Dr. James Emery White

The idea of a hybrid church is simple. When we talk about a hybrid vehicle, we are talking about something that uses two or more distinct types of power, such as a submarine that uses diesel when surfaced and batteries when submerged, or a car that runs on gas and electricity. When we are talking about a hybrid church, we are talking about a church that is also harnessing two types of power—the physical and the digital.

The barracks where Corrie ten Boom and her sister, Betsy, were kept in the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck were terribly overcrowded and flea-infested. Corrie and Betsy had been able to miraculously smuggle a Bible into the camp, and in that Bible they had read that in all things they were to give thanks and that God can use anything for good.

It takes courage to be a parent today. Specifically, to be informed, be involved, and be in charge.

Mecklenburg Community Church (Meck), the church I had the privilege of planting in October of 1992, just celebrated its 31st anniversary. Reflecting on those many years, it struck me that there were six transcendent values that, over the course of much methodological change, provided our sense of true north and were still fueling our continued growth.

Right now, there seems to be more confusion than ever about what it means to be a man. The Kens of the world really don’t know what it means to be a Ken.

Saturday is Veterans Day. It is a well-known American holiday, but one with many misconceptions. So many that the U.S. Department of Defense issued “5 Facts to Know About Veterans Day” in relation to its observance back in 2018. In honor of Veterans Day, and as my own salute of gratitude to veterans, thought it fitting to share the five again.

Many years ago, I read of a pastor who boarded a plane in a pair of old blue jeans and a T-shirt, looking anything but ministerial. He sat down next to a well-dressed business guy who was reading a copy of the Wall Street Journal. They exchanged the usual pleasantries, and then the pastor asked the man what he did for a living

It has long been held that there is a “fourth estate,” or fourth power, operating in our world. It refers to the press and news media. And according to a new Gallup poll, it has lost much of its influence.

I grew up in a day when Halloween was little more than pumpkins, fall festivals, hayrides and dressing up as a pirate or a farmer to go trick-or-treating. And that’s also what it was like for my (now) very post-Halloween-age children. I know its history, but few celebrations in our day are free from pagan roots—almost all had a pagan heritage that was later seized and transformed by a Christian culture.

When people hear about things like a “hybrid” approach to ministry – utilizing both the physical and the digital, in person and online – they are instantly dismissive. It is, to their thinking, missionally inferior. This is, of course, false.

Here are seven ways Disney changed the contemporary church—and for the better.

So what is the story of the modern state of Israel, and why is there so much tension in the Middle East surrounding its existence? As Richard Haass writes in The World: A Brief Introduction, the history of the Middle East since World War II is more often described in terms of various wars than anything else.

It seems as if the nation of Israel is always in the news, but with the recent conflict with Hamas resulting in the worst violence in nearly a decade they are front and center as never before. Many Christians don’t know what to think about Israel. Few have more than a superficial understanding of the Israel of the Old Testament, and how that nation and people factored into things. After that, they really don’t know what became of it.

I once had someone refer to me, a bit condescendingly, as a “scholar” instead of an “academic.” They acknowledged my earned Ph.D., with academic work at such institutions as Vanderbilt in the U.S. and Oxford in the U.K., along with many years of serving as an adjunct and visiting professor at various institutions yet felt the need to point out that I had not devoted my life to the academy.

A yearlong study of more than 1,000 pastors and leaders, conducted by ChurchSalary and the Arbor Research Group on the impact of COVID-19 on the American church, has been completed and the results released.