The current grassroots movement of deconstruction is the harvest of decades of planting.
It is the visible branches of a reformation that has been brewing for a very long time. The ingredients are not a simple recipe, but the recipe is important.
Even the recent conditions that propelled many to finally move are only the precedent, but not the cause. The reformation has been necessary and long coming.
Like the Great Reformation, this one is also a response to the ongoing calcification of the knowledge of good and evil.
The nationalism many point to, the outright abuse being uncovered, the burnout of leaders, the rise and fall of the “mega” and a range of denominations, and the non-returning congregants post-Covid are all branches of the same tree.
This tree produces an outward appearance of good produced by knowledge and willpower, and is a counterfeit to the Tree of Life.
The result is a willpower-constructed version of something designed to be lived by connection to God and a focus on knowing right things.
This focus on knowing right things produces a focus on the people who know the right things.
The result has been a divide between clergy and laity and a focus on a platform in front of a congregation instead of growth together as a community.
The people placed on the platform are deemed right-thing-knowers and attributed authority by structure and position instead of by longevity of Jesus living through them.
Positional authority can hire and fire. Spiritual authority can calm storms and silence spiritual forces.
When systems platform people because of positional authority or human charisma, we set up all of the issues that have led to the current reformation, otherwise known as deconstruction.
When church activities, including weekend services, can be done with or without God’s presence, we set up the current reformation.
Leaders look for ways to have human influence: nationalism, abusive power strategies, catchy songs and events, and more.
Leaders who have been accustomed to being the keepers of knowing right things evaluate this reformation through the same lens as they have built their organizations. As a result, they completely miss what is really happening.
These leaders who do not take the time or effort to engage accuse deconstructing people, reformers, of being wrong-thing-knowers because any other definition would require these leaders to question their role and their model.
The recent issues that have pushed people into reformation are simply the long-term fruit of trying to grow churches based on the knowledge of good and evil, which leads to trying to gain human power over organizations.
This reformation was inevitable.