There are many deconstructed evangelicals in our congregation who desire to reclaim and reconstruct a vital spirituality for themselves and for their children. However, we are struggling to meet this desire. While our church leadership has worked hard to provide curriculum and build trellises to scaffold this desire for spiritual regrowth, congregants have helpfully expressed that they still need something to reconstruct their faiths: Something is missing. This is the problem this project looks to address: to identify what’s missing so we can better help those who want to reconstruct their faith and spirituality.

There are four major tasks for this project:

The first task is descriptive: While many congregants express their hunger for something more, they are unable to articulate or identify what it is they really need to grow. They vaguely sense they are missing something, but even then, that description is murky at best. The first part of the project is to bring into focus the real losses and longings of those in our congregation who have deconstructed.

The second task is exploratory: We are not the only church that has deconstructed evangelicals attending; what have others done? By networking and interviewing other ministers, attending a conference, and reading articles and books, we will gain a sense of what has been tried, to learn from others.

The third task is experimental: Bringing together the clarified needs of our aspiring reconstructionists, alongside the wisdom we glean from others, we will create an experimental curriculum that hopefully aids faith reconstruction. Then we will see if the curriculum effectively aided members in their reconstruction.

The final task is documentary: Collating what we learn from description, exploration, and experimentation that can be shared with others.