{"id":1789,"date":"2025-06-06T21:53:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T21:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2025\/06\/06\/pastoring-in-the-age-of-deconstruction\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T21:53:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T21:53:47","slug":"pastoring-in-the-age-of-deconstruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/pastoring-in-the-age-of-deconstruction\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastoring in the Age of Deconstruction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The first time I heard the term, I was a campus minister at the University of Missouri. I figured I knew how to respond to it. But after several dozen conversations with deconstructing college students, it became clear: I didn\u2019t have the tools to help these students re-engage with Jesus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often, students would raise fairly typical objections to Christianity in these conversations, and I had fairly typical answers to their questions. Sometimes, I could tell these answers landed well. It was exactly what they needed\u2014a clear, compassionate answer to their doubts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for others, something wasn\u2019t clicking. I\u2019d offer my gracious, rational answers to their questions, but it just wasn\u2019t working.<\/em> By \u201cnot working,\u201d I don\u2019t mean the student was unconvinced<\/em>\u2014I mean they were simply unmoved<\/em>. They\u2019d often say something like, \u201cYeah, I get what you\u2019re saying.\u201d But their expression said something else:\u201cYou didn\u2019t hear the heart behind my question.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I continued in this pattern for about two years, until it dawned on me: The intellectual answers to my students\u2019 questions were important. Very important. But for many of these young people\u2014especially those who used the term deconstruction<\/em>\u2014those facts and proofs weren\u2019t the right starting point. Not the first conversation we needed to have. Not even the second or third. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, I began thinking of my students who were deconstructing in terms of three general categories, or buckets, before I began to address their doubts, concerns, or anger toward the church. There are deconstructing students, and then there are deconstructing students. They may all use the term, but these young people are coming from very<\/em> different places. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the first conversation I learned to have with students was this: \u201cWhat do you mean<\/em> by deconstruction?\u201d Sometimes I would even lay out the three categories. In almost every case, students found them extremely helpful. As a pastor, it gave me a clearer sense of how to walk with them wisely and well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you work with younger (or older!) people deconstructing their faith, I hope and pray the categories below are helpful toward your own shepherding conversations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bucket 1: The Doubting. These are the people who are eager to hear our apologetics answers. They don\u2019t feel angry at the church or personally burned. They are highly motivated to believe. However, there are cracks in the pavement. They have lingering doubts\u2014unspoken fears and nagging questions about faith and about themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes they\u2019ve been shunned or treated like an apostate just for being intellectually curious about Christianity. They\u2019ve been told that \u201creal Christians\u201d don\u2019t ask questions. And so they\u2019ve learned to keep quiet or to assume they\u2019re on the verge of falling away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastoring these folks means surprising them with a gracious, thoughtful answer to their doubts. It means inviting them to freely express their concerns. It means demonstrating to them that Jesus is not anxious about their hard questions and that difficult questions are often an invitation toward deeper <\/em>faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes\u2014not often\u2014those doubting may describe their questions as \u201cdeconstruction.\u201d That may be because they\u2019ve seen publicly deconstructed folks online expressing similar concerns or doubts as reasons to abandon faith altogether. It may also be because they\u2019ve never been part of a healthy church where doubts were expressed and addressed winsomely. So instead of understanding the their questions as normal and their doubts as growing pains, they fear they are going astray. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why I\u2019ll often encourage these students to use a different word\u2014doubt<\/em>. As we\u2019ll see below, the difference matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bucket 2: The Disillusioned. The disillusioned often have all sorts of doubts too, but their struggle isn\u2019t intellectual\u2014it\u2019s emotional and cultural. They\u2019re disappointed. Disoriented. Disheartened. Especially when it comes to the American evangelical project.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe\u2014and statistics back this up\u2014that this group represents a huge swath of those who\u2019ve dechurched. Two decades ago, when I left the church, I was here. I\u2019d received good, thoughtful answers to my questions. That wasn\u2019t the issue. The issue was the mismatch I saw between Jesus\u2019 teaching, church history, and American evangelicalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t that American evangelicals were sinners or even that many prominent leaders had fallen. What unsettled me is that they did not even seem to have the same mission<\/em> as Jesus, the early church, or even our Protestant forefathers and mothers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to research by Michael Graham and Jim Davis<\/a>, nearly two-thirds of the dechurched respondents say that their parents\u2019 expressions of evangelical faith played a role in pushing them away. The top five reasons? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Their emphasis on culture war lost me over time (14%)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Their lack of love, joy, gentleness, kindness, and generosity (14%) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Their inability to listen (14%) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Their inability to engage with other viewpoints (13%) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Their racial attitudes or actions (13%)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That tracks with my experience. Even more striking, many of the dechurched are still theologically orthodox in their beliefs. Like me two decades ago, they don\u2019t feel ready to walk away from Jesus or even the church at large. They’re just deeply disillusioned with the American evangelical church\u2019s vision of its own mission. It doesn\u2019t align. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what do they need? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the steepest learning curve for me over my years working with college students. But eventually, I cracked the code, and it wasn\u2019t that complicated. Students needed what I needed 20 years ago. They needed me to (1) affirm their concerns about American evangelicalism; (2) widen their vision to include the global, historic church, and (3) refocus our conversations on the gospel message of Jesus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why in my book The Light in Our Eyes<\/em>,<\/a> I devote several chapters to doing this very work. I name what\u2019s broken in American evangelicalism. Then I introduce readers to our historical context, contrasting it with the vision of the early church, the historical Protestant church, and the original vision of evangelicalism. Finally, I use historical Protestant categories (Jesus as our Prophet, Priest, and King\u2014as explained in the Heidelberg Catechism) to reintroduce readers to Jesus\u2019 bigger, better, and more beautiful vision for the church.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bucket 3: The Deconstructing. Finally, there arethose who are truly deconstructing\u2014those who\u2019ve moved beyond doubt or disillusionment and have made a leap\u2014consciously or unconsciously\u2014into a secular framing of Christianity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacques Derrida\u2014the literature professor who coined the term deconstruction<\/em>\u2014defined this vision of life as that which sees all \u201ctruth\u201d as originating in power structures. This means, for the true deconstructor, the history of the church, the Scriptures, and local pastors have no real authority over the definition of Christianity. They\u2019re seen as part of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony is that this supposed rejection of external influence often leads to a faith that is remarkably similar to the American and Western vision of life. The great paradox of individualism is that the individual, in rejecting all authorities, fails to see how their own individuality is deeply shaped by the informal authorities around them: television, music, cultural assumptions formed by centuries of history and philosophy, Western rhythms of life, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thetrue deconstructor needs the same kind of pre-evangelism practices we\u2019d offer to someone outside the faith. Their secularized vision of love, freedom, and beauty may sound inspiring, but it is dead in the water. It promises what it cannot provide and leaves people wanting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As pastors, our task is to affirm the deep longings underneath their questions\u2014the ache for wholeness, justice, and belonging\u2014and then gently uncover how the secularized vision they\u2019ve adopted falls short. Only Jesus\u2014as our loving Priest, liberating Prophet, and peaceful King\u2014can bring these dreams from hope to fulfillment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicholas McDonald serves as associate pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian in Indianapolis. He is the author of The Light in Our Eyes<\/em> and Faker<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time I heard the term, I was a campus minister at the University of Missouri. I figured I knew how to respond to it. But after several dozen conversations with deconstructing college students, it became clear: I didn\u2019t have the tools to help these students re-engage with Jesus.  Often, students would raise fairly Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":1790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[429],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3424,3748,3827,4604,4606,4608],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-1789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-apologetics","tax_ctp_tags-deconstruction","tax_ctp_tags-doubt","tax_ctp_tags-pastor","tax_ctp_tags-pastors-role","tax_ctp_tags-pastoral-care"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nPastoring in the Age of Deconstruction - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Not all deconstruction is the same. 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