Deconstruction, What’s Your Function?

You’ve heard the word, I’m sure, if you follow the world of evangelicalism. It’s the word “deconstruction.” But many of us scratch our heads wondering what it means. The best definition I’ve heard is from noted apologist, Alisa Childers, “In the context of faith, deconstruction is the process of systematically dissecting and often rejecting the beliefs you grew up with. Sometimes the Christian will deconstruct all the way into atheism. Some remain there, but others experience a reconstruction. But the type of faith they end up embracing almost never resembles the Christianity they formerly knew.” If you’ve heard about people deconstructing their faith, you may have been curious what that means, or should I be deconstructing. Let’s talk about it in terms you and I both can understand and deconstruct this phenomenon that is sweeping the evangelical nation.

I’ve listened to many people who have decided to deconstruct their faith and belief system and one common thread seems to bond them all - an experience in the church that triggered a desire to doubt all that they believed. Maybe it was a pastor who turned out to be a charlatan or abusive. Maybe it was a youth leader who wasn’t qualified for the job and ended up being just one of the youth group members. I could go on with many examples of what triggers deconstruction.

In the fall of 2014, Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church at that time, resigned from his role at this Seattle church plant. The church had grown to megachurch size with multiple locations and thousands of members. Driscoll resigned after allegations of abuse and shortly thereafter the chruch collapsed. In fact, it was such a story that an entire podcast - The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill - was created to share the background and details. The Mars Hill/Driscoll scandal occurred around the time people started questioning their faith and beginning their deconstruction. Other incidents in the church also led to questioning. Sexual abuse in the church was coming out of the dark closet of many congregations. The question of the biblical view of homosexuality came into question and deconstructing evangelicals began searching for churches that were affirming to LGBTQ. And so deconstruction began from all corners of the evangelical world.

So what do we make of this phenomenon? First, I want to affirm that I do not approve or believe it is biblical for pastors and leaders to exhibit abuse among their staff and congregation - physical, verbal, sexual or otherwise. Second, the sexual abuse cases that have been uncovered recently, especially within my denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, needed to be exposed. That is also abhorrently unbiblical. But while enduring those things that are abundantly wrong, it does not in turn make the Bible, the inspired Word of God, suddenly wrong or put into question on its authority.

The acts and circumstances which trigger deconstruction to begin are greatly due to the act of a man…or woman…both of whom are sinful beings. Whether they were obsessed by power, greed, pride, or some other sin, these leaders’ actions were due to their sinful nature, not a lack of integrity of the Word of God. People in leadership must be held to a higher standard and also be kept accountable at the highest level. Churches led by people of integrity will find the Bible taught unapologetically with sound doctrine as its foundation.

You may think, “Rose, you go to a solid church. Of course you’re ‘anti-deconstruction’.” Yes, I do go to a church whose leaders are held to a high standard and where the Word of God is taught and preached without excuse. I also attend a church where those who are unrepentant in their sin are excommunicated from our church based on the instructions found in Matthew 18. But, although I’ve been attending the same church my entire life, we weren’t without our problems. Problems that should have caused me to find myself in deconstruction mode.

In the past, we’d been led by a pastor who wasn’t being honest with our congregation. He did not share the troubles happening within his home and with his wife. Much of our budget was used to fund a six-figure television budget to ensure our services were on screen while other ministries struggled to exist. His family was crumbling and instead of recognizing his need to step down as pastor, even after encouragement from our Deacon board, he manipulated the remaining congregation into believing he was fit to remain as pastor. By the grace of God he did eventually resign and though our church was left in shambles, God honored our faithfulness and we are a vibrant people of God today.

At that time of my life, I could have easily “deconstructed” my way out of church, although it wasn’t cool to deconstruct in those days. I had seen my former pastor in a whole new light. He wasn’t honest with the flock he was leading, and quite frankly probably not even honest with himself. I could have questioned all that I believed because of what I experienced. Begin to question the truth of Scripture. I could have wagged my finger upward indicating to God that He wouldn’t allow this if He was Who He said He was. I could have made the Bible read however I wanted it to read, and ignore the parts I didn’t agree with. I was on the edge of a cliff that could have taken me to a false faith. But praise God it didn’t. My former pastor was a sinful being just like me, and it wasn’t him I was following. It was Jesus. That season at my church hurt in many ways and thankfully I didn’t succumb to questioning whether the Bible was true. I clung to the One who is Truth.

When you believe in God and follow Jesus, you have to always look to Him and His Word primarily and not at fallen man. As a student of the Bible, I seek answers and have questions all the time. I search and dig through the Bible, commentaries from trusted scholars, and hopefully come out on the other side with my answer based in Scripture…not based on what I think is best. And not deconstructing the absolute truth of Scripture. Oftentimes the problem with the deconstruction movement that is happening today is we have a lot of people who want a Bible that agrees with everything they believe in, causing us to be absolved from all sin. But that’s not how it works. We’re all sinners who fall short and are in need of a Savior. And we aren’t God who wrote the Bible.

The Bible is not a jar of Play-doh that we can sculpt into our own preferred likeness. The Bible is the honing tool that sculpts us into the image of a Holy God. So keep asking your questions. That’s how we learn. But when you feel like you need to deconstruct your faith, use that constructive time to allow God to mold you into the believer who follows His Word, not our own understanding.