In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss the recent release of Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study. Last conducted in 2014, the 2023-24 study surveyed more than 35,000 Americans concerning their religious affiliations, their beliefs, and their practices. It is simply the largest and most significant study of its kind in terms of getting a snapshot of where our country is on all things spirituality and religion, and the current health of the American Church. The findings go far beyond what some of the headlines from this study would suggest.

Dr. White released a recent blog on this topic titled “The Stall of the Nones” - the “nones” being the group who identifies as having no religious affiliation. Their numbers have been rising for decades, yet seem to have reached a leveling-off point. (We'd encourage you to check out his book on this subject that was discussed in today's episode titled The Rise of the Nones.) Dr. White mentioned a recent New York Times article titled “Christianity's Decline in U.S. Appears to Have Halted, Major Study Shows” which latches onto that finding from the study. The more notable takeaway from the study that seems to have been overlooked is the fact that the number of people who would identify as Christian continues to decline - from 78% in 2007 to 62% in 2024. That decline is stunning.

As Dr. White noted from the Christianity Today article titled “Pew: America Is Spiritual but Not Religious,” six people have left Christianity for every one who has joined. That is certainly not sustainable. Dr. White stressed the importance of reaching the younger generations for Jesus, and the fact that a solid children's ministry is a vitally important component. He wrote a blog on this topic titled “The Most Important Sub-Ministry In Your Church” that would be worth reading if you missed it.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a recent TikTok trend that involves the promotion of intergenerational estrangement. The buzz language tied to this trend is “going no contact” - when young adult children (specifically Millennials and Gen Z) attempt to solve family issues by essentially ending the relationship and cutting ties with their parents. What many don't think about is how this is in direct violation of one of God's Ten Commandments.

Dr. White is in the midst of a series on the Ten Commandments at Mecklenburg Community Church (Meck) called “Ten,” and the installment on the fifth commandment is particularly relevant to today's conversation - the command to honor your parents. There are sadly so many who struggle following through with this commandment, feeling that their parents are deserving of anything but honor. But so often it's because people misunderstand the deeper significance of what it means to follow through with this command. You can find all the installments of this series at Church & Culture HERE.

There are two other series that Dr. White delivered at Meck that are also very helpful if this is something that you are struggling with. The first is called “Father Figure” and explores the importance of fathers in our lives and in our world, how to fill father-shaped holes in your life, how to find healing from a dysfunctional father, and the real nature and dynamic of God as Father. The second is called “The Sins of the Fathers: Breaking Generational Patterns of Dysfunction,” with installments designed to help you process this pivotal dynamic that is so decisive to a healthy, whole life.

What sparked this episode is an article written by Theara Coleman in The Week titled “'No contact': Family estrangement is on the rise for young people choosing peace.” She writes how people who would advocate for family estrangement are attempting to normalize this behavior in today's culture, hoping that "eliminating the stigma would allow ‘more people to get out of unhealthy family relationships without shame.'" In reality, this is merely an excuse to avoid the hard work of fighting to protect familial bonds. Clinical psychologist Joshua Coleman conducted a study on this in his book Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties and How to Heal the Conflict. He believes that a lot of the issues stem from changed notions about what constitutes traumatic experiences. And David Brooks wrote an article in The New York Times titled “What's Ripping American Families Apart?” that is worth the time to read. His research shows how this trend of estrangement is much more pervasive in the United States than other countries around the world.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss the human desire to live forever. Earlier this year, Netflix released a documentary called “Don't Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever” about a 47-year-old man named Bryan Johnson, who is on a mission to extend his life beyond all known limits in order to have more time with his son. He is so passionate about this, he invests more than $2 million annually to continue to drop his biological age. He's not alone in this endeavor.

As Dr. White mentioned, for people who have a naturalistic worldview, this life is everything. It's the only life. For the Christian, we know that there is so much more to this life. Kara Bettis Carvalho wrote an article in Christianity Today titled “Bryan Johnson Is Going to Die,” which prompted today's conversation. You can read her article HERE. While focusing on health and wellness is important, people often take it to extremes like Johnson. What's most important is that we treat our body well as it was entrusted to us by God. Therefore, we must not fall into the traps of fixating on our bodies nor desecrating them; rather, we are called to consecrate them.

Christianity is more than a worldview or a philosophy. It promises an actual relationship with the living God, allowing the power and presence of God to course through our veins - bringing us back from the living dead. The truth is that the same power that raised Jesus can raise us now. This is something that Dr. White explored in a series given at Mecklenburg Community Church called “The Waking Dead.” You can find that at Church & Culture HERE.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a recent decision from the Starbucks CEO to recapture the coffee company's identity as a “third place” - a place where “community is formed and civility is fostered.” Today's conversation was prompted by an article in The Atlantic that you can read HERE. For many years in the U.S., the church was a key “third place” in people's lives. This is something we've lost, and need to find a way - like Starbucks - to recapture.

The idea of the “third place” was made popular by Ray Oldenberg in his book The Great Good Place. While the home is the “first place,” and work/school is the “second place,” people longed for a “third place” where they could find community, creative interactions, and simply enjoy the pleasure of good company and conversation. As Dr. White noted in his book Meet Generation Z, for the younger generations the “third place” shifted from the coffee shop to the digital world - even to the point that they began to have online house parties and gatherings where they weren't physically together.

Increasingly, though, people are looking for a blend of both - embodied experiences where they can gather together as well as community that they can forge online. This hybrid way of doing life is something that Dr. White explored extensively in his book Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for the Post-Christian, Digital Age. The command that Jesus gave to the Church in the Great Commission makes it clear that we need to be a church that is both reaching people for Jesus and helping them to grow in their faith. Evangelism and discipleship cannot be bracketed off from each other. Dr. White explained this so well in his description of the flywheel that represents the mission that all churches today must be on. If you'd like a really helpful overview of this, we'd encourage you to reach the Church & Culture blog titled “Turning Your Flywheel.”

Finally, for those listeners who live in the Charlotte area, you heard Dr. White mention the Grounds Bookstore and Café at Mecklenburg Community Church. This has increasingly grown as a “third place,” bringing in not only people who attend the church, but also many who are just looking for a really good coffee shop. You can find out more about The Grounds HERE.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss the decline in the sanctity of weddings that seems to be happening in today's culture. Couples today aren't simply adding unique touches to their weddings, but instead are reinventing them with little to no concern for preserving any type of tradition, much less the Christian tradition. The trouble with this is that marriage was God's idea, beautifully described in the book of Genesis in the Bible. So how have we gotten so far off course?

Today's conversation was sparked by an article in the New York Times written by Tammy LaGorce titled “Weddings That Are Out of This World (or at Least Way Out of the Chapel).” She notes that today, “Some couples bring in numerologists or lip print readers, while others choose to be married by a spirit guide or practicing witch.”

This is not the first time that the sanctity of marriage has been discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast. We'd encourage you to check out the following past episodes: CCP38: On Attending Diwali Celebrations and Gay Weddings, CCP76: On the Never Marrieds, and CCP122: On Why People Divorce.

Finally, Dr. White has delivered many message series at Mecklenburg Community Church about marriage and the sanctity of marriage with the goal of helping people to truly understand the significance and importance of holy matrimony. If you're interested, we'd encourage you to check out the following series found at Church & Culture:

Marriage Hacks
Don't Do Stupid: Marriage Edition
The Lies We Believe About Marriage
Holy Matrimony
Marriage Mentoring
And the Two Shall Be Done

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss how when natural disasters strike (like the wildfires currently happening in California), it is fascinating to witness the spectrum of ways in which people claim God's involvement. There are some who express anger toward God, wondering how He could allow such things to happen. Some argue that God must have caused the natural disaster as an act of His judgment. Others praise God for helping them to cope with the losses and the rebuilding of their lives. So which is it? What role does God play, if any? Is He a destroyer? Is He a Savior? Or, put another way, where is God in the midst of pain and suffering?

The need to explain the fallout of natural disasters or other forms of pain and suffering that we all face, is something that every religion or philosophy needs to answer for - not just the Christian faith. Dr. White pulled from several sources that you may be interested in reading that will help you understand who God is in the midst of our pain and suffering, and inspirational stories to help you stay strong in your faith. These include:

Philip Yancey, Where is God When It Hurts?

Philip Yancey, Reaching for the Invisible God

C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking

Dr. White also delivered a series at Mecklenburg Community Church that you might be interested in, to take a deeper dive on this topic. The series is simply called “Why?” with installments that explore: Why Is There Evil and Suffering? Why Me, Why This, Why Now? Why Isn't God Answering My Prayers? and Why Would God Send Good People to Hell? You can find this series at Church & Culture HERE.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a surprising (or not surprising?) shift in the Church in the U.S. At the inception of the early Church, Christianity's promotion of the value of women is what resulted in flocks of women joining the Church. In fact, throughout history, women have predominated the church in number. That appears to be changing. A recent survey conducted by the Survey Center on American Life found that women are leaving the church in unprecedented numbers.

The reasons that this shift should not surprise us, particularly when you do a careful study of both the rise of the “nones” - those who have no religious affiliation - and Generation Z. Dr. White has written books about both of these groups: The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated and Meet Generation Z. The vast majority of Gen Z women identify as feminists (whether liberal or conservative) and find the tendencies of some denominations within the Christian faith to be misogynistic. This has been a huge point of contention within the Southern Baptist Convention, who've made the decision to expel churches for allowing women to serve as pastors within the church. Dr. White referenced an article written by Jessica Grose for the New York Times titled “Young Women Are Fleeing Organized Religion. This Was Predictable.” We'd recommend taking the time to read it in full, as it provides a really helpful understanding of the causes for the recent decline. There was also a past podcast episode on the topic of women serving in leadership roles within the life of the church, including serving as pastors. We'd encourage you to listen to CCP7: On Women in Ministry if you haven't already.

The survey mentioned earlier also found that sadly, many of these young women are gone for good. As the article says, “Studies consistently show that people who leave religion rarely come back, even if they hold on to some of their formative beliefs and practices.” Churches must respond by shifting their focus, or else they risk losing both the strongest core of volunteers (traditionally always women) and the most consistent financial donors. Women need to see other women serving in leadership and teaching roles. Dr. White wrote a blog on this topic titled “Women as Pastors,” which you can find HERE.

Finally, they also discuss how the opposite shift is happening for men - they seem to be increasingly drawn to the church; and surprisingly, to the Orthodox Church. Dr. White mentioned the article titled “Young, single men are leaving traditional churches. They found a more ‘masculine' alternative” that you can read HERE. Men also tend to gravitate toward churches that teach men what it means to be a man in today's culture. Dr. White has delivered several series at Mecklenburg Community Church that you may be interested in checking out. These are Defining Manhood and Man Up

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.