Dr. James Emery White

It’s very common to hear people critique various strategies, and simultaneously advance others, based on their observations of the ministry stylings of Jesus.

For example, some will point to Jesus’ selecting 12 disciples (and among those, seemingly, focusing on three), doing life with them as a group for three years, and from that, draw conclusions about how best to not only disciple but to “do” church. The usual translation is to eschew anything related to larger groups, carefully curated events or services, and to instead roll up your sleeves to plunge into little more than a small group-based ministry.

After all, that’s what Jesus did.

Except He didn’t. At least that wasn’t all that He did. Yes, in terms of preparing the initial, future leadership of the church, there were the 12, then the 70, then the 120, and on from there. But was that intended to serve as a timeless model for discipleship, much less church growth? 

Apparently not.

First, because Jesus also incorporated very large gatherings. His three-fold ministry was essentially preaching, teaching and healing (cf. Mt. 4:23-24). All three of these were done, almost always, in large group settings.

Another reason we can question a small group-based ministry approach as the “Jesus” approach comes from continuing to read the biblical narrative beyond the biographical accounts of His life into the Acts. As in what the Holy Spirit did at Pentecost, which included dropping thousands of new believers onto the laps of those initial 12. 

This simple observation is why I have long resisted those who place large, carefully curated large-group services up against individual discipleship, as if this is an “either-or” dynamic. Biblically, it isn’t. It is a “both-and.” Jesus did a lot of individual discipleship, but He also did a lot of large-group gatherings. 

Further, the early church was birthed through a large-scale evangelistic gathering that, again, dumped thousands of converts on a handful of “discipled.” If the 12 strapped on the 3,000 men (that’s not even counting women and children) baptized on Pentecost in groups of 12, they would only have been able to start discipling 144 of them. That is only 4.8%.

According to Acts, they didn’t do that. Instead, they brought in deacons to share the leadership load, and they devoted themselves to teaching. Large group discipleship teaching (cf. Acts 2:42). The Holy Spirit, through Pentecost, seemed to force them away from the so-called “Jesus model” of discipleship (three, then 12, then 70, then 120) into a larger-scale model.

Was there individual discipleship? Of course. That’s not the point. The point is that individual discipleship alone, along the lines of what Jesus did with the 12, was not considered the only model to follow. Or even the primary model to follow.

One of the most important lessons of biblical interpretation is not to confuse narrative material with didactic material. Narrative material is simply describing something that happened or a series of events. It’s informative but not normative. Didactic material is intended teaching.

In the Bible we read that Paul was converted on the road to Damascus by a blinding light and was blind for three days. That is not meant to teach that this is what it means to be saved. It is narrative. Didactic material would be, say, the Ten Commandments.

So let’s tread a little lighter, and a little less sanctimoniously, about comparing what Jesus did with what many churches do today. In truth, they are simply doing what the church has had to do – and been led to do – since Pentecost.

Jesus was the model for living and believing; the rest of the New Testament was largely the model for the movement. 

That’s why there was the rest of the New Testament.

James Emery White

 

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. 

His latest book, After “I Believe,” is now available on Amazon or your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. 

Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, is now behind us. That means it’s time for my annual summer reading list (you can find last year’s list HERE).

Usually these are the top 10 books that I have either read over the past year or are at the top of my list to read over the summer. Most of the time they are new books, with perhaps a few older works that I have newly discovered myself. Occasionally I offer a classic that I decided (or have decided) to re-read. As an eclectic reader, they tend to be a blend of history, fiction, biography, current events, science and more.

Enjoy.

Beaty, Katelyn. Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits are Hurting the Church. Talk about the right book, written by the right person, released at just the right time… this was it. I have long enjoyed Beaty’s writing, and this brought her keen eye for perspective and analysis to bear on what has arguably been one of the hottest (and darkest) issues within the evangelical ecosystem.    

Freeman, Philip. St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography. Though released in 2004, I just read this excellent work. By far this is the most enjoyable and deservedly sympathetic biography of Patrick I have encountered, and it comes complete with new translations of both his Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus and his Confession. 

Greene, Joshua M. Unstoppable: Siggi B. Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend. This heavily marketed book (e.g., seemingly weekly full-page ads in the New York Times Book Review) caught my attention through, well, its heavy marketing. I wasn’t disappointed. It really is a remarkable and inspiring story. The subtitle says it all. 

Heather, Peter. Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300. I did not always agree with everything Heather wrote, but I found myself always engaged and impressed. If you enjoy broad-ranging historical surveys as much as I do, this is one of the best. His focus is on the Western or “Latin Christendom” dynamic of Christian history. The story of “conversion,” both genuine and culturally enforced, is explored, though the central theme is the emergence of an “articulated, monolithic religious-cultural structure that had emerged by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and that then dominated the vast majority of Europe’s varied landscapes and populations until the Reformation.”

Jones, Dan. Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages. Yes, a second major historical tome focused on the Middle Ages. I am becoming a fan of this historian, and this work only accelerated that appreciation. He is able to write significant works of medieval history that are highly accessible and relatable. Translation: it often reads like a novel. He explores the same timeframe of Heather’s work, but instead of focusing solely on the rise of Christianity, he attempts a full history of the Middle Ages. If you want that story told by a master storyteller, this is your work.

Kidd, Thomas S. Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh. Kidd, a professor at Baylor, approaches the life of Jefferson exactly the way the subtitle suggests, and rightly (and needfully) so. Jefferson is a complex and contradictory character, and this work masterfully guides us through his life. Specifically, the three great tensions of his life: democracy versus slavery, republican virtue versus dissolute consumption, and veneration for Jesus versus skepticism about Christianity. This is a biography focusing on Jefferson’s ethical and spiritual life, and as such is superb.

Kouzes, James M. and Barry Z. Posner. The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations (7th Edition). Why highlight an older book, albeit a leadership classic? Because it just came out in a seventh (and yes, needed) edition, which ensures its continued place as perhaps the go-to leadership book of our generation. Based on research, Kouzes and Posner treat leadership the way any leader knows it should be treated: as both a skill to be learned and a relationship to be nurtured.

McKenzie, Thomas. The Anglican Way: A Guidebook. The tragic death of the author of this book, along with his 22-year-old daughter in a 2021 car accident added to its awareness, but I am prayerful that it was for the greater glory of God. It is an exceptional presentation of not only the Anglican approach to ecclesiology and more importantly spirituality, but a tender reveal of the heart of a good and Godly man. One doesn’t have to be an Anglican to learn much from the Anglican “way.”

Smith, Christian, Bridget Ritz and Michael Rotolo. Religious Parenting: Transmitting Faith and Values in Contemporary America. This work adds impressively to the earlier works of sociologist Christian Smith (formerly at UNC-Chapel Hill, now at Notre Dame). Based on truly groundbreaking research, it reveals that the role of parents in the life of a child is without parallel. That may seem to go without saying, but prior to Smith’s work on the matter, the role of parents (in terms of sociological studies) had largely been ignored. In short, Smith tackles a single question: “How do religious parents in the United States approach the task of passing on their religious faith and practice to their children?” Important sub-questions include whether their efforts matter and which ones matter the most. The answers are clear, and they matter.

Wooding, Lucy. Tudor England: A History. It’s obvious I like all things history, and this year’s list tilts even heavier than normal to significant historical tomes. But that is because there were some really, really good ones released. Wooding’s history of Tudor England is quickly being considered the best history of that era. And that is no small feat, as this period was awash in social, political and religious change.

And One More from the “Shameless Commerce Division”:

White, James Emery. Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age. I truly believe this is one of the most important books I have been given the privilege to write, and I pray faithfully for its ministry. We now live in a post-Christian digital age, and the ramifications for the church are staggering. It involves cultural analysis and practical applications. I hope you will consider it and give it a careful read. 

James Emery White

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Christian Headlines.

Photo courtesy: Tom Hermans/Unsplash

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. 

His latest book, After “I Believe,” is now available on Amazon or your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. 

Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the latest book by James Emery White, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church in a Post-Christian Digital Age (Zondervan). You can order from Amazon HERE.

**********

We call it the digital revolution, but in truth it is the latest in a line of three industrial revolutions. With each, the invention of a technology brought about fundamental societal change. 

The first industrial revolution started around 1760 in Britain. It was fueled by the invention of the steam engine, which enabled new manufacturing processes, which in turn led to the creation of factories. 

The second industrial revolution, approximately a century later, was characterized by mass production in new industries such as oil, steel, and electricity. Inventions during this period included the lightbulb, telephone, and internal combustion engine. 

In the 1960s, the third industrial revolution began with the invention of the semiconductor and led to the inventions of the personal computer and the internet, marking the digital revolution.

But it is only of late that the digital revolution has made its impact most keenly felt, and many missed the moment it descended upon our world like a tsunami. As Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman put it, “What the h*** happened in 2007?” 

Friedman makes the case that 2007 was one of the most significant pivotal years in all of human history—not simply because that was the year the iPhone was released but because of all the iPhone set in motion and all that came into play in a simultaneous way. Beyond the iPhone, in 2007, Facebook left college campuses and entered the wider world. Twitter was spun off. Google bought YouTube and launched Android. Amazon released the Kindle. And the number of internet users crossed one billion worldwide, becoming the fabric of our world. 

All in 2007. 

(Friedman neglected to note that also a little company called Netflix began streaming videos in 2007.) 

With self-deprecating humor about his own earlier writings, specifically The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century that he began writing in 2004, he notes:

... when I was running around in 2004 declaring that the world was flat, Facebook didn’t even exist yet, Twitter was still a sound, the cloud was still in the sky, 4G was a parking space, “applications” were what you sent to college, LinkedIn was barely known and most people thought it was a prison, Big Data was a good name for a rap star, and Skype, for most people, was a typographical error.

What set off the revolution that year, though, was without a doubt the iPhone. When Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone as little more than a combination of “three revolutionary projects” – a cellphone, an iPod, and a keyboardless handheld computer with internet connectivity – even he didn’t know what had been unleashed. 

And make no mistake – the iPhone changed the world. 

James Emery White

 

Sources

This has been an excerpt from James Emery White, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church in a Post-Christian, Digital Age (Zondervan), order here.

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. 

His latest book, After “I Believe,” is now available on Amazon or your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. 

Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.