James Pence
How God is Faithful Through Loss and Adversity
What is deconstruction? I can describe what it feels like better than I can explain what it is. Deconstruction feels like walking alone through a pitch-black forest. It’s the unsettling feeling you get when the ground you’re walking on becomes unstable…
Can you come stand in line for us?” my daughter asked. “The line’s moving slowly and we have to be at a photoshoot in a few minutes.” I went to stand in a fan-expo autograph line but got far more than an autograph…
As I stood outside the door of the room where my daughter and her bridesmaids had just finished dressing, the wedding coordinator cautioned me, “Don’t cry.” She opened the door. I cried. When I saw my daughter in her wedding dress for the first time, I lost it. Charlene looked at the ceiling and fanned her face to keep her makeup from running. The bridesmaids sang silly songs to distract us. I somehow managed to pull myself together and we made it down the aisle with no more tears, although we both had to tell each other, “We don’t need …
A DECONSTRUCTION OBSERVED INTERLUDE : “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5b) Writing the story of my deconstruction/reconstruction is far more challenging than I expected. I am processing more than ten years of experiences. Often as I write, I remember important details that I need to include in the story. And more often than not, as I explore these details others surface. The challenging thing is that many of these either disrupt my carefully planned timeline or they require adjustments to things I’ve already written. In short, at times I need to step back and …
…and How it Relates to My Deconstruction I completed my deconstruction out of the Charismatic Movement in 1975 with a Bachelor of Theology thesis on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. For some time after that, I took every opportunity to oppose charismatic teachings and even developed a seminar on charismatic theology aimed at refuting those teachings. But over the years my hostility mellowed and softened. Now, nearly fifty years later I look back quite fondly on my charismatic experience. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that I treasure it. Some aspects of my charismatic experience are …