Dealing with Deconstruction
A presentation from the D6 Conference in Singapore
Earlier this week, I returned home after two weeks in Singapore and Malaysia, lecturing on apologetics and family ministry. It was a delightful experience, filled with so many kind and generous people from Kuching in the east to Ipoh in the west and to Singapore in between.
One of the topics I addressed at the D6 Conference in Singapore was deconstruction. Gracia Chiang has written an excellent summary of my lecture. Here’s a sample from her article:
For any Christian parent, one of the biggest heartaches is seeing your child turn away from God.
Perhaps your son or daughter grew up in Sunday school. But when he or she hit adolescence, they started questioning their faith and eventually dropped out of church.
Unpacking the topic of deconstruction at a plenary session at D6 Singapore Family Conference 2025, keynote speaker Dr Timothy Paul Jones offered tips on how to engage with youths who are dealing with doubts.
Held on July 25 and 26 at Paya Lebar Methodist Church, the conference saw over 400 people from more than 50 churches come together to learn how to live out Deuteronomy 6 in their homes and communities.
A professor of Christian Family Ministry at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a pastor at Sojourn Church Midtown, Dr Jones shared about the trends he is seeing in the US.
“For many of these students, deconstruction of their faith—taking it apart—ends up leading them to deconversion from their faith. “That is to say, leaving their faith behind. They reject the faith that they once held.”
Highlighting a study conducted by his doctoral students, Dr Jones pointed out that among those who in the first year of American state college or university profess to be a Christian, four out of 10 will disown their faith by the time they graduate….
Revealing that he, too, went through a similar experience during his freshman year [of college], it was by God’s grace that Dr Jones discovered Surprised By Joy by CS Lewis, who wrote about his journey from atheism to Christianity.
“God used that book and some others to bring me back to Himself, such that it really set the whole trajectory of my life towards apologetics,” he said.
Describing what he went through as a “painful period of time”, Dr Jones recounted: “I didn’t have anybody in my church or around me who was able to help me in that time. I had all these questions, but nobody I felt comfortable talking to about the doubts I had.”
You can read the rest of her summary here: “Doubts and Deconstruction: How Can we Help Youth Struggling with Their Faith?”
