Building the faith:

In Japan today, people are cleaning up. Before they can do any new building, they have to destroy the old water washed and earthquake crumbled buildings to start again. Yet, these are their homes, their schools, their shops and theaters. They are theirs, and yet they have to deconstruct before they can reconstruct their own. They have to face that what was past is no longer useable. They have to figure out how to rebuild with the history of the past in mind.

It seems lately that we, churchy types, do a great deal of deconstructing. It is all around us. Authors like Marcus Borg, James Bryan Smith and top selling pastor Rob Bell are all ‘deconstructing’. They are trying to remove the old broken down and unjust theologies and systems in order to reconstruct the faith that Jesus builds. Sometimes they are brilliant and offer new light on old problems. Sometimes they make the issues worse or even water down the faith. What I find most fascinating is that they are willing to enter into the deconstruction zones at all.

The reasons why we need to ‘deconstruct’ is clear when you look at society today. Less and less people are convinced by the old ways of the creedal and confessional church. More and more people are leaving the traditional church in search of some greater meaning. Spirituality is up – congregations are down. Faith is pluralistic – denominations are insular.

I think cleaning up is a good thing and goodness knows I am not afraid of change, but let’s work together on this deconstruction. First of all, it makes the job more fun and second, doing things in community is bound to be more Godly.

We should look for the original intent, question the easy answers and examine the path with the light of Christ. I want to have some frank conversations about ‘heaven and hell’, ‘forgiveness and sin’, and even ‘war and peace’. In the near future, I will be setting up some dialogues with other pastors and theologians to talk about deconstructing and reconstructing our faith. Look for these dialogues and enter in the ‘Reconstruction’!

With abiding love,
Pastor Lynnae