We need to understand the experience of deconstructors

I think there are two things we need to do. We need to understand the experience of deconstructors.

We should understand the trauma of these experiences.

But I wanna say something else. We should all be deconstructing our faith. We’d better do it. Because our faith becomes a culture, a culture so webbed into the purity of truth, it’s hard to separate the two. And we better do some deconstructing, or we’re gonna find ourselves again and again in these sad places.

For me, I’ve accepted the fact that I’m gonna be a sad man for the rest of my life because I get calls all the time of the saddest things that are happening in the church. And I, you know, I celebrate the church of Jesus Christ. I celebrate the places where it’s a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. I love the gospel. I have no other wisdom than that.

But I’m sad for the church. And I’m sad we’ve become so loyal to this culture we’re afraid to deconstruct in places where it’s lost its way, it’s harmful, it’s producing things that allow the world to mock, and cause young people to walk away, and leaders not to be rescued from themselves, and ministries explode. And so there is a devastating humility that comes when you’re, really, you’re willing to deconstruct something you’ve given your life to.

I mean that in a positive sense. Now I’m not talking about apostasy here, but willing to step back and say, where do we just seem to take this apart, abandon our loyalty, stand with courage, and say, “This is not good enough.”

– Paul David Tripp, “Aftermath – The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill”