Dealing with Doubts - The Church and the Deconstruction Movement, Part 1
Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram Daily Podcast
Living on the Edge
4.9 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We have all heard the stories of former pastors or church worship leaders who have walked away or “deconstructed” their faith. Chip addresses the heart of this alarming trend through an insightful conversation with pastor and author John Dickerson. Together, they will delve into the complexities of faith, doubt, and the challenges that believers face today.
Main Points
The Deconstruction Trend:- Many young people, even from strong Christian backgrounds, are questioning their beliefs.
- This trend is occurring at increasingly younger ages.
- Parents and leaders must provide a non-judgmental environment for open dialogue.
- Listening and asking questions are vital to understanding the root causes of doubt.
- Empathy and understanding are more effective than immediate answers.
- Both intellectual and emotional challenges need to be addressed.
- Providing historical and philosophical context is essential.
- Acknowledging the negative aspects of Christian history while highlighting the positive impact of Christianity.
- Strong, supportive relationships are crucial for maintaining faith.
- Young people need close friends who share their values.
- Building relationships with those outside the Christian community is important.
- Encourage open conversations and probing questions.
- Pray for God to bring supportive relationships.
- Model authentic faith.
- Address hypocracy in the church.
- Be willing to apologize for personal failures in modeling faith.
- Mentoring is important.
- Partnering with good college ministries is important.
- A vibrant faith modeled by parents has a strong influence.
- Admitting past failures and seeking forgiveness can open doors.
- Persistent prayer and support are essential for those struggling with doubts.
- God can use these challenges to strengthen faith.
- Parents and church leaders must actively engage in the lives of young people.
Broadcast Resource
Additional Resource Mentions
About Chip Ingram
Chip Ingram’s passion is helping Christians really live like Christians. As a pastor, author, and teacher for more than three decades, Chip has helped believers around the world move from spiritual spectators to healthy, authentic disciples of Jesus by living out God’s truth in their lives and relationships in transformational ways.
About John Dickerson
John Dickerson is a prize-winning research journalist, a seminary-trained pastor, and a frequent commentator in national news outlets such as USA Today. Dickerson is the author of Hope of Nations, Jesus Skeptic and serves as the lead pastor of Connection Pointe Christian Church in the Indianapolis metro area.
About Living on the Edge
Living on the Edge exists to help Christians live like Christians. Established in 1995 as the radio ministry of pastor and author Chip Ingram, God has since grown it into a global discipleship ministry. Living on the Edge provides Biblical teaching and discipleship resources that challenge and equip spiritually hungry Christians all over the world to become mature disciples of Jesus.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Do you have a friend or loved one who used to be a Christian, who say now, I don't believe |
| 0:07.8 | that anymore, that they have deconstructed their faith? |
| 0:12.0 | Well, if so, stay with me. |
| 0:13.8 | There's help on the way. |
| 0:17.7 | Welcome to this edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. |
| 0:21.6 | The mission of this daily program is to intentionally disciple Christians through the insightful Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. |
| 0:28.6 | Today we're kicking off a new series called Dealing with Doubts, Reaffirming Your Personal Faith. |
| 0:33.6 | Over the following many programs, we'll tackle the most prominent topics that cause |
| 0:38.5 | skepticism and uncertainty along our faith journey. And to help you work through many of these |
| 0:43.7 | complex issues, Chip invited his friend John Dickerson to teach a handful of messages. Also, |
| 0:49.2 | you won't want to miss Chip's riveting conversation with best-selling author and |
| 0:53.2 | apologist Sean McDowell later |
| 0:55.2 | in this series. |
| 0:56.6 | So I hope you'll be with us all along the way. |
| 0:59.0 | But to get us started, Chip and John Dickerson sat down to talk about the biggest problem |
| 1:03.3 | facing the 21st century church, why so many believers, particularly young people, are |
| 1:08.8 | walking away from their faith. So with that setup, |
| 1:11.9 | here's Chip to get the series started. |
| 1:15.0 | You may have heard of a worship leader or a famous pastor, or you may have a friend or a young |
| 1:21.1 | person or a not-so-young person who says something like, well, I used to be a Christian. I used |
| 1:26.6 | to believe in Jesus. I used to believe in Jesus. |
| 1:29.0 | I used to believe in the Bible. |
... |
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