03-22-2021 CRISIS OF FAITH - Facing the DECONSTRUCTION

As a GenX who is approaching my mid-fifties, I am now the “middle-aged guy” in the room when it comes to declaring, defining and delivering Biblical Christianity...

We see a LOT of loss in the church each year… Some of the attrition is due to Boomers, GenXer’s passing away, but there is also a lot of attrition in the GenX as well as GenZ groups do to what is now a hot-topic buzzword called DECONSTRUCTION..

FIRST, Let’s understand the generational Monikers...

LOST Generation - Those who returned from WW1 - wandering, unsure, purposeless, hedonistic

Traditionalists - 1922-1945 (Includes “Greatest Generation”) - the “really old” folks...

Baby Boomers… these are the current retiring & “older” generation Born from 1946-1964

GenX - Boomer Children were born from 1965 to 1984

GenY - Millennials were born from 1985-1995

Genz - Zoomers Born from 1996 to early 2010’s

GenAlpha - 2010’s (first born totally in 2000’s)

Right now, the Boomers have moved almost completely into retirement, and the early GenX (My age) are the middle-aged people “running things” outside the political spectrum...

The GenY/Millennials are now out of college and in their 20’s through their 30’s facing careers, crisis, commitment challenges and have been having and raising children for a few years...

The GenZ / Zoomers are reaching college age and the early Zoomers are now fresh out in the work-world as well.. They are the “new thinkers” and are often committed to technology, the environment and the “new justice” movements...

In the past several years, the “evangelical community has been turned upside down with the number of GenZ in late high school through college and immediately post-college range that are looking critically at the FAITH of their parents, pastors and parishes.

They are deciding it is time to QUESTION and DECONSTRUCT what they have been learning and put it to the TEST of the MODERN, the TEST of the SCIENTIFIC, and the TEST of the EXPERIENTIAL..

The outcome has been that there have been many, even stretching back into the GenZ/Millennials that are walking away from modern Christianity, Churches and Clergy.

They do not always abandon all tenants of Christianity, but many turn to Atheism, Agnosticism or Alternative beliefs/faiths to find answers to UNANSWERED QUESTIONS and UNFULFILLED PROMISES.

Let’s take a mid-level dive into the topic, and see if there are any Biblical guidelines for how to handle the CRISIS of FAITH - Facing the Deconstruction of our Faith...

DECONSTRUCTION - the current buzz word used by those who are questioning and seeking as well as those trying to understand the paradigm shift...

A number of steps, practices or tactics are used, but they generally cover:

Deconstruct Practices (silly, unproductive, forced, tired, etc)

Deconstructing Beliefs / Codes / Rules [older adults take this as an attack]

Deconstructing Instructions [Why? This is not relevant to me, this makes no sense,

Deconstructing Saints/Teachers/Martyrs [They are moral failures, They have lied, They are not who I thought they were/Disillusionment, Their theology is whack]

Demonization of Legalism/Critics [The previous is often seen as Tyrannical, Two-Faced)

WHY?

They Depart from the Faith through DEVOTION to DECEITFUL spirits (1 Timothy 4:1-6)

They TURN AWAY because the TESTIMONY no longer TICKLES (2 Timothy 1:8-18 particularly 8 & 15)

They become ADDICTED to ARGUING (2 Timothy 2:14)

They PURSUE PASSIONS and PLEASURES (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

They DESERT the DEDICATED and their own DEDICATION to the Faith because they are unable to DENY the allure of the world (2 Timothy 4:10)