In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss a recent Lifeway Research study which found that despite some disturbing trends in the number of church closures across the United States, 94% of pastors believe their church will still be open in 10 years. Whereas in the 1940s nearly 85% of Americans claimed they belonged to a church, now that number is less than 50%. So what happens to these churches when they close? And what is the outcome for pastors as well as those who considered it their church home?

As Alexis mentioned at the top of the podcast, the decline in Christianity in America has been touched on in more than a handful of past episodes. If you've missed these conversations and would like to go back and listen to them, they include: CCP135: On Women Leaving the Church, CCP105: On Cultural Caricatures of the Christian Faith, CCP100: On Unchristian Christians, CCP94: On the Growing Lack of Confidence in Clergy, CCP32: On a Non-Christian America, and CCP15: On Denominational Decline.

If you are interested in looking at more of the data related to the number of church closings forecasted in the U.S. mentioned in today's conversation, as well as what's being done with houses of worship that have already closed, we'd encourage you to check out these two articles:

Yonat Shimron, “Study: More churches closing than opening,” Religion News Service

Mark Dent, “Can God fix America's housing crisis?" The Hustle

They also discussed how when churches close, it can leave a huge void in the wider community being served by the church. Dr. White mentioned a current case gaining attention where Christian pop artist Amy Grant is fighting to save a church that was founded by her grandfather from a local businessman. You can read more about that in the article by Cameron McWhirter in The Wall Street Journal HERE.

Finally, Dr. White very poignantly ended today's episode by reading a blog that is published annually at Church & Culture. It's titled “The Monday After Easter,” and is a blog written specifically to pastors who may be struggling with an underwhelming turnout on Easter Sunday despite all of their prayer, faith and efforts. If you'd like to read that blog, you can find it 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 how for many Americans, Easter is one of the few times in the year they show a willingness to attend a church service. If they do, they'll likely hear about an empty tomb and the significance of the resurrection of Jesus thousands of years later. For many, the hope of new life in Jesus is enough to propel them to faith or to a deeper commitments to Jesus; but for others, they may be left with lingering questions that will serve as stumbling blocks to faith. Questions like: So what? How is this relevant for my life? And can I even believe this happened? So the question for the church is how are we going to answer those questions - what evidence can we offer for the resurrection of Jesus?

There are several series that Dr. White has given at Mecklenburg Community Church if you want to take a deeper dive into the events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion and His resurrection. These include: “The Passion,” “Risen,” “Seven Last Words of Jesus,” and “Why Believe.” And in case you did not know, past messages given by Dr. White are arranged by category at Church & Culture HERE. You'll find series on specific books of the Bible, on evangelism and apologetics, cultural topics and more.

When discussing Jesus' death on the cross in today's episode, Dr. White mentioned an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association written by Dr. William D. Edwards and titled “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ.” For those interested in reading this article, you can find it HERE. “The Resurrection of the Son of God” by N.T. Wright was another resource that Dr. White discussed, and you can find his book HERE. And one more book that we'd strongly recommend is written by Dr. White himself: Christianity for People Who Aren't Christians. It offers incredibly helpful explanations of the most common questions that people have when it comes to the Christian faith. You can find it on Amazon 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 interesting cultural connection between the demise of Hooters (which has now filed for bankruptcy) and the rise in popularity of OnlyFans. For those not familiar with this website, it's a platform where people offer online content that they've created, which is usually pornographic in nature, to paid subscribers. People are spending thousands of dollars to both see content created by their favorite creators and to interact with them through texting and personalized content - essentially creating a fantasy relationship. To be frank, an establishment like Hooters is absolutely tame when compared to the ubiquitous nature of porn.

Whereas years ago men might have been drawn to a place like Hooters, younger generations are so much more private, and access to websites like OnlyFans affords that privacy. There are several articles that would be worth your time to read, particularly those about OnlyFans, as people need to be aware of how addicting the platform has become for so many people:

Elaine Kurtenbach & Dee-Ann Durbin, “Restaurant chain Hooters goes bust and files for bankruptcy protection,” AP News, April 1, 2025.

Russell Moore, “Hooters and the Future of the Church,” Christianity Today, April 2, 2025.

Carly Lewis, “Addicted to OnlyFans Men are spending tens of thousands of dollars to text with their favorite creators.” New Yorker Magazine - The Cut, April 1, 2025.

Magdalene Taylor, “When Is OnlyFans Cheating, and When Is It Just Porn?” New Yorker Magazine - The Cut, December 14, 2024.

Ezra Marcus, “The ‘E-Pimps' of OnlyFans,” The New York Times, June 15, 2023.

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.