Dr. James Emery White

In a recent interview, actress Cameron Diaz made it quite clear that she is content to be – and intent on being – a serial dater. In an interview with the UK’s Stylist Magazine, she says, “I think the big misconception in our society is that we’re supposed to meet the one when we’re 18, and we’re supposed to get married to them and love them for the rest of our lives. Bulls**t.”

Almost every church leader would tell you they want their church to be a growing church - not just in terms of spiritual growth, but numerical growth. But not many are growing, and many of the leaders do not seem to know why.

We’re wanting the world to marvel at our hip glasses, hip graphic tee’s, hip tattoos, hip sound and lights, hip vocabulary, hip message titles, hip musical covers and styles, and hip videos. It’s as if we are trying to out-green Al Gore, out-Africa Bono, and out-edge Apple – or at least to be seen as part of the party.

Looking for wisdom in the signs.

You can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Whatever it is you’ve done, or are doing, it’s not your fault. You’re just mentally ill.

“Many Church Rolls Decline” declared the recent article distributed by the Religious News Service. Not exactly breaking news. According to new figures released by the National Council of Churches, most mainline Protestant denominations report continuing decline.

I love the church. I have given my life to the church. I believe, as is often said, that the church truly is the hope of the world. But that’s not the church’s job.

I am, unashamedly, a book man. You may have expected me to say a “reading” man, which would also be true. As St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote, “Be assiduous in prayer and reading. In the one you speak to God. In the other God speaks to you.”

If this seems petty to you, it shouldn't. A single poor staff hire can devastate most churches, squandering Kingdom resources and setting back progress for months if not years.

According to a recent blog by Seth Godin, Zig Ziglar liked to say that -with that one question, you could tell if someone was a successful life insurance agent. “If they’re not willing to buy it with their own money, how can they honestly persuade someone else to do so?”

So what do you want to call the 00’s? As an article in the New York Times noted, it didn’t roar like the ‘20’s, and they weren’t about ‘me’ like the 70’s.

It’s official. The 2009 word of the year, courtesy of the American Oxford Dictionary, has been named.

When it comes to porn, the question facing many men is simple: is it really wrong? Is it really that big of a deal?

"Recently, myself and some people close to me have been wondering what the Bible says about what is OK to watch or read as entertainment..."

According to data just released by LifeWay Research, Southern Baptist membership will fall nearly 50 percent by 2050 unless the aging denomination reverses a 50-year trend and does more to reach out to young adults.

An editorial in Christianity Today discussed how no attribute of civilized life seems more under attack than civility.

“Let us pray, drum and YouTube....” so went the recent headline in the London Telegraph.

Each year around this time, through the Update, I offer ten titles - in no particular order – from the previous twelve months for your summer reading consideration, usually with an emphasis on cultural understanding. Enjoy.

“You don’t take the Bible literally, do you?” According to a recent article by a professor at Iliff School of Theology, “No one reads or interprets the Bible literally – regardless as to what they profess. To do so is simplistic, if not dangerous. All of us read our bias, our theology, and our social location into the text. There is no such thing as an objective reading; all readings are subjective.” Welcome to hermeneutical nihilism. But wait, it gets worse.

You may be among the over six million, to date, which has viewed the startling video on YouTube titled Muslim Demographics. If not, you will soon. It is spreading virally with blinding speed. The link is offered below.