Deconstructing church can help your kids find authentic faith

Jenny Sanders thinks that tradition for tradition’s sake won’t keep young faith alive. Christian families must embrace honest questions and authentic discipleship—without watering down the gospel

Deconstructed cheesecake, anyone? Deconstructed coffee? Everywhere you go, for better or worse, people seem to be deconstructing something.

It’s a worthwhile exercise if we’re exploring why we do what we do within the confines of any institution; but alarm bells ring when we sense that truth itself is being deconstructed. That’s a red flag because we know that it’s Jesus who is The Truth personified (John 14:6) and we shouldn’t even attempt to deconstruct Him.

If we want to make the gathering of God’s people relevant and accessible for our children, it’s time we asked some (probably) uncomfortable questions

Like it or not, we all have a culture (‘the way we do things around here’) within our family, our workplace and our social sphere. Each church has a culture all its own; each denomination or ‘flavour’ does things in a particular way. Some of those practices have been inherited from years ago and serve little practical purpose in 2026.

If we want to make the gathering of God’s people relevant and accessible for our children, it’s time we asked some (probably) uncomfortable questions about the way we do things, and why.

We should be encouraging our congregation, regardless of age to ……