillchurch
But I guess the the the other team like pushed and held to the rules, which is if you're down the teammate, you can't compete. So they had to forfeit the game out, right? even though they were ready to play with the player down.
00:06:42
Ridley
Right.
00:06:42
grovehillchurch
um And the post was really kind of nice and he was like, you know, good job for holding to, your for going to church and holding God above the game.
00:06:50
Ridley
Right.
00:06:51
grovehillchurch
And I read it and I smiled and I'm like, yeah, I had the whole like chariots of fire feel to it.
00:06:55
Ridley
yeah
00:06:56
grovehillchurch
You know, it's like, God makes me fast kind of moment, you know, like, like, I want to honor God before I honor, before I do this thing.
00:07:00
Ridley
Right, yep.
00:07:04
grovehillchurch
So what, what was going through your head as as you reposted it, Ridley?
00:07:08
Ridley
um You know, I was kind of reading that from from a lot of different angles. Number one, very proud of a young man who stood by his convictions. You know, I don't fault him or his family. If that's their conviction, their child needs to be at church every single Sunday, then good for them. I don't think you can ever go wrong by being at church, but you can go wrong by making it legalistic. So that's a danger you can run into.
00:07:29
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:07:32
Ridley
For his teammates, I was very proud of them because it seems like they handled it well.
00:07:36
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:07:37
Ridley
It would have been real easy for those guys going, hey, you cost us the championship because of your silly convictions or whatever. And maybe some of that's going on. We just don't know from the story. But kudos to a coach or a parent, whoever wrote that, saying we're proud of you for standing up for your convictions. um Very frustrated, ticked off at a bunch of league officials who punish a bunch of kids because somebody else stands for their convictions.
00:07:59
grovehillchurch
yeah
00:08:04
Ridley
um I'm going to go ahead and say this. If the kid had said, I can't be there because I'm marching at LGBTQ rally, I'm pretty sure they probably would have made an accommodation for him so that they wouldn't get any kind of force, you know, pushback from somebody else.
00:08:07
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:08:17
Ridley
um I'm at that place where I feel like the church gets a bum rap on a whole lot of things and other people get a lot more grace than we do.
00:08:21
grovehillchurch
Yep. Yep.
00:08:25
Ridley
But all that to say, again, the convictions of that family, kudos to them, I applaud them. um And I applaud them for not, you know, making a big deal of the fact the rest of the team didn't choose to go to church that day. I imagine out of at least eight other boys, there were probably a couple other little Christians on that team, but they just had not chosen to be at church that day. So a lot of things to be talked about there and and a lot of lessons to learn about how we apply our convictions without stepping on the grace that others have been issued.
00:08:57
grovehillchurch
d But this is a this is a very common conviction it has been for at least a hundred years hence it's in chair It's a fire right because that's the conviction um So this goes back a long way like church attendance on Sunday being It's it's it's not as we know it's not a sin But it feels like a sin if we Mitch Church, especially for something like going to a baseball game I don't I don't really know where that comes from
00:09:01
Ridley
Yes. Right. Right.
Sunday Attendance Roots
00:09:21
grovehillchurch
I gotta imagine that stems all the way back to the Catholic Church to some some degrees.
00:09:25
Ridley
Yeah.
00:09:25
grovehillchurch
They probably do have a rule on it.
00:09:26
Ridley
Yeah.
00:09:27
grovehillchurch
In fact, I know they have a rule on it.
00:09:28
Ridley
yeah I would think so. I would think if you go all the way back to the time before the sale of indulgences in the Catholic Church and the Dark Ages and those kinds of things, they were probably, because the Catholic Church tends to be a much more legalistic form and expression of Christianity, that they probably did have some kind of rules where even better church attendance maybe be absolved you of any sinful behaviors that you, you know, done or whatever. So there's probably some connection there. I don't think you can take it back to the early church. I don't see Paul sitting around at a church in emphasis going, hey, where's Dan this week? He he didn't show up. you know um I don't think there was that kind of formality to it. In fact, if you want to ask me about my convictions regarding Sunday, ah you might be surprised that as a pastor, what I would say to you is that what the Bible really commands us is that we should be engaged as a church every day of the week.
00:10:20
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:10:21
Ridley
but that doesn't mean you have to be at the church every day of the week.
00:10:24
grovehillchurch
Right.
00:10:24
Ridley
um And we have this opportunity, I mean, through our small groups, through our Bible studies, our discipleship groups, even just through being neighbors with people to be the church and be engaged as the church without necessarily having to check a list that says, I went 52 Sundays of the year last year.
00:10:42
grovehillchurch
I like to, it actually ties in well with like the series you're going through on acts because you're getting a good picture of like what church would have looked like in the early days. And then it have like, I mean, I think they had a day called Sunday, but it's not like when they did church, they were doing church multiple times a week, probably having Bible studies, getting together, communicate community.
00:10:54
Ridley
Right.
00:10:58
Ridley
Right. Right.
00:11:00
grovehillchurch
It was just like a normal thing where they were getting together.
00:11:01
Ridley
Yeah.
00:11:03
grovehillchurch
And I feel like that to a ah large sense, that's what's going on in Groverville. I mean, I'm there on Wednesday nights, Sunday evenings, well, small group on Sunday evenings, and people have that different days of the week, but, and even going to the soccer field, we're very involved in soccer as lots of Grover's are. So it's like, I'm following up with Grover's and other church members on the soccer field, like all the time.
00:11:20
Ridley
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:11:24
grovehillchurch
I mean, Kyle saw Kyle out there yesterday for the soccer camp. So that becomes part of church.
00:11:28
Ridley
i think as yeah I think as a pastor, a win for me. ah We've got 600 plus people that come to our church. I would rather have 500 people who are there because they desire to be there with their church family than 600 people who are there because they feel like legally they're going to be challenged if they don't.
00:11:43
grovehillchurch
Yeah,
00:11:46
grovehillchurch
obligation, right.
00:11:50
Ridley
We have so many families in our church that are involved in sports, involved in theater. We got several really talented families that were involved in the CMA week a few weeks ago, had to miss the weekend. um I hope they've never for a minute felt guilty and went, we're just really going to think about this. I hope what happens is that while they're standing at the ball field that Sunday or they're at the dance recital or wherever they are, that their thought is, man, I can't wait to get back with my family next week.
00:12:19
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:12:19
Ridley
um Because that's a better expression of what's going on in your heart than checking the list.
00:12:24
grovehillchurch
I will say the one dangerous thing I've seen with church attendance is I guess two points. One, sometimes it's easy just not to go and take ah just take a day off for no reason other than maybe you're tired or it's been busy and you just want a day off.
00:12:38
Ridley
yeah yeah
00:12:40
grovehillchurch
That can really easily become multiple that multiple weeks turning to, you just stop attending church.
00:12:44
Ridley
yes
00:12:47
grovehillchurch
I've seen that happen with friends, you're just like, no.
00:12:47
Ridley
what
00:12:49
Ridley
Yeah.
00:12:49
grovehillchurch
That's one where I'm like, no, it's like if you can, I'm going. Unless somebody's like really sick or something like that, we're generally going to church.
00:12:53
Ridley
Yeah. Right.
00:12:57
grovehillchurch
um Or two, I found the most likely reason people stop attending church is because they move.
00:13:02
Ridley
Yeah.
00:13:03
grovehillchurch
And then they just stop attending.
00:13:04
Ridley
Never get reconnected. Yeah.
00:13:06
grovehillchurch
So I'm like, that's a dangerous place too.
00:13:07
Ridley
Well, you know, I know a lot of good people who are listening to this who who love the word are immediately going to go to Hebrews and pick that verse where it says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. as some are prone to do and even more so as the time becomes you know what it I can't remember the rest of the verse but that's that's a key verse let me let me draw a little bit more clarification to this because my my explanation of that verse would be if Dan Sanchez signs his daughter up for a team where she knows she's going to miss three months of church because she's going to be gone every single Sunday that's a poor choice and I
00:13:44
Ridley
I would say that's not my conviction. I would say that's biblical teaching.
00:13:46
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:13:48
Ridley
That's when you're forsaking the assembling of yourselves together because you know you have intentionally chosen not to be part of church.
00:13:48
grovehillchurch
Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:53
grovehillchurch
That's right.
00:13:54
Ridley
um But if you sign your kid up for a team and let's say Saturday game gets rained out and they make it up on Sunday morning once every three or four weeks or six weeks or whatever, and you have
Commitment vs. Legalism
00:14:03
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:14:03
Ridley
to do something like that, or you get called in to work on a Sunday morning, witness which is a rare experience, then I would say, you know what?
00:14:10
Ridley
that's That's a little bit more of let's give a little bit of grace. Let's not be legalistic about this. In fact, I felt ah think some families have run their kids off from church by being so legalistic about that.
00:14:22
grovehillchurch
when it comes to convictions i actually have a different conviction that I find at least to me it makes more sense and it seems more meaningful and it's not in the Bible at all actually I picked it up from CS Lewis because he had this conviction when I found out about his conviction I was like you know he's right I'm
00:14:32
Ridley
Hmm. Yeah.
00:14:38
grovehillchurch
And then I talked to Amy about it and we kind of all share this conviction now. I'm like, we like going to a church that's relatively close to home.
00:14:42
Ridley
Mm hmm.
00:14:44
grovehillchurch
um I prefer not to drive by three churches on my way to church. um And right now, and I'm okay with driving by a couple of churches, depending, especially if they're like not gospel focused churches.
00:14:48
Ridley
Yes.
00:14:54
Ridley
Right.
00:14:55
grovehillchurch
They're fell if they're flying the rainbow flag.
00:14:55
Ridley
Right. Exactly.
00:14:56
grovehillchurch
I don't even consider that a church.
00:14:57
Ridley
Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:58
grovehillchurch
ah Right?
00:14:59
Ridley
ah way there come with you
00:14:59
grovehillchurch
So. Luckily in Chapel Hill, I don't see any churches flying rainbow flags down here.
00:15:04
Ridley
No, no.
00:15:05
grovehillchurch
Hopefully not anytime soon. um But Grove Hill is the closest church to us right now, which is great. But even if they planted a church in between us, we'd still get a Grove Hill. And I find that that's a meaningful conviction to us because you know distance makes a big difference.
00:15:14
Ridley
makes It me feel better.
00:15:18
Ridley
It does.
00:15:18
grovehillchurch
If you've ever been in a distance relationships, you know that hurts. It makes a difference in being able to see each other often.
00:15:21
Ridley
Right. Right. Yeah.
00:15:23
grovehillchurch
um And it's just so much easier to be in community with people in the soccer league. and
00:15:30
Ridley
Yes.
00:15:30
grovehillchurch
And all the other things, just walking around my neighborhood, I can bump into other people in my congregation really easy.
00:15:35
Ridley
Right, right. ah we We experienced that when we got here and and started this church in Chapel Hill. We actually were living in Spring Hill. For those of you who aren't familiar with the area, Spring Hill was about a 30, 35 minute drive from our home because we live on the south side of Spring Hill.
00:15:48
grovehillchurch
Yep.
00:15:51
Ridley
So every Sunday morning we were making that drive. But even as the pastor of the church, I did not feel as connected to my own church because of that ah that drive. It wasn't our community. And so I wanted to be a part of our community and Lisa and I very quickly made the decision, as soon as we can, we're gonna relocate down there, be a part of the people that we' we're ministering to. And it's made all the world of a difference, not not just in my ability to be a pastor, but our ability as fellow believers to feel like we're a part of this community called Grove Hill Church. um You hear people a lot to who commute to work Monday through Friday, who will commute the same distance to their church or whatever, and they go, well, I'm just used to it. And I'm like, yeah, but you're not really engaged in it. You can't be.
00:16:33
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:16:33
Ridley
And then back to our earlier conversation, then it becomes easier to go, Oh, I don't, I don't feel like driving that far today, or I can't make it back up there tonight after work.
Community Connection Beyond Sunday
00:16:42
Ridley
Cause you just don't have time. Well, then you start to eliminate those opportunities together with other believers and it becomes a habit and a custom rather than a once in a while thing.
00:16:52
grovehillchurch
Now, it's still one of those things that's still a conviction. So it's like, I know we have people even coming to Grove Hill that are coming in from pretty far places sometimes.
00:17:01
Ridley
Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:02
grovehillchurch
And it's not like I go to them and be like, you need to stop going to Grove Hill, start going to a church closer to you.
00:17:07
Ridley
Right.
00:17:07
grovehillchurch
No, that's obviously not the conversation I'm gonna have. It's something I'll talk about.
00:17:10
Ridley
Not at all.
00:17:11
grovehillchurch
There's even times, sometimes where I challenge friends, especially because I want them to come to Grove Hill if they're going all the way to Franklin to some kind of mega church or something, I'm like,
00:17:18
Ridley
Yes.
00:17:20
grovehillchurch
Come on, man. Stay close to home.
00:17:23
Ridley
Right.
00:17:23
grovehillchurch
But sometimes, I don't know, there's variables of like, well, I have a whole home group and it's here in locally in the neighborhood. There's a bunch of us that go to that church. I'm like, okay.
00:17:31
Ridley
Yeah.
00:17:31
grovehillchurch
But you know, so it's, it's nuanced. It's not, it's not a such a biblical thing that it's like a sin necessarily, but I think it's just wisdom and a good idea.
00:17:41
Ridley
And i thought I'm glad you brought that up because it's a great point, Dan, because there are people who, for a long time, who moved to Chapel Hill and were driving to places like Murfreesboro or Franklin, got in that habit because they just weren't solid biblical churches that that they wanted to be a part of here.
00:17:41
grovehillchurch
um But to ill, go ahead.
00:17:57
Ridley
And now that growth feels here, many of them have started to rethink that plan and go, hey, we want to be in a church in our community. And now that we know there's a live and dynamic church here, we want to be a part of it. Some still make that drive, but I get it because they have that connection here. They do have a small group here where they they are getting a daily or weekly close connection with other people here. And and to me, that makes a little bit more sense. um but We had a couple just reach out to me just yesterday saying they they wanted to visit our church starting next week, have been a part of a very strong, very dynamic church in Spring Hill, been making the drive forever. But they said, we finally feel convicted that we really need to be in the and a community church. And I thought, well, that makes good sense.
00:18:37
grovehillchurch
makes a big difference. Just this last weekend, Amy got rear-ended on the Highway 99.
00:18:38
Ridley
Yes.
Personal Story and Local Church Support
00:18:43
grovehillchurch
Apparently lots of car crashes happened on the highway.
00:18:45
Ridley
yes
00:18:46
grovehillchurch
um So that happened. She's fine. The girls that were in the van were fine. But you know it it wasn't it wasn't a it wasn't a small wreck. like It was there's a pretty big wreck. The car that got totaled for sure. And now we're walking through the insurance process and all that kind of stuff. which is even why we're not talking about the sermon today because I wasn't prepared because of all the things I've been dealing with with insurance even an hour before this call.
00:19:08
Ridley
Okay.
00:19:09
grovehillchurch
So here we are. But ah but to kite back to this whole attending a church that's local thing, while she was standing on the side of the road with three of our daughters, at least five Grovers stopped and Recognized Amy on the side of the road and offered help and a bunch of them helped in a bunch of different ways Josh who's a fireman stopped and he's like hey man, I see these all the time Here's the things you need to be thinking about that was helpful for me by the time I got there because I was like I didn't know I haven't been in a wreck like this so um I didn't know how to process it and he gave me some pointers, but a bunch of women stopped and I like took Amy to the grocery store the next day or offered help in a bunch of different ways.
00:19:38
Ridley
yeah
00:19:45
Ridley
Yeah.
00:19:50
grovehillchurch
We were so overwhelmed by the blessings that we didn't even ask for. It's just people saw us on the side of the road and showed up and then later called us when they found out about it. I'm like, that probably wouldn't have happened if I was going to church in Franklin.
00:20:02
Ridley
Absolutely. You're exactly right.
00:20:04
grovehillchurch
Wouldn't have happened.
00:20:05
Ridley
Yep.
00:20:05
grovehillchurch
I mean, maybe some, it's like possible that some Christians would have stopped by, especially with women standing. There were three little girls. Uh, some other Christians might've stopped by and be like, Hey, can we get you like some, you do you need to ride somewhere?
00:20:13
Ridley
but probably would have had no, yeah,
00:20:19
grovehillchurch
Like they would have helped, but it would have been different.
00:20:21
Ridley
right.
00:20:21
grovehillchurch
The relationship makes a lot of things.
00:20:22
Ridley
No previous connection there at all.
00:20:24
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:20:24
Ridley
And, yeah you know, it's a, it's a great point because I think back and still one of my favorite, the video we did on our Easter Sunday service with Cody and Hannah Gardner in there and Cody just made this very simple statement that I think resonated with a lot of people. He said, you know, we found this community of people where, If I need a chainsaw, I just put it on the Facebook and people are offering me their chainsaws. And I've heard no more than, I mean, no less than than a couple of dozen people since then make similar comments about the beauty of our church and the connection of our church, where people are saying things like, you know, if I if i can't find childcare, people in my community group step up and help me out. If my car's not working and I need to get to work, there are people in my church who offer to give me a ride. We're constantly loving on and supporting each other in those ways.
00:21:09
Ridley
So it's it's more than just standing next to somebody while we sing the next verse of a hymn. It's it's about really doing life together and really caring about the needs of each other.
00:21:18
grovehillchurch
So that's why I have that conviction. And I think you share that conviction and but share it with others because I think it's wise, but there's reasons why you might not do that for different times.
00:21:23
Ridley
Oh, absolutely.
Observing the Sabbath
00:21:29
grovehillchurch
Um, another, another actual strong thing that people feel really convicted about, even Vody, um, Baucom, uh, mentioned this, i've I've heard him say this as like keeping the Sabbath. Which is an interesting one to me because the Sabbath looks very, its it actually is very detailed and and straightforward in the Bible, yet looks different than I think how Christians in Western society keep it.
00:21:52
Ridley
Yes.
00:21:53
grovehillchurch
How do you feel about the Sabbath in general?
00:21:53
Ridley
Yes.
00:21:54
grovehillchurch
Because I have some friends that are like, Sundays don't work, don't do anything that looks like work, including sports.
00:21:57
Ridley
All right.
00:22:00
grovehillchurch
And I have some friends that like translated as the Sabbath in the New Testament sense is is an every day of the week thing. It's a resting in Christ thing as as a constant present thing. It's not like a pick a day and don't work thing anymore.
00:22:14
Ridley
I think that the honoring of Sabbath is absolutely essentially a biblical command that we're supposed to have in our lives. I think the expression of it varies for people. um I don't think it needs to be limited to just, hey, Sundays, you don't work and you don't go to restaurants and make people work and all that kind of stuff. um Especially in our culture today where everybody's scheduled or mingled and tangled and people have to work on Sundays to keep jobs, sometimes those kinds of things. um my My daughter, my youngest daughter and her husband, because of their convictions, have chosen to express it pretty literally because they at sunset on Friday through sunset on Saturday don't answer their cell phones.
00:22:54
Ridley
um They don't schedule events. They just hang out together with their daughters and and play games and do things like that. So i while that's not my personal conviction, I'm very proud of them for standing by that conviction. um For other people,
00:23:07
grovehillchurch
That's kind of interesting. That's the more Jewish Shabbat, right?
00:23:10
Ridley
Right. Right.
00:23:11
grovehillchurch
it's that's That's the traditional Sabbath.
00:23:11
Ridley
That's the Shabbat. Yeah. Yeah. And they're Christian.
00:23:14
grovehillchurch
And if you go to Jerusalem, they're really intense about it.
00:23:15
Ridley
They're not Jewish. Yeah. yeah but Let me be clear.
00:23:19
grovehillchurch
I mean, because, yeah.
00:23:19
Ridley
They are very Christian and not Jewish, so they're just choosing to do that.
00:23:22
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:23:23
Ridley
oh
00:23:23
grovehillchurch
Yeah. i There's many Christians that pull over some of the jews the like the old testament or the Jewish ways of doing things.
00:23:26
Ridley
Right. Yeah.
00:23:29
grovehillchurch
Even they're like modern. They're not even old testament. They're like modern Jewish ways of approaching the faith.
00:23:31
Ridley
Yeah.
00:23:33
Ridley
I've heard others express it in a lot of other different ways. Some are some are very literal about I'm not going to go out on Sundays and and make anybody else work or have family meals, those kinds of things. and And I love those traditions. And again, respect their convictions. I was recently challenged and Lisa and I have tried to put this into our lives because, you know, in ministry, you're you're pretty much on call seven days a week. You never know when somebody is going to have a need or have a concern, whatever.
Approach to Personal Quiet Time
00:23:58
Ridley
but um But I actually talked to a counselor once a quarter just to stay ahead of my emotions, those kinds of things.
00:24:04
Ridley
And he challenged Lisa and I. And what we've been doing is every night we've been taking 15 minutes to sit on the back porch. No phones, no TV, nothing, just to sit and chat, which is a smaller version of Sabbath, to step away from the noise and listen to God, to look eye to eye with each other um and allow your soul to breathe for a little bit.
00:24:16
grovehillchurch
Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:26
grovehillchurch
As I know, votey, votey's on the strong. We don't do any work on Sunday's kind of thing.
00:24:30
Ridley
Yeah.
00:24:30
grovehillchurch
It's kind of an interesting take. I'd have to see if he's talked about that farther about why he comes to the conclusion about that, or if he sees it as conviction, or if he says everybody should stick to this.
00:24:39
Ridley
Yeah.
00:24:39
grovehillchurch
That'll have to do some search highs. I always like his, he'll make you think real quick.
00:24:43
Ridley
Yeah. Even if I don't agree with him, he's going to give you some ah valid arguments to cause you to think, that's for sure.
00:24:46
grovehillchurch
yeah yeah
00:24:49
Ridley
But yeah, it would be worth checking into. Um, I, again, I think it's a matter of allowing your soul some space, some, um, we used to call it white space because my family, you know, had the big wall calendar, dry race calendar inside our wall. And we had kids to keep up with all their schedules in my life. Every week would be like, okay, we've got to find some white space, got to find some white space.
00:25:09
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:25:11
Ridley
And it was just a great reminder that even the best of us, no matter how organized we are, no matter young or strong or vibrant we are, whatever, we all need that little bit of space where.
00:25:14
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:25:23
Ridley
Just like in Psalm 46 where God says, be still and know that I'm God.
00:25:28
grovehillchurch
is a great segue into the last conviction that I want to talk about around quiet times or devotional times. A common conviction that people have is that, you know, devotional times need to look a certain way, maybe 30 minutes in the morning with your Bible and a journal and in prayer, right?
00:25:42
Ridley
Right. Yeah.
00:25:45
grovehillchurch
And you walk through that same rhythm seven days a week. But It doesn't necessarily need to look that way. I mean, if you, again, it's always trying to like, I don't know about you, but I'm always trying to look at the word and be like, Lord, show me something that I believe that actually isn't inherent.
00:26:01
Ridley
over not
00:26:02
grovehillchurch
And they might be good things, but ah I might be holding too strongly to some things and not strongly enough to others. so Um, which is why we got to stay in the word all the time. Um, how do you handle quiet times?
00:26:13
Ridley
Well, and you know, that's an interesting one again because the expressions can be so different and varied and I think they they kind of are based off of our personalities. I get asked as a pastor a lot of times, is it better have a quiet time at night or in the morning? Because in the morning I'm rushed. In the night I'm very tired. And my answer is it depends. You know, it depends on you. I know some people are late night people. My wife, she'd stay up till three o'clock in the morning and do work and then sleep till 10 every day if she could. So for her normally, it might be better to have a
Value of Journaling
00:26:46
Ridley
quiet time. But when from the moment she became a mom and and now is in ministry alongside of me, um she's at that place now where she gets up in the morning, she spends a lot of time just sitting in the word,
00:26:59
Ridley
Most mornings before she gets into her day, sometimes because people will call before she gets into it, she'll maybe delay it till later in the day. um I think some people take the approach, I've got to read X number of verses or it's not a real quiet time. I know some friends in the ministry who can literally take one verse and sit and ruminate on it all day long. One of the areas you and I talked about before coming online is the idea of journaling, is being a part of it. I strongly encourage journaling. I tell people, try it out. Let it you know let it be a resource for you to help stir your memories, to remind you of God's grace, those kinds of things. I personally don't journal just because it's never helped me at all.
00:27:41
Ridley
it's more of but It's more of a labor and I feel like I'm being legalistic and trying to do it. So I would rather, my personal quiet time, I do read a couple of chapters in the morning. It's it's ah just a cursory reading. It's not trying to get deep into it because my deep Bible study typically comes in the office. um But it's just to read through some of the great stories of the Bible, think about those, and then just spend a few minutes praying for my day and what it looks like. I've also grown, because ah early on in my life, it was this idea I've got to pray about everything right now in this moment. But now I kind of do like a, it's almost like a start of my prayer at my quiet time in the morning. And then I take the attitude of prayer throughout the day. I would rather do it that way because as people pop into my mind or events pop into my mind, it's easier for me to stop at that moment and pray about those things than to try to sit still and force myself to pray. Again, that's my personality. I'm, I'm very,
00:28:37
Ridley
I don't think I'm ADD, but I'm pretty close to it.
00:28:39
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:28:40
Ridley
And it's hard for me to stay focused for that long a period of time. So it's easier for me and much more effective for me to get into my day. And as I come up against different things and different people to lift them in prayer at that moment.
00:28:52
grovehillchurch
base what we see in the word devotion is kind of like looked it's it's pretty wide but includes certain ingredients that we can see we see regularly in scripture like reading of the word study meditation prayer or worship it can look like any mix of those things and there's more of them um generally Christians know what a sense of those are and it doesn't have to look like a certain time in a certain way it can be a mix of those things or a it can be
00:29:06
Ridley
my
00:29:16
grovehillchurch
um
00:29:18
grovehillchurch
It can be a little different every time, though I do know, generally, it talks about it being wisdom to like have a consistency to it.
00:29:25
Ridley
Yes.
00:29:25
grovehillchurch
Otherwise, if you don't have a consistency to it, it means you're probably not doing it very often, if at all.
00:29:29
Ridley
Right, right.
00:29:30
grovehillchurch
um so that's where That's when you start to build a conviction of what works well for you, and sometimes it becomes a, well, if it works well for me this way, maybe everybody should do it this way.
00:29:34
Ridley
Yep. I do think that's really important. A lot of people will put it this way. You should have a scheduled time, a scheduled place, and a scheduled
00:29:48
Ridley
Agenda, I guess is the best word for it. So for me, most days, 99% of the time, if I'm here in town at my house, I walk into my office at my home. I sit down in my blue chair. I pull out my Bible and I read passages for the day. Um, spend a few minutes praying, um, specifically about the morning of the day, just because I know that's where I'm headed first, you know, into my morning. And then I will get up and move on with my day and continue to pray throughout the day.
00:30:16
grovehillchurch
um dude I did have some thoughts about journaling, because I've also done the journaling thing where you're essentially like, keeping a log of what happened to you that day, maybe it's the most meaningful things.
00:30:25
Ridley
Yep.
00:30:26
grovehillchurch
um Maybe it's just, ah you're just keeping a ah log of what happened chronologically. And I've done that.
00:30:31
Ridley
Mm-hmm.
00:30:32
grovehillchurch
And the value that I get out of doing that is being able to look back to it every once in a while.
00:30:37
Ridley
For sure.
00:30:37
grovehillchurch
um There's something about doing that to kind of get a heighten your memory of actually what happened during that season. You better remember it because you can go back and check it. um But then you see God's grace throughout your life.
00:30:48
grovehillchurch
So that's kind of a powerful thing. I still have some journals from high school and like my early days when I was in the discipleship program that I look back on every once in a while and I'm like, oh my gosh, look what God was doing back then.
00:30:48
Ridley
No, hey.
00:30:57
Ridley
Yep.
00:30:58
grovehillchurch
I forgot about that. It's amazing how much you forget if you don't have that. um Nowadays, I find that my iPhone like picture, picture roll becomes my memory of what happened.
00:31:07
Ridley
That's right.
00:31:07
grovehillchurch
You know, that's like the new way to do it. um And podcasts are being some record a lot of podcasts, but um Now I use journals more for thinking about the future and processing what I'm thinking about right now. So it's almost future oriented.
00:31:20
Ridley
Yeah.
00:31:22
grovehillchurch
Like what, what do I want?
00:31:22
Ridley
Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:24
grovehillchurch
What can I, what do I want something to look like?
00:31:26
Ridley
yeah
00:31:26
grovehillchurch
Whether it's a small thing or I want my future version of Dan Sanchez two years from now. It's like, what does that ideal self look like? What do I not like about now that I'm like, yeah, but what does ideal look like? What am I even shooting towards?
00:31:37
Ridley
Yeah.
00:31:38
grovehillchurch
So actually journal the future, which I've gotten from some authors and I actually really like doing that.
00:31:42
Ridley
That's pretty cool.
00:31:43
grovehillchurch
And I'm constantly changing it because I find that I'm always needing to change something about myself.
00:31:44
Ridley
Yeah.
00:31:48
Ridley
Yeah.
00:31:48
grovehillchurch
So I'm always like, yeah, but okay, but then what am I? What does that outcome look like?
00:31:53
Ridley
yeah
00:31:53
grovehillchurch
I also use it to like think through things and it helps in devotional time just because there's some things that you're like, well, if this is true, and this is true, then what? How does that pan out? So I'll start like writing it out because I can only keep so many ideas in my head at once if they're you're trying to go through a mess, right? If you have a problem you're trying to solve, you're trying to understand something, I find seeing it on a sheet of paper in front of me and words helps me get it out of my head into a place where I can see it.
00:32:09
Ridley
Yep.
00:32:17
Ridley
yeah
00:32:18
grovehillchurch
So that's what I use journaling for. So my journals are all chicken scratch notes. I'm bulleted lists and things like that.
00:32:22
Ridley
Well, and I think it's important we make the connection back to scripture as to the purpose.
Scripture and Memory Tools
00:32:28
Ridley
for for the kind of journaling we're talking about. It it is for this idea of remembering God and His favor and His grace.
00:32:33
grovehillchurch
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:34
Ridley
That's why we have so much of the Bibles because these guys sat down and wrote ah the stories, that especially in the Old Testament, that they wrote and recorded things for us. But also, in those stories, we are reminded that writing is not the only way you're encouraged to remember. There were songs that were sung. In some cases, God told them to build pillars of stone so that they would remember. um So for maybe somebody like mi me, maybe I shouldn't be writing journals. Maybe I should be stacking stones in my backyard or something, you know, just to remind myself of what God's done in my life.
00:33:01
grovehillchurch
Yeah.
00:33:04
grovehillchurch
Yeah, that's a good idea. I could think of a bunch of things that I probably need to remember and now I'm taking a note ah right now.
00:33:10
Ridley
Yeah.
00:33:12
Ridley
yeah
00:33:12
grovehillchurch
Because I do need to remember them in some way. I'm almost thinking about taking some things from those seasons and actually framing them and putting them on the walls as I can remember God's faithfulness in a bunch of different ways.
00:33:19
Ridley
Yeah.
00:33:24
Ridley
Maybe you could scroll through your phone, print out a picture right on the back of it.
00:33:28
grovehillchurch
Print out the picture and put it on there.
00:33:28
Ridley
Here's what I remember about this.
00:33:29
grovehillchurch
Yeah, that's a great idea. Well, red layer we've come to come to the end of this, but it's been a fun conversation about convictions and wisdom and what should we hold fast to versus what we can hold more loosely to, which is a balance for all of us in the faith.
00:33:37
Ridley
Yeah. Try it.
00:33:48
Ridley
Yep, absolutely. Good stuff.
Final Thoughts on Spreading the Gospel
00:33:52
grovehillchurch
So if you're listening to this, remember that our purpose here is to spread the gospel through any means necessary, including this podcast. So share it with a friend, listen to it again. um Be encouraged, see what convictions you have, process through them um to see if there's anything you're holding too tightly to or too loosely to so that we can come together and be more and more like Christ, more and more like what he wants ah each of us to look like.
00:34:11
Ridley
Yeah.
00:34:19
grovehillchurch
So thanks for listening to this episode.