Sermons, side notes, and grounded faith.
The Ridge Weekly carries listeners from Sunday messages into the conversations that surround them. Sermons move through series like Covered and Living Light, while Side Notes adds humor, follow-up questions, and plainspoken theology.
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The Ridge Weekly is the audio home of Chestnut Ridge Church, split between sermon episodes and Side Notes conversations. The format is steady but not stiff. Sermons usually sit inside a named series, including Covered and Living Light. Each message starts somewhere tangible. A heavy Sunday newspaper becomes a way to talk about burdens. A missing Chipotle order before a board meeting turns into a setup for Easter reflection. A Good Friday service begins with practical communion instructions and then slows into the weight of the cross. These ordinary details keep the teaching grounded. The biblical focus stays direct. Recent episodes center on Jesus as the Lamb of God, the Last Supper, the resurrection, forgiveness, sin, baptism, communion, and the promise of new life. Side Notes changes the room temperature. Adam Etrus brings in Tim Herring or Josh Rhodes for questions, jokes, corrections, and longer explanations that do not always fit neatly into a Sunday message. Those episodes are informal, but they are not throwaway banter. A question about John the Baptist can lead to the Essenes, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and why Jesus was baptized. A question about being covered or cleansed can lead into Sheol, Paradise, resurrection, and what Christians believe happens after death. The show is comfortable admitting when a question sounds simple but carries a lot of theology underneath. It also makes room for church-family emotion, especially around Easter baptisms and stories of lives redirected through ministry. The tone is warm and local. The teaching is accessible, but it does not flatten the sacred material.
Made for: For Christians connected to church life, sermon series, Bible teaching, and pastoral conversation. It also suits listeners who want theological ideas explained through everyday stories rather than academic distance.
What sets it apart: The Ridge Weekly stands out by pairing Sunday messages with companion episodes that keep the after-sermon questions in the room. Its strength is the movement between ordinary church details and serious biblical themes.
Podcast by Chestnut Ridge Church
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Patient biblical teaching gains a conversational second pass through Adam Etrus and Josh Rhodes' focused Side Notes exchanges.
The Ridge Weekly moves between Sunday sermons and Side Notes conversations that carry the teaching into a looser exchange. Sermons work patiently through Scripture, while programming director Adam Etrus brings senior pastor Josh Rhodes back to questions raised by the message.
A pocket pepperoni roll, then a serious question about God's justice: that's your kind of church chat.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A relaxed church conversation connects Stonewall, the Essenes, John's wilderness, and Jesus's baptism to Good Friday.
Side Notes turns Josh Rhodes's week away from preaching into a measured conversation about John, the Essenes, and Jesus's baptism. Adam Etrus, the programming director, and Rhodes, the senior pastor, begin with family night in Stonewall and a worship service watched on a phone…
A grounded look at John the Baptist, the wilderness, and the Lamb of God.
The Ridge Weekly keeps its focus on John the Baptist, tying him to the wilderness and the Essenes while drawing on Luke 1:80 and the Dead Sea Scrolls to shape that picture.
A storm-shaken morning opens into a grounded conversation about Sheol, sin, resurrection, and Easter.
Side Notes turns an unsettled morning into a workable entry point for theology: a hard weather swing, a nighttime boom at Adam Etrus's house, and the odd detail that his wife slept through it.
Jesus removes sin rather than merely covering it.
This Ridge Weekly message leans into Easter teaching with a clear point: Jesus removes sin rather than merely covering it. It begins with praise for daily Bible reading and a warning about unbiblical, ungodly ideas and false teachers, then moves through Paradise, John the…
Pepperoni-roll banter gives way to Moses, justice, and a plainspoken look at grace and truth.
The episode opens with Josh Rhodes fishing a pepperoni roll out of his pocket while Adam Etrus tries to keep the intro moving, and that loose banter gives the conversation an easy start.
Luke 4 frames the Holy Spirit's presence as active guidance in Jesus' obedience, wilderness testing, and ministry.
This single-episode review centers on the Holy Spirit's role in Luke 4, following Jesus from baptism into the wilderness, through temptation, and back to Galilee in the Spirit's power.
A leaky building and Acts teaching combine into a clear look at church life under pressure.
The Ridge Weekly links a building emergency with a wider lesson on what a church is for. It starts with the men's room leak that affected around 30,000 square feet, then credits Crossroads Property Rescue, the staff facilities team, and volunteers for the quick response before…
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
Live sermons with Easter-shaped urgency.
This episode discusses the importance of cherishing God's Word, drawing inspiration from David's example, as part of a behind-the-scenes look at Sunday messages at The Ridge church.
This episode continues the 'Cover to Cover' series by exploring how biblical character David exemplifies delighting in and living by God's Word to inspire daily scripture reading.
Pastor Arch continues the 'Third Person' series by exploring the Holy Spirit's role in Jesus's life and the early church.
This episode is part three of 'Welcome to the Ridge,' focusing on the church's future vision.
This episode introduces a six-week Easter series exploring how Jesus's blood covers sins, with the host sharing personal childhood injury stories to illustrate themes of vulnerability and covering.
This episode explores Mary as a biblical figure who knew, loved, and lived God's Word, part of a series encouraging daily engagement with scripture.
Brady McDonald and Josh Rhodes of The Ridge unpack Matthew 5:17-20 as a follow-up to Sunday's Sermon on the Mount message.
Adam Etrus interviews Pastor Tim Herring about their emotional Easter experience, focusing on moving baptism stories and the church's impact on lives.
This episode introduces a series on how faith in Christ can help lighten life's burdens, illustrated by a personal story about a heavy Sunday newspaper route.
Adam and senior pastor Josh Rudds introduce a casual episode of Side Notes, discussing their roles at the Ridge church and Josh's post-Easter time off.
A pastor shares a personal story about a Chipotle order mishap to illustrate themes of forgiveness and hope during an Easter sermon series.
This episode is a Good Friday service focusing on the somber reflection of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, including communion and scripture readings.
Josh Rhodes turns a sermon debrief into a Weirton funeral-home story, saying he once lived next to the funeral home, emptied trash, drove a hearse, and led his first funeral after an Eat'n Park meeting.
It starts in Easter season.
Adam Etrus, the Ridge's programming director, talks with founding pastor Tim Herring about week three of the Easter series Covered and John the Baptist's line about the Lamb of God.
Well, the episode opens in the Covered series during Easter season.
Josh Rhodes starts with a pepperoni roll in his pocket.
A church podcast episode where the host and senior pastor discuss deeper questions and conversations related to the Sunday message, focusing on themes like ownership versus stewardship.