In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss the results of a multi-year study of about 24,000 church attenders that was conducted by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. The goal was to examine their church engagement. A particular finding stood out, which was that 46% of those 24,000 churchgoers reported active engagement with more than one church. For purposes of the study, they defined “active engagement” as attending in person, watching online or on TV, or taking part in both physical and virtual offerings. So this begs the question: What drives people to want to participate in a variety of church services?

During today's discussion, Dr. White outlined three categories of churchgoers: the church hopper, the church shopper and the church dropper. He also wrote a blog about this topic titled “Church Hopping, Shopping and Dropping,” which you can read HERE.

It's also important to have a clear understanding of what Church is meant to be, and how we are called to engage with the community of the local church. Dr. White delivered a two-week series at Mecklenburg Community Church called “This Is Us,” which outlined the values and the mission of Meck. And then another incredibly helpful series was simply titled “Being Church” and explored what true biblical community looks like. You can find that series 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 when someone dies, those who call themselves Christ followers often find comfort in the thought that we'll see them again in Heaven (assuming, of course, that our loved one had a relationship with Jesus). But can we say the same thing about our beloved pets? Will we see them in Heaven?

Too often, this question is framed in such a way that people are essentially asking whether animals have a soul akin to humans, and therefore can they be saved. To that, the answer is, “No.” Biblically, theologically, no, they don't have souls. But there's for sure more to it than that. Dr. White wrote a recent blog on this same topic that you might be interested in reading HERE.

When it comes to animals and their presence on Earth, the conversation led to a discussion of creation, and specifically creation care. Dr. White did a series at Mecklenburg Community Church that you should check out if you'd like to go deeper on this topic. You can find that series HERE. Dr. White also mentioned a book that he found to be very helpful related to the series titled Stewards of Eden: What Scripture Says About the Environment and Why It Matters written by Sandra L. Richter.

Finally, Alexis referenced an article from The Washington Post about churches wading into the waters of things related to pets and grieving pet owners. You can read the article “Will My Dog Be in Heaven? Why Grieving Pet Owners Turn to Religious Groups” by Michelle Boorstein 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.