Recently, our wet/dry vacuum stopped working. My wife and I had been cleaning our carpet, and we started to notice a faint burning smell. Sure enough, the nozzle stopped functioning.
After a quick Google search, we were able to diagnose a few causes for the breakdown. We were left with a question—should we try to fix this, or should we buy a new one?
Over the years, we also asked similar questions in regard to our dishwasher, garbage disposal, laundry machine, roof tiles, wood flooring, cellar door, and our car. And every time, after weighing the costs, we would either choose to replace the broken item or choose to repair the broken item.
Throughout church history, and especially in very recent years in modern America, many Christians have had a similar concern in regard to their personal faith.
For whatever reason, their faith isn’t working the way it’s supposed to. Something is wrong. They feel that God isn’t listening to their prayers anymore. Or they feel that they aren’t getting anything out of sermons anymore. Or they start to doubt their previous stances on specific topics—whether it is sexuality, creationism, the biblical canon, or something else. Or they feel hurt by Christians leaders who have let them down.
Whatever it is, they’ve noticed that something has changed in their faith, and they also come to a point of decision. Do I need to replace my faith with something else, or somehow do I need to recalibrate my faith?
Defining Replacement and Recalibration
Sometimes people use the term “deconstruction” to describe this experience. But that term can sometimes be confusing, because it can mean so many different things. When some people say “deconstruction,” they mean to say that they are completely abandoning their previous faith. They are replacing it with something else. But when other people say “deconstruction,” they mean to say that they are leaving behind human traditions or ideologies that they used to hold onto, in the hopes that they will possess a more pure faith. They seek to recalibrate their faith.
And here’s why this distinction between replacement and recalibration is so important. Sometimes, recalibration is healthy. Sometimes, the work of questioning one’s assumptions, exploring different perspectives, working through the implications, and coming out the other side with new ideas is a vital part of our Christian growth.
The apostle Peter went through this process when it came to his understanding of the Gentiles. Martin Luther went through this process when it came to his understanding of righteousness. John Newton went through this process when it came to his understanding of slavery. All of these people went through a spiritual journey in which they realized that their previous position was wrong. And as a result, they recalibrated.
Recalibration in the Past and Present
In John 9, Jesus heals a man who is born blind. Some Pharisees come and confront the formerly blind man, interrogating him to determine whether this healing was from God or from demons. They eventually bring in the man’s parents, but his parents don’t want to pick a side. The defer to their son, and their reasoning is explained in a parenthetical statement in verse 22: “(His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.)”
The leaders of the synagogue had determined that those who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. As a result, most people were too afraid to confess Jesus to be the Christ. Those who were curious, like Nicodemus in John 3, could only resort to meeting with Jesus in secret.
Unfortunately, many of our churches today are similar to this synagogue in John 9. There is no room for questioning our authorities. Whether it is explicit or implicit, it feels as if asking questions would result in excommunication. And therefore, there is no room for recalibration. Those who have doubts only do so in secret.
The reasoning behind church leaders wanting theological control is often well-intended. Leaders don’t want their congregants to fall into a slippery slope toward apostasy. For example, if people start questioning male eldership, they might start questioning biblical sexuality, and then they might start questioning the infallibility of the Bible, and then they might start questioning the resurrection of Jesus, and then they might not be a follower of Jesus anymore!
But wouldn’t the opposite also be true? When a church does not allow room for recalibration, then those who feel the need to recalibrate will resort to replacement.
Some Christians leave their faith because of the foundations of the faith. That’s unfortunate, but expected. However, many Christians leave their faith not because of first-order gospel issues, but because of secondary ones. That is not just unfortunate but preventable.
These Christians are often in environments in which a very specific view of the Christian faith is rigidly enforced. Other Christian perspectives are regularly mocked, criticized, and demonized. Now, in this context, if somebody starts to doubt their specific view, then what can they do? They have been trained to believe that their specific theological tribe possesses the only legitimate way to practice Christianity. And so they conclude that the whole Christian faith must be in doubt. Because they do not know or trust anybody outside of their specific theological tribe, they decide to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and they leave the faith altogether.
We need to allow for people to recalibrate. We cannot be regularly demonizing everybody who changes their view. We need to normalize people wandering around within the kingdom of God. It is okay for a brother and sister to have a different view than me. I may disagree with that person, but I will still love that person the way Jesus calls me to. After all, there are multiple areas in which Jesus probably disagrees with me, yet he loves me the same.
Hold Fast to Jesus
Finally, if you are tempted to go through a process of deconstruction, please hear me out. Maybe you want something more genuine, more authentic, or more congruent. I applaud you for wanting that. Perhaps this is part of God’s plan to renew your inner self day by day (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:16). But I want to exhort you, as you deconstruct, hold fast to Jesus.
It is healthy to admit that you were wrong. It is also healthy sometimes to realize that a pastor you used to admire is wrong. But just because they are wrong does not mean God is wrong. You can deconstruct, but please do not deconstruct the cornerstone, who is Jesus.
In John 9, the religious leaders of the synagogue eventually have a public confrontation with the formerly blind man, and they get so upset that “they cast him out” (John 9:34). But the next verse reads, “Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’” (John 9:35).
The message of the gospel is that Jesus finds those who are lost. Those whom religious leaders cast out, Jesus will never cast out.
So yes, recalibrate if you need to. Leave your theological tribe if you need to. But look for Jesus. He will be waiting for you. He will repair you. He will heal you.