When a Friend Has a Crisis of Faith

A conversation with Ian Harber

If you are a Christian, chances are you know someone who has deconstructed their faith or is doing so right now. You want to help them reconstruct their faith in Jesus, but you don’t know how to act or what to say.

“The truth is that we can’t control someone’s reconstruction,” writes Ian Harber.

“What we can do is create environments — both in our interpersonal relationships and in our churches — that help minimize the intensity of someone’s deconstruction by being a non-anxious presence, creating healthy relationships and churches full of trust and care, and having a more robust understanding of our faith to talk through with them.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk to Harber about what deconstruction is and how to be a better Christian friend and church community for someone who is experiencing a crisis of faith.

Ian Harber is author of Walking Through Deconstruction, published by InterVarsity Press. A writer and Christian media producer, he has written for The Gospel Coalition, Mere Orthodoxy, and RELEVANT. He writes about reconstructing faith in his newsletter Back Again, and about faith, media, and technology at Endeavor. He lives in Denton, Texas, with his wife and sons.

To listen to this podcast, click here or on the image above.

P.S. This podcast is cross-posted from InfluenceMagazine.com by permission.