Martin Salter interviews Dr James Emery White for en
James Emery White is senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and founder of Serious Times, a ministry which explores the intersection of faith and culture and hosts ChurchandCulture.org. Recently he authored the book The Rise of the Nones about people with no faith.
MS: Why are the ‘nones’ as a group increasing so rapidly?
JEW: The sophisticated answer involves the processes of secularisation, privatisation and pluralisation. But, on a more popular level, I think this has to do with something I outlined in the book Lawyers, Guns & Money. Religion in general, and certainly Christianity, is perceived to be overly entangled with law and politics, filled with hateful, intolerant aggression, and consumed with materialism. Many outside the Christian faith think Christians no longer represent what Jesus had in mind – that Christianity in our society is not what it was meant to be.
MS: You describe many ‘nones’ as ‘apathe-ists’ – can you flesh that out a bit?
JEW: Simply that while in the past those who might have fallen into this group would have been termed ‘spiritual seekers,’ that is no longer an appropriate classification for them. They’re not thinking about religion and then rejecting it. They’re truly not thinking about it at all. There is a general apathy towards religion, heaven, hell, church, etc.
MS: You say secularisation, privatisation, and pluralisation have led us to our current spiritual climate. Could you briefly explain ?
JEW: Secularisation means there is less of a supportive context for faith. Privatisation has made all things related to faith a private affair, like having a favourite colour or food. But most devastating of all has been pluralisation, where there are not only multiple faiths and worldviews contending for our attention, but the idea that they are all equally valid. People tend to move toward that which is culturally most influential; what is most culturally persuasive. At the moment, it is culturally ‘current’ to say you are ‘nothing in particular.’
MS: How can Christians train themselves to think in a world of ‘truthiness’ and ‘wikiality’?
JEW: I actually wrote an entire book on this titled A Mind for God. In it I outline several dynamics to regaining not only a Christian mind, but the lost art of thinking. One example was the importance of reading. And what you read matters. I am unashamedly a book guy. Of course, when examining anything the most important resource to start with is the Bible – the Word of God. So whenever it comes to what to believe, how to think, how to operate, where to land on a to particular issue, you must first go the Bible, and then go with the Bible. First and foremost. But then examining other Christian leaders and thinkers, and taking the time to carefully vet them.
MS: What sorts of projects have you seen
work well in terms of mission to, before, and with communities?
JEW: At the church I pastor we have led our missions efforts to both the least and the lost. It is important to serve not only those in the surrounding communities around our church campuses, but also reaching out to other countries around the world. We support a short-term aftercare facility for girls rescued from sex trafficking in the Philippines; an orphanage housing amazing children who would otherwise be on the streets of Buenos Aires in Argentina; we build homes for the homeless in Jamaica, and more. We have found that when the ‘nones’ see that we have such a heart for the world around us, that when people give to the church they are giving to something above and beyond themselves, that it has a powerful impact.
MS: How would you answer the person who thought all this stuff was all consumer driven marketing technique?
JEW: I would argue that because the ‘nones’ are not Christ-followers we cannot expect them to look at the church with anything but a consumer mindset. All they have is consumerism. It’s about being strategic and finding ways to bring the gospel to them without changing the message that they so badly need to hear.
