In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss another significant anniversary happening this year. We recently aired CCP165: On the Nicene Creed as 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the creed. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of what's known as the Scopes Trial (or the “Monkey Trial”) - a sensational trial in American history where the debate over creation vs. evolution entered the courtroom. Set in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee back in 1925, the trial set defenders of evolutionary theory against those who wanted public schools to teach what was considered to be a biblical view of the origin of the world's inhabitants.

As Dr. White mentioned, the church plays a huge role when it comes to apologetics - helping people to know why they believe what they believe and to be able to give an account of their faith to others. This has always been a priority at Mecklenburg Community Church. In fact, you may be interested in checking out the following series that were given by Dr. White, all related to apologetics and/or faith vs. science:

“Doubt”

“Don't Check Your Brains at the Door”

“The Science of God”

“Astrophysics… for People Who Are Open to God”

“Why Believe?”

There are two resources we'd suggest you check out related to the conversation today. For a better understanding of the Hebrew mindset, we'd suggest Our Father Abraham written by Marvin R. Wilson. And then for more on the interplay between faith and science, we suggest you read How I Changed My Mind About Evolution, edited by Kathryn Applegate and J.B. Stump.

Finally, today's discussion was sparked by an article on NPR by Scott Neuman and Nell Greenfieldboyce titled “100 years after evolution went on trial, the Scopes case still reverberates” outlining the cultural ramifications of this trial even 100 years later. You can read or listen to that article 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 article in the New York Times written by Claire Kane Miller titled, “What Happens When Most of the Adults in Boys' Lives Are Women.” Studies show that children struggle acutely from the lack of a father figure in their lives and, according to the US Census Bureau, nearly one in four children lives without a father in the home. Today's conversation explores the impact and significance of not only fathers, but also positive male role models in the lives of young boys in particular, and how the church can play a role as well.

There are two books that Dr. White mentioned in today's episode that would be helpful for fathers and men to read to understand the impact they can have on the lives of their boys, as well as other young men. John Trent and Gary Smalley wrote a book titled, The Blessing: Giving the Gift of Unconditional Love and Acceptance. And John Eldredge wrote a book titled, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul.

He also discussed two articles that highlight both the impact and role of men in the lives of boys, and also the challenge today in knowing what it even means to be a man:

Demaryius Thomas, “For Mamma,” The Player's Tribune.

Glenn Stanton, “Manhood Is Not Natural,” Public Discourse.

Finally, Dr. White noted how the church needs to step in and cast the vision for manhood, fatherhood, and the way that men can step up and be father figures in the lives of young boys within the church. There are several series that Dr. White has given at Mecklenburg Community Church that you may be interested in checking out: “Father Figure,” “Man Up,” and “The Sins of the Fathers.”

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 dive into the Nicene Creed, as this year marks its 1700th anniversary. As the early church absolutely exploded in growth - from about 7,500 followers in A.D. 100 to around 30 million by A.D. 310 - the challenge and question facing them was this: How would they stay united? How would this fast-growing, quickly expanding movement remain unified in vision and values, mission and purpose? The answer became clear, and led to the Nicene Creed being written in A.D. 325 by the Council of Nicaea.

Modern-day churches are increasingly turning to the words of this ancient creed to ground themselves in the foundations of the Christian faith. In fact, Daniel Silliman recently wrote an article in Christianity Today titled, “How the Nicene Creed Became Cool Again” that you may be interested in reading.

In honor of the Nicene Creed's 1700th anniversary, Dr. White recently kicked off a series at Mecklenburg Community Church titled “Credo,” which is the Latin word for creed. If you're interested in checking out this series, you can find it HERE. It's particularly important in our world today to ground the church in the words of the creed, especially in light of the findings of the most recent “State of Theology” survey showing that culturally, there has been a significant lapse in our understanding of what it means to be a Christian - among Christians. You can find that study HERE.

Finally, if you are interested in doing some additional study about the Nicene Creed, there are a few books that we would recommend on this topic: Mark Noll, Turning Points; Phillip Cary, The Nicene Creed; Jared Ortiz and Daniel A. Keating, The Nicene Creed; and J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines.

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 state of what's happening in our culture this year. For listeners who may be new to the ministry of Church & Culture, it seeks to explore contemporary culture and to resource the local church and its leaders in light of the church's mission to impact our culture and those who live within it. It's particularly critical in our post-Christian world to understand the significance of what is happening in the world around us. In addition to this weekly podcast, 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 new animated film on Netflix that has everyone talking. It's called “KPop Demon Hunters,” and was an instant success when it was released back in June. It's gained so much momentum that it was shown in a limited release on the big screen - just for two days and in only 1,700 theaters - in a sing-along format. Despite that limited release, it still won the entire box office for the weekend, giving Netflix its first number one box office title in its 18-year history. Several songs from its soundtrack are simultaneously in the Billboard Top 10. So… what in the world is “KPop Demon Hunters” about, and is this something our kids should be watching? The answers might surprise you.

Given that the movie has the word “demon” in the title, it's not surprising that today's conversation raised issues regarding the paranormal world. Dr. White gave a series at Mecklenburg Community Church (Meck) called “Paranormal” that you may be interested in checking out - particularly the installment that maps out the spiritual world. You can find that series on Church & Culture HERE.

Dr. White mentioned that when it comes to what you allow your kids to watch, including this movie, what's most important is to seize the opportunity to have really good spiritual conversations with your kids. He referenced a recent blog written by our MecKidz team - the children's program at Meck. The blog is titled “‘KPop Demon Hunters': How to Engage Movies and TV with your Kids,” and can be found HERE.

Finally, there are a number of articles that were used as source material for today's conversation. If you're interested in going down the “KPop Demon Hunters” rabbit hole, you can check these out:

Itzel Luna and Jake Coyle, “‘KPop Demon Hunters' gives Netflix its first box-office win,” AP News.

Chloe Veltman, “Fans across the country raise their voices at 'KPop Demon Hunters' singalongs,” NPR.

Stephen Thompson, “'KPop Demon Hunters' and the band Babymetal hit fresh milestones on the pop charts,” NPR.

Isabel Ong, “We're Not Afraid of Monsters and Demons Anymore,” Christianity Today.

Sopan Deb, “‘KPop Demon Hunters' Has Everyone Bobbing Their Heads. Especially Parents,” The New York Times.

Stephen Armstrong, “Kpop Demon Hunters: the Netflix film giving Disney nightmares,” The Telegraph.

Scott Greenstone, “It started with friends at home. Now Dungeons & Dragons is in its stadium era,” NPR.

Samantha Masunaga, “‘KPop Demon Hunters' might win the box office. Why Netflix won't say,” Los Angeles Times.

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 recent controversy surrounding former HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines who rose to fame from their home renovation show called Fixer Upper, which aired back in 2013. In 2019, they announced their departure from HGTV and the launch of a new network called the Magnolia Network, which finally debuted in 2022. But just last month, many of their fans turned on them after they featured a same-sex couple on their show, Back to the Frontier. Same-sex couples on TV shows are hardly uncommon nowadays, so why have the Gaines received so much backlash and from whom?

Christie D'Zurilla wrote an article in the Los Angeles Times titled, “Chip and Joanna Gaines' new show features a same-sex married couple. Some Christians are ‘disappointed.'” If you're interested in reading the full article you can find it HERE. Some people who question the Christian community's response to their decision are seemingly misunderstanding the difference between acceptance and affirmation, between making a value judgment and being judgmental. Dr. White gave a series at Mecklenburg Community Church that might be helpful to listen to. It's called “Unchristian,” and its installments are a response to people who say that Christians are judgmental, hypocritical and homophobic. You can find that series HERE.

There are two additional series that we think would be helpful for a deeper look at what the Bible has to say about judgmentalism, the true meaning of grace, and the significance of Jesus bringing both grace AND truth to bear on people's lives. Those series are “Judged” and “Getting Grace Right,” both available in .mp3 or .pdf formats at Church & Culture.

Finally, there were two authors Dr. White mentioned during today's discussion. The first was John Stott and his book Sermon on the Mount, which includes an exploration of what true judgmentalism is like, and how it can lead to setting yourself up as God. And the second was Dr. Henry Cloud and his book Changes That Heal for more of the discussion on grace and truth.

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.

This summer, we're taking a short break from our regular podcast format, and instead have selected various installments from past message series given by James Emery White at Mecklenburg Community Church where he serves as the Senior Pastor. In a world where streaming media often dominates cultural conversation, certain shows stand out - not only for their entertainment value but also for the deeper messages they convey. In Meck's series "Streaming Now," we explored four of the most popular streaming shows sparking widespread cultural and spiritual conversations: "Severance," "Adolescence," "The Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke," and "The White Lotus." We've already discussed one of these shows on an earlier episode of the Church & Culture Podcast - CCP144: On “Severance." Today, we're going to show the message on "Adolescence" to discover the message it contains, the lessons that can be learned, and the ways the Bible and Christian faith might engage and respond to them.

Below you'll find the link to the full series if that's something you are interested in checking out, along with the sources that were used in the development of the message itself:

“Streaming Now”

Olga Khazan, “What Jonathan Haidt Thought When He Watched Adolescence,” The Atlantic, April 15, 2025, read online.

Dr. James Dobson, Preparing for Adolescence.

Ken Gire, The Reflective Life: Becoming More Spiritually Sensitive to the Everyday Moments of Life.

Dolores Curran, Traits of a Healthy Family.

We'd also encourage you to check out other parenting and family series given by Dr. White at Mecklenburg Community Church. You can find them under the “Marriage and Family” category of resources 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.

This summer, we're taking a short break from our regular podcast format, and instead have selected various installments from past message series given by James Emery White at Mecklenburg Community Church where he serves as the Senior Pastor. There are several critical areas of our spiritual life and our relationship with God that have both “good” and “bad” dynamics. When we confuse these areas, it can bring great spiritual harm. Today's episode comes from a Meck series titled "The Flip Side: The Bad Side of Good Things" with a look at "Good Guilt vs. Bad Guilt.”

Below you'll find the link to the full series if that's something you are interested in checking out, along with the sources that were used in the development of the message itself:

“The Flip Side: The Bad Side of Good Things”

Becca Cowan Johnson, Good Guilt, Bad Guilt: And What to Do with Each.

Verne Becker, Tim Stafford and Philip Yancey, What They Never Told Me When I Became a Christian.

For more message series given by Dr. White that would fall under the banner of living out our Christian faith, check out the “Christian Living” resources.

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.