Deconstruction and the Church 7: How to Deal with Deconstruction in the Church

 

7 How to Deal with Deconstruction in the Church 

Of course, we care. Most Christians have close relatives or friends that have left the faith. Parents, teachers, and church leaders all need to get educated and involved with this. Here are some practical considerations.

1. Listening and guidance 

Anybody, who has experience with deconstruction, either personally or through a close relative or friend, knows that the process usually takes months and often years. During this process the D.P. (deconstructing person) has many questions, as they try to find “the truth” between the traditional or former thinking and the new alternative(s). 

Unfortunately, it is very common that, even early in this process, there is nobody from the challenged viewpoint (like parents, teachers, or church leaders) who are (known to be) available to appreciate the challenge and can provide healthy coaching. This should involve: respectful listening, careful analysis of what is said, probing for the underlying issues (like causes and sources), providing sound, biblical responses that really address the issues with at least some understanding of secular science and culture, and showing sincere interest in DPs and their struggles. 

Perhaps the lead pastor is not equipped to take on such a task, but then the congregation should look for senior elders with the knowledge and wisdom to serve as coaches,1  and the church must know that anybody can approach these trusted coaches to interact with anybody in deconstruction, who still seeks honest answers. 

In traditional churches, the leaders often think along fixed lines of communication and may never have considered ‘honest dialog’ as an option or important tool. They never learned to listen to people, who thought or taught differently from their own church, and since they are convinced they own the truth, they only know how to give a monologue to present their own line of argumentation. Any reasoning that provides a challenge for their own cherished view is seen as a threat, and all serious listening and processing is blocked. Ironically, this is what Martin Luther encountered in his life. Initially he was surprised and disappointed that the church leaders refused to search the Scriptures together. He was condemned as heretic, not because he twisted the teaching of the Bible, but because he refused to submit to the teaching of the church as the highest authority. 

“Progressive Christians” (or, rather Progressive “Christians”) may have a similar blocking mechanism towards anybody, who seems to cling to things that the Christian church adhered to for thousands of years. Again, this is the intolerance of today’s tolerance. 

2. Underlying Problems 

As mentioned, it is important to assess the current situation for the DP. In the early stage of exploration, there may be a lot of criticism, but gentle, well informed, clearly formulated advice may still be appreciated (even if it is countered with hostility). 

Read, study, apply, and preach the Bible in recognition of a Holy, Just, Loving, and Patient God, who has to deal with complaining, challenging, often rejecting children and students. And, when God demonstrated that their accusations were misplaced, often the people came to their senses and repented. The Bible is full of people, who had and uttered their rational or moral problems in accepting and following God. And, then God showed patience and sent spirit-filled people to help them reconstruct. 

Some long-time DPs may keep asking critical questions, while they refuse to change. After a while, it may be good to ask them: “If I really have the better arguments, would you be prepared to change your commitment?” It may well happen, that the DP has dug in so deep, that the honest reply is, “No, I just don’t want there to be a God to whom I should owe anything!” Even in many (deconstructing) churches, the time (has) come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear”. 2

3. Persistent Prayers 

Beside Jesus’ story of the persistent widow and her prayers,3  we have the account of Monica, the persistently (for 30 years!) praying mother of (Saint) Augustine. Later, he wrote this:4 

‘Like all mothers, though far more than most, she loved to have me with her, and she did not know how much joy you were to create for her through my absence. She did not know, and so she wept and wailed, and these cries of pain revealed what there was left of Eve in her, as in anguish she sought the son whom in anguish she had brought to birth. Yet when she had finished blaming my deception and cruelty, she resumed her entreaties for me.’ 

Praying mothers may also be inspired by Ruth Bell Graham’s book ‘Prodigals and Those Who Love Them’. 5

4. Maintain the (Whole) Truth 

In a culture that no longer has any real concept of God, the growing perception is that ‘god is not good’. So, when contemporary preachers to circumvent this lack of popularity, they can resort to modify the (concept of) biblical authority and the Spirit as its ultimate author. In a nearby church that seeks to cater to (international) university students, the sermon series is on “The Problem with the Bible”. The second sermon looked at the question: “Is God violent or peaceful?” The guest preacher apparently tried to uphold and defend the biblical teaching, but later it became clear that God at times had to be violent to actually protect the weak and innocent. There was no notion of God protecting his own Name and Kingdom, bringing judgement on people, who refused to submit to Him. 

Deconstructing churches want to be contemporary without being countercultural and even confrontational. They want to demonstrate God’s love for everybody, regardless of their lifestyle without emphasis on God’s holiness and wrath, when people, created in his image seek to destroy his Kingdom. They do not want to emphasize true doctrine, for this would be divisive and intolerant. And yet, this opens the door to all kinds of false teaching, which invites further deconstruction. Liberal teaching does not combat deconstruction, it facilitates the process. 

5. The honor of God; the purification of the church

The first humans, created in God’s image, listened to the deceiver, who challenged them about God’s goodness. Although God had blessed them with abundant resources, he had given them a test to see if they would respect the one tree that God kept as his personal possession. So, the enemy made the fruit of God’s private tree look very attractive and God’s goodness less attractive than it had been seen before. They fell for it, and although they were forgiven, the consequences stayed with them and are still with and in us today. 

Many other people, later, refused to seek and follow God. They would not recognize God’s blessings and yet, they cursed God when he took away some of his earlier provisions. Although God has much patience, especially for those who have received his Word and tasted his goodness, in the end he will not force them to real repentance. 

When one of our children wanted to live common-law with an unbeliever, I said, “Look, we love you as our child. But, if you value a relationship with someone who does not love Jesus over a loving relationship with Jesus Himself, we will still welcome you as our child, but we cannot embrace you as a true Sister in Christ. You must choose; choose wisely, with a view on eternity.” At first, she was upset, but -thank God- she reconsidered her options and today she is a godly mother in a Christian family. 

Nobody, who is under the regular preaching of the Word should be surprised that the Gospel, the message of the cross, the teaching of Jesus and the apostles always was countercultural, foolishness to the Greeks, and confrontational to traditionalists and liberals alike. Look, for instance, at the story of the brass serpent. Why did God’s children drag Him -as it were to court for negligence and murder? And, more remarkably, how did God convince them that they had been deceived by the ancient serpent again? How is it possible that they actually understood God’s righteousness in killing so many of his children? Seek and pray that you may know God. Will you listen to God’s ‘words of eternal life’, or will you leave him, too? 6

6. Hatred of hypocrisy 

Of course, Christians can bemoan the fact that many churches are running empty in the West. Nevertheless, we should at least consider the possibility that many or most churches had already deconstructed to the point of keeping the form of religion while they were losing the power of the Word and Spirit of God. In the meantime, the worship of Tolerance and Unity ensured that many people remained within ‘the Family’ for the wrong reasons. The result of such trends is obviously a proliferation of doubt but also a hatred of hypocrisy. And, this is actually a good thing! While many bemoan the apparent loss of Christian influence, God may actually use these times to purify and strengthen his church. 

Although we must show love and patience to anybody, who begins to question the historical Christian faith, we must not try to persuade cynical objectors to remain members in the church. God hates hypocrisy and people in the pews who do not love him with thankful hearts. If some ‘beloved children’ pressure their parents and churches to accept them as Christians, while they insist on living in sin, we must remember that the true disciple must make some hard choices. Will we love God more, even than our own children?

There comes a point that a deconstructing Christian is no longer a Christian. If their hatred of hypocrisy is consistent, at that stage DPs must admit they are no (longer) Christians. Progressive ‘Christianity’ is not historical Christianity and its message is not good news, for there is no other Gospel (Good News). Take it or leave it, but don’t pretend you have only put another wrapper around the same old Gospel. We have a close relative, who told me that much of the Old Testament is not the (inspired) Word of God. Why? Well, death by stoning is a terrible thing and no loving God would demand this for all kinds of minor trespasses, as the Old Testament would suggest. I countered that we know God through his Word, and if you only accept the mercy of God while you reject his holiness and righteousness, you have created another god. We will still respect you as a relative, but -please- do not call yourself a Christian. 

7. Build a strong structure; build on solid ground 

Another good thing about the challenges of deconstructing people is that it forces us to reconstruct our own beliefs in the light of the Bible. For about 25 years, I was an avid supporter of Creation Science. Authors like Alfred M. Rehwinkel, Whitcomb and Morris, and later Ken Ham, and Margaret Helder fascinated me since they seemed to provide a biblical perspective on difficult issues about the origins of the rocks and their fossils. Yet, when I began to find many serious problems in their theology and science, I went through a process of deconstruction. Some church leaders kept pushing such work in order to provide a biblical alternative to secular science. Yet, by promoting some bad ‘alternatives to secular science’, they actually helped to lay the groundwork for later deconstruction. 

8. Provide solid biblical preaching 

Although our Lord Jesus and his disciples (by his Spirit) provide us a fuller revelation of the character of God, their teaching was anchored in the record of the Old Testament. And in those books, we find a treasure trove of stories on the topic of deconstruction. 

So often God built something beautiful and (his) people tried to destroy it. So often God showed them the power of his faithful love, but soon thereafter the recipient of his grace complained against him, accusing him of a lack of love, unfair treatment, unreliability, and leading them into trouble. And then, God reminded them of Who he is and all the blessings he had given them. They required ongoing reconstruction on their views of their own identities and the character of God. This is what we need, so that we may know what to say to those who challenge us about the character of God. 

1. The elders are given the mandate to watch over their souls and they will have to give account for this! Hebrews 13: 17. 

2. 2 Tim. 4:3. 

3. Luke 18: 1-8. 

4. St. Augustine: Confessions.

5. https://billygraham.org/story/ruth-bell-grahams-5-truths-on-prodigals-and-those-who-love-them/ 

6. John 6: 60-69.