Becoming Unchurched #7: Hopeful Deconstruction

I love the church. Did I say that yet?

The church is in need of an abundance of hopeful decontrutction. If you're scrathcing your head by the words, "hopeful" and "deconstruction" set next to each other, then you are not alone. Often times the term deconstruction is just an excuse to rail against something. People think deconstruction means demolition. Please follow me here, they are not the same. A person uses demolition when he or she wants to destroy something. A person uses deconstruction when he or she wants to change things for the better. Also, deconstruction must be followed by reconstruction.

I guess one way to ponder a hopeful deconstruction is to think about a marriage that has lost its zing. It doesn't need a divorce, it needs some life. In the hurting marriage there are some habits, patterned interactions, and negative expectations that have become, well, normal in the marriage. If it continues this way, then it will be headed for a divoce. However, it does not have to be that way.

For most people in any Christian tradtition, they do not need a divorce, they simply need a change in the way things are. However, if the dysfunctional pattern keeps up, it will result in a divorce. We need people within traditions to make great leaps into the culture, even if it means hurting the tradition for God's sake. Literally for the sake of God.

Wade Hodges is doing some hopeful deconstruction with his series of posts beginning here. Brian McLaren does some great hopeful deconstruction in his book, A Generous Orthodoxy.

So, becoming unchurched, so to speak, is one way to save the church from becoming completely something other than the body of Christ. Becoming unchurched is to lose everything not of God whether your tradition declares it to be or not. Yet, it is not necessary to ditch the community of faith who carries the tradition.

OK, sometimes it is necessary, but usually it is not. I am hopeful in my deconstruction because I think my tradition can take it, at least some of them can.

Next - Optimistic Reconstruction