Many of my friends and congregants who go on a deconstruction journey aren’t trying to lose their faith. They don’t want to end up in a Jesus-free place. They just want to make sense out of the faith they grew up in and let go of stuff that’s stale or stifling. They actually want a stronger faith, not no faith—more of Jesus, not less.
If that describes you, here’s food for thought: Deconstruction is not what you’re actually looking for. Disenculturation is.
Disenculturation is the process used by missionaries to differentiate the gospel from culture. Having moved from one culture to another, missionaries can see that the gospel is like a kernel protected by an outer husk (culture). Their job is to ensure that the gospel kernel is free to enter new cultures without being captive to its old husk. This goes all the way back to the book of Acts, when the early church had to differentiate the gospel from Judaism as it entered Gentile culture.
In the same way, you might need to differentiate the gospel from evangelical subculture. I’ve been through this process! I did not grow up in eva gelicalism, but I became a Christian inside an evangelical high school. I fell in love with the gospel it taught me, but I could also see that this evangelical world had a lot of culture that wasn’t part of the gospel. Learning to disenculturate the gospel from evangelicalism has not only saved my faith. It’s helped me love the gospel more.
If you want to go on a disenculturation journey instead of a deconstruction journey, here’s how to get started. Read More
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