Ep 91: The Prophetic Voice of Deconstruction, with Scot McKnight

The Church Lobby

Karl Vaters talks with Scot McKnight about what we can learn from those who are deconstructing their faith.

This conversation is based on the content of Scot’s new book (co-written with Tommy Preson Phillips), Invisible Jesus: A Book about Leaving the Church and Looking for Christ.

This is a challenging book and a challenging conversation, especially if you are to the right of center theologically and politically (like Scot and Karl). But I encourage you not to write it off for those reasons.

Scot makes the case, through personal observation and thorough statistics, that people who use a term like “deconstruction” are probably not leaving Jesus, but are usually trying to find a simpler, more genuine representation of him than what they’ve seen in many of our churches. Deconstructors are asking important questions and shining a light on issues we need to pay attention to.

Links from this Episode:

• Invisible Jesus: A Book about Leaving the Church and Looking for Christ
• The New Testament In Color
• Nick Crawley - Bible For Life

Bonus Content Summary

The Three Stages of Deconstruction

From chapter 6 of Invisible Jesus: A Book about Leaving the Church and Looking for Christ, Scot McKnight shares the three distinct steps most deconstructors go through (Liminality, Elimination, and Liberation), and what they mean.

Knowing these phases can be very helpful for us, as church leaders, to be involved in the conversation with them. When we step into this space instead of running from it, we have the chance to learn, and to guide them as they seek to draw closer to Jesus.