Can I Question My Faith?

Yes, you can question your faith. Jesus welcomed questions, and even a pastor who has followed Him for decades still has plenty. But there is a difference between pulling weeds and bulldozing the whole garden. Instead of deconstruction, Pastor Marty Sloan suggests discovery: bring your questions to Jesus and to people you trust, keep what is true, and stay in community while you grow.

What is deconstruction?

Deconstruction is a word gaining attention in our culture, especially among Gen Z and millennials. On Kingdom Over Culture, Pastor Jason McElwee described people pulling pieces out of their faith, and some walking away from it completely. Many have honest questions. Some have doubts. Some carry church hurt.

Some traditions passed down in churches had nothing to do with the teachings of Christ, Pastor Jason acknowledged, and questioning those is healthy. The danger is letting a 60-second clip online become the reason to tear down 20 years of faith, when no one has opened the Word.

Is church hurt a reason to walk away from faith?

Pastor Marty was honest: the worst hurts in his life have come in church. He is a pastor, and he is still in church. We face conflict and disappointment everywhere in life. Someone in a church may really have wronged you. Gathering every hurt into one unified complaint against the whole church, though, is in his words "a spiritual deception."

The church is full of people. God uses people to help people, and the enemy uses people to hurt people, so we start to think people are the problem. "I'm not attacking your pain," Pastor Marty said. "But I am calling you to rethink the language behind how you label it."

He once met a man who, on his first day at the church, brought a list of questions about its finances, carrying pain from a past pastor. Pastor Marty's advice: wipe your feet at the mat and come in fresh. He also admits the church has issues, and he has a list of his own.

If you have been hurt by a church, Calvary Cares offers pastoral care and prayer, a safe place to start talking about it.

Did Jesus welcome questions?

He did. As the hosts put it, Jesus was a "Q&A king" who never shied away from a hard question. Pastor Marty pointed to a phrase Jesus used again and again in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus acknowledged what people had been taught, then set it straight.

You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Matthew 5:43 to 44

Jesus removed a wrong idea and put truth in its place. Pastor Jason also pointed to the father in Mark 9:24 who cried out, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" and to Thomas, whom Jesus invited to touch His scars rather than sending him away. Both brought their doubts to the right person. For more on Thomas, listen to Can Doubt Be Good for You? from Beyond Sunday.

What is the difference between deconstruction and discovery?

Pastor Marty told a story about his backyard. Tree work meant pulling up his patio pavers, and he forgot to number them. When he put them back, he had several left over. Deconstruction, he said, has to be careful not to just destroy. There is a difference between weeding a garden and flattening it with a bulldozer, and the deconstruction movement often works like the bulldozer.

He has done the weeding himself. He was raised in a church culture he calls "horrifically legalistic," focused on outward appearance. He hasn't believed those things for a long time. As he learned, studied, and grew, he removed some things he used to believe. He did not throw out his faith.

So he suggests a new word: discovery. To deconstruct is to remove and pull away. To discover is to explore. He encourages an inquisitive faith. "The more I've learned, the more questions I've got," he said. He doesn't read the Bible to prove God; he reads it because he already believes in God, and then he brings God his questions. "Since when did me knowing everything become the priority?"

Some questions don't need to divide us at all. When someone pressed him on the age of the earth, he said if he gets to heaven and the earth is young, he's good, and if it's old, he's still good. Hold firmly to the few things Scripture makes clear, keep discovering the rest, and don't give up what you believe deeply because of what you don't yet know. Faith, he reminded us, is belief, a hope-filled trust in the Word of God.

Where should you take your questions?

To wise counsel, not the algorithm. "The algorithm can't become your theology," Pastor Jason said. You may not get every answer, but you can drink from the right water holes.

Pastor Marty pointed to young Samuel, who kept hearing a voice in the night and went to Eli. On the third time, Eli understood and told him how to answer.

Speak, for your servant is listening.

1 Samuel 3:10

When your heart is stirring, go to someone further along the path. As one host put it, if you wanted to understand your wife better, you would not ask a man who doesn't respect marriage. Many people with good questions have simply gone to the wrong sources. Deception has worked this way since the garden, where a deceptive conversation brought destruction.

He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

Genesis 3:1

Why does community matter when you have doubts?

Because the enemy's tactic is to isolate you. Alone with your doubts and your feed, everybody becomes wrong: the church, then God. The hosts noted that Paul mentions a man named Demas three times. He was a faithful co-worker, and then he turned back.

For Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.

2 Timothy 4:10

"As long as I'm deconstructing, I'm not accountable," Pastor Marty said. "While I'm discovering, I'm accountable." Pastor Jason has walked his own Gen Z kids through their doubts, and his answer stays the same: run to Jesus.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

2 Corinthians 4:7

The gospel is held by people who are clay, broken and in need of it themselves. "I'm the preacher of the gospel who needs the gospel," Pastor Marty said. It is a perfect message inside imperfect people. So keep the structure. Have your questions, have your doubts, and keep following Jesus.

Common questions

Is it okay to question my faith?

Yes. Jesus welcomed questions, and a disciple is a lifelong learner. The healthiest questions are brought to God and to trusted, mature believers, with the goal of discovering what is true rather than tearing everything down.

What is faith deconstruction?

Deconstruction is the process of pulling apart beliefs you were taught, sometimes to the point of leaving the faith. Removing traditions that never came from Jesus can be healthy. The danger is dismantling everything, often alone and guided by online voices, with nothing to rebuild on.

I was hurt by a church. Do I have to go back?

Your pain is real, and someone may have truly wronged you. But one person's wrong is not the whole church, and it is not God. Talk it through with someone you trust, and give a healthy church family a fresh start.

Where should I take hard questions about the Bible?

Start with God in prayer and with Scripture itself. Then go to a pastor, a group leader, or a believer further along than you. Avoid making a feed or a short clip your main teacher.