Good points all around. I was a youth ministry professional for 18 years and a Preaching Minister (some traditions say, “Pastor”) for 12. My MA is in Biblical text.

“Deconstruction” was a term referencing philosophy (see my earlier comment), not a theological term.

Oh how we love to borrow and redefine!

What is called faith deconstruction we called “having doubts”, “searching,” “struggling with faith questioning.”

Most of my youth ministry colleagues (myself included) viewed it as healthy. It was part of the developmental process. A common sentiment was, “you cannot have your own faith until you go through a stage of doubting, struggle, and questioning.”

This has always been part of any kind of faith development. Questions are welcomed. Doubts are not condemned, but welcomed.

As someone once quipped, “Doubt is not the opposite of faith—certainty is.”

And the textbooks for those struggling with faith? A serious comb-through of the Psalms (as a prayer book), Ecclesiastes, and Job. Sit a while in those texts and you’ll have more questions!

My point is, God is comfortable with my doubts, my anger (and yes, you can scream at God, question him, and even rage—God can take it, and “he knows we’re made of dust” to quote one of those Psalms). The Psalms teaches us we can question God, Job teaches us we can complain about God to his face! And wonder that we may be wrong? Or worry “what if there is nothing there?

There’s another name for that kind of “deconstruction” around your late 30s-50s…

It’s called midlife.

Sorry for the stream of conscious rambling.

All that to say, “spot on”—embrace the struggle, it’s not the end of faith. It could very well be the beginning of an “owned” faith.