If you’ve been around church circles over the past decade, you’ve probably heard the word deconstruction. For some, it has meant tearing down unhealthy forms of Christianity, dismantling harmful teachings, or questioning traditions that don’t hold up under the weight of Scripture and lived reality. For some it’s meant that they’ve completely abandoned their faith. And that’s a scary reality for many of us.
But I’ve noticed another, quieter trend that feels different. I call it reconfiguration.
Rather than starting from scratch, many lifelong Christians are gently reorienting their faith around the full testimony of Scripture and the life and witness of Jesus. They’re not abandoning their foundation; they’re reorganizing it. They’re realizing that not everything has to fit neatly into airtight theological boxes. Instead, they’re asking: What does it really mean to follow the Way of Jesus in my life, my community, and my world?
The result is a more robust faith that lives out the gospel rather than just punching a ticket to heaven. That robust faith leads to spiritual renewal and spiritual renewal leads to revival. Hear me out.
The Sports Rebuild Metaphor
Sports teams give us a helpful picture of this.
When a team bottoms out—years of losing, broken culture, no real hope for the future—they sometimes blow it all up. They trade away their best players, fire the front office, and announce a total rebuild. It’s deconstruction in the purest form. You tear it down to the studs, hoping one day you’ll have the right pieces to build something new.
But that’s not the only way forward.
Think of the dynasty teams—your Patriots, your Yankees, your Braves. The teams that never seem to go away, even when they don’t win a title. They are usually only one season away from making a run at it. These teams don’t blow everything up when they hit a rough patch. They reorganize. They shuffle priorities, draft with wisdom, bring in new coaching voices, or re-purpose veteran players. They don’t lose sight of their identity—they refine it.
That’s what I see happening in modern Christianity. Many of us don’t feel the need to abandon the faith handed to us. Instead, we’re reconfiguring it.
Reconfiguration doesn’t mean scrapping the whole faith. It means reshaping around the way of Jesus.
What Reconfiguration Looks Like
Reconfiguration isn’t about ignoring what’s broken. It’s about naming what doesn’t look like Jesus and reorganizing our faith-life around what does. Here are a few ways it’s happening today:
1. Prayer That’s Relational, Not Just Ritual
Instead of reciting words without meaning, people are rediscovering prayer as conversation with God. Silence, listening, and honest lament are finding their way back into Christian practice.
2. Scripture Read as Story, Not Just System
Christians are shifting from reading the Bible only as a rule book or a proof-text for doctrine. They’re learning to see it as a unified story pointing to Jesus—and as a living word that shapes life today.
3. Church as Community, Not Just Institution
Rather than measuring success by attendance numbers or programs, more churches are asking: Are people being seen, known, and loved? The emphasis is on authentic community, not just institutional survival.
4. Faith That Embraces Mystery, Not Just Answers
Instead of forcing every question into a tight theological box, Christians are learning that faith means trust—even when we don’t have every detail worked out. Mystery isn’t a threat; it’s an invitation.
5. Mission That’s About Service, Not Just Statements
Reconfiguration means asking whether our faith produces love, justice, and mercy in the world. Does it look like Jesus feeding, healing, and welcoming? If not, it’s time to re-prioritize.
Reconfiguration, Not Ruin
Reconfiguration doesn’t mean walking away from our foundation. It means re-prioritizing what matters most:
- The way of Jesus more than the defense of systems.
- The call to love more than the compulsion to be “right.”
- The story of Scripture in its fullness more than selective proof-texting.
This isn’t nostalgia—it’s renewal. It’s the Spirit whispering, You don’t need to scrap the whole thing. You need to get back to the center.
A Word of Hope
If you find yourself weary of trying to jam every question into a theological box, you’re not alone. Many Christians are realizing that Jesus doesn’t call us to airtight systems—He calls us to follow Him.
And just like those great teams that reconfigure their rosters to keep the dynasty alive, maybe the Spirit is reconfiguring our hearts, our churches, and our imaginations—so that the witness of Jesus can keep moving forward in the world. Maybe we are in the middle of the greatest rebuild the world has ever seen.
Not deconstruction. Not destruction.
Reconfiguration.
Grace and Recovery 