JC Worley on Faith Deconstruction and America's Post-Christian Crisis
About this episode
JC Worley, lead pastor of Go Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia, joins Philip Cameron for a sobering and urgent conversation about one of the most dangerous spiritual trends reshaping America: faith deconstruction. Pastor Worley defines deconstruction as "the process of questioning, doubting, or ultimately rejecting certain aspects of the Christian faith," and draws a sharp distinction between healthy discipleship questions and the wholesale abandonment of biblical truth. Drawing on Pew Research projections, Worley warns that all four of their modeled scenarios point to America becoming a post-Christian nation by 2045 — within our lifetimes. He identifies the hallmarks of deconstruction: denying the authority of Scripture, choosing subjective over objective morality, abandoning church community, and reframing every negative church experience as spiritual abuse. He also raises a thought-provoking question — could this sweeping spiritual pandemic be connected to the great apostasy described in 2 Thessalonians, the "great falling away" that precedes the return of Christ? Philip adds a firsthand warning from Scotland, once called "the land of the book," where today less than one percent of the population is born again. The conversation is a clarion call for pastors, church leaders, and every believer to reclaim the authority of Scripture before America crosses a point of no return. Visit mygochurch.com to learn more about JC Worley and Go Church.
Part of our Revival collection of conversations.
What's Discussed
Pastor JC Worley of Go Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia, delivers a frank diagnosis of America's accelerating spiritual decline through the lens of faith deconstruction. Citing Pew Research, Worley warns that all four projected scenarios for Christianity in America point to the nation becoming post-Christian by 2045, with millions identifying as atheist, agnostic, or holding no faith at all. He outlines the key signs of deconstruction — rejecting Scripture's authority, embracing subjective morality, abandoning church community — and asks whether this trend is connected to the great apostasy of 2 Thessalonians. Philip Cameron adds a sobering parallel from Scotland, once the land of the book, now less than one percent born again. Together they call the Church to reclaim its voice and stand on the absolute authority of God's Word.
- Defining Faith Deconstruction in America
- Pew Research: Post-Christian Nation by 2045
- Signs and Symptoms of Deconstruction
- Scotland as a Warning to America
- Deconstruction and the Great Apostasy
- Subjective Truth Eroding Biblical Authority
- Drifting From the Foundation of Faith
Featuring JC Worley
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hello and welcome to Daily Faith today. I'll just wait — reduced introduction — they show and I'm just so glad you're here. I don't know where you are, but last night here in Tennessee the winds were howling. I was lying in my bed thinking, oh my Lord, this house is going to go away. It was crazy. So I hope wherever you are — I understand that in Alabama there's been some deaths from these tornadoes — the terrible time of year, because what happens is these tornado days is a chain, so they run long ways.
Philip:I know many people watch us in Britain and Europe and you don't have the same kind of tornadoes that we have. You have one once in a purple moon. Over here this time of year, this is the highest season, along with spring, and the terrible thing is it's not just one tornado going by itself — they get in a train, they call it, and you can have hours and hours of terrible weather. Last night was one of those nights. So wherever you are in America, if you're in Alabama or Mississippi or Louisiana and Georgia and some parts of Tennessee, we just pray that the Lord kept you safe last night, and we are glad to be hidden in the hollow of his hand.
Philip:We've got a great show. A new guest on the program, and a lot of times when you have guests come on, it's wonderful to have them, but once in a while you get a friend — a new friend — and you feel like it's a friend you haven't met before. And we have a great JC Worley with us today. He pastors a great multi-campus church. Now listen, if you love your pastor, you need to get him to watch today's program, because he's going to be talking about something that I've been watching for years take place in America.
Philip:And unless something happens, this country is going to be in dire trouble. Within our lifespan we are going to see a terrible thing happen in America, unless God visits his church and we humble ourselves and hear from God and allow revival to flow back into this country. We're not too far gone, but I'll tell you what, we're getting awful close to the edge. And he's got a word — a rhema — for you and for your pastor and for your church.
Philip:So if you want to do that, you can just go — it's dailyfaith.tv. Wherever he is, if he's in his car, he can just dial, type in dailyfaith.tv and watch this program live today. And I really feel that God is going to be exalted today and your heart's going to be challenged. We've got a brand new book — a brand new book — and it's called Eternally Grateful, and it's written by one of our girls that has been part of the ministry now for 15, 16 years. We rescued her from the largest orphanage in Moldova, and what she did was she compiled some of the most recent testimonies of the lives that we have rescued from hell.
Philip:And it's these kids telling their stories — how God saved them and rescued them from poverty and abuse. And you can get that by going to our website and ordering it. It's brand new. I want to thank you — you can get that. I'll talk about it later on the program. Listen, I'm absolutely delighted to be here on CTN every Monday night at 9 o'clock, seen across the country. If you're watching it on the different networks, you can get it on DirecTV channel 376, Dish is channel 262, Glory Star is channel 117.
Philip:We're also seen on Destiny. A dear friend of mine, Dale Hill, has started a brand new network, and this is God's — this is growing. And I just heard the other day that it expanded into different networks, different markets, and I'm very proud of what he's doing. He built the original PTL program network and also Kenneth Copeland's Victory Network, and he started his own. And he's so kind to us and allows us to go on there. And we are one of the flagship programs on Integrity Television, Destiny TV, and the mighty TCT Network, which is seen across the country with 50 local stations. All of you there — we're just delighted to be part of your family. And also of course CTN.
Philip:So watch us and tell your friends about us, because we are growing and God is faithful. We love what we do. My Lord, we love what we do. The craziest things happen in the most horrendous circumstances — the darker the night, the brighter the light — and we are seeing that happen in ministry. And we've got some exciting stuff to share with you as we start the program. Listen, I'm delighted you're here. Welcome to Daily Faith.
Philip:Hello, my friends. Welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron, and God has had you look into our program today for a reason. He's going to talk to you through the show. God challenged us to have a program and call it Daily Faith because we need our faith affirmed. There's the amen of heaven that can be used in your life to give you confidence to keep going, and whatever you are and whatever circumstance you find yourself in, God wants you to know that he loves you with a love that will never let you go. There's nothing you have done, there's nothing you can do, that his grace and his love and his mercy cannot retrieve you from the mess you might be in.
Philip:So the devil comes along and says, you're done, you're finished, it's all over, and God says, my grace is sufficient. My dad — when I was growing up in Scotland — he had a motor car, automobiles you call them here, and the wiper blades didn't work off the motor. They worked off vacuum. So what happened was the little wiper blade on his window — there wasn't one on the passenger side, because who needs one on the passenger side? You just need one for the guy that's driving.
Philip:And what happened was the power came from the vacuum of the engine. So as long as we were going along and not putting any stress on the engine, the wiper worked fine. But many a night I'd be going home with my dad from somewhere — coming from church — and there'd be a truck, or a lorry as we would call them back in Scotland, and my dad would want to pass this lorry. And he'd pull out and put his foot down on the gas as hard as he could. And as soon as he did that, all the power of the engine was needed to accelerate past the truck, and all the power was taken from the wiper blade. So the wiper blade would stop.
Philip:And the plumes of water coming up from the tires of the truck — we'd all be sitting there saying, oh my Jesus, help us. And he would pass the truck, by God's grace get in front of it, take his foot off the gas, and suddenly the wiper would start doing this — plenty of power. In other words, when he needed the power, he didn't have it. I've been used for you — that's not how God's grace works. It doesn't stop when you need it. It accelerates when you need it. So if you're all beat up today and the devil's got you thinking, oh, I'm worth nothing — you're priceless. You're priceless, and God loves you.
Philip:The Bible says with a love that will never let you go. So don't you give up. God's got you in his hand, and we're glad you're watching this on Daily Faith. One of the things we do — we've got a bunch of different things going on in our ministry. I travel in churches and preach. We have Daily Faith, and our heart, the passion of our life, is our mission work. 33 years ago I adopted — we bought an orphanage in Romania. I had no idea when I picked that little boy up, half naked, covered in his own waste, and I made him a ridiculous promise. I said, look, I don't know who you are or how you got here, but I'm not going to quit until I get you and make you my son.
Philip:And it took me a year. I kept going back every few weeks to this orphanage in Romania, and I discovered there was no toilet. So I put in toilets. And then the beds — I took a piece of paint off the bed and it was lead paint, and I replaced all the beds with wooden beds. And the roof leaked, so I fixed the roof. And unknown to me, God was sucking me into my destiny. God will make you do stuff sometimes that you have no idea why you're doing it, but he does, and he's moving you and directing you and recalibrating your life into his plan and will for your life.
Philip:And that day when I adopted that wee boy, I had no idea that I'd be sitting talking to you 33 years later about some of the craziest things going on in the world today. For the last 20-odd years we've been in Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, and in that country, when a girl turns 16 — when we were there first, got there — and young boys when they turned 16, they would be given a bus ticket and put on the street, and traffickers got them and used them 30 to 50 times a day.
Philip:One girl — you're going to watch a video in a few minutes — every girl you see is worth $300,000 to the trafficker. Every face you see is worth $300,000 to the trafficker. We built a home — a village of homes — called Vatra Village. Craziest thing you ever saw in your life. I got this place, walked around there one day on a cold, freezing cold day, and I looked at my son Andrew — that's Elizabeth — and I said, Andrew, this is crazy, but I believe God wants us to believe God for this place. It was derelict. It hadn't been finished. It had poisoned the lake.
Philip:And we started working on one house, and our friend Marcus Lamb from Daystar Television sponsored that house, and little by little we began to see God's hand move. And I'm happy to tell you that every house is finished and paid for in full. So these young folks that we've rescued come to us, and the first thing we do is we get them to give stuff away. How do you break an orphan spirit? Not an orphan spirit — an orphan spirit, you can be an orphan in your heart. And we get them to give stuff away and serve people and care for people, feed widows, give food and clothing to broken families.
Philip:And these orphan kids that no one else wanted are being transformed by the power of God into missionaries that preach the gospel and share the gospel. And that's what we've been doing for 20 years. And then this year — I was coming back from Moldova one time and I went through immigration in Atlanta, and the immigration officer asked me where I'd been. I said Moldova. He said, you're kidding me. I said no. He said, well, I've just transferred up from the Caribbean and we intercepted a container ship, and inside the container was 38 Moldovan girls that he had put in a container in Odessa, Ukraine and shipped — not to the Caribbean, but to be taken up to America.
Philip:And I left and I went out to pick up my bags. My wife Chrissy was with me. She said, does this mean we're going to Ukraine next? I said yeah. So for the last six or seven years we have had a home in Ukraine, doing the same thing in Ukraine as we do in Moldova. And I had no idea when this year started that we've been in such a battle. We've had this home in Ukraine — as I said, it's a big home, can hold 24 girls — and the owner wants to sell, and it's left us in a situation. The girls from Ukraine are at the moment in Vatra Village in Moldova for safety, but they've got to go back to Ukraine for their education, and there's so much going on that I can't discuss.
Philip:But it's getting to the point of them having to go back to Ukraine and we have nowhere else to put them. So God challenged me a few weeks ago to believe God to buy a house in Ukraine — the house that we've been leasing — to buy it, in a war zone. And I said, are you kidding me? How am I going to ask folk to help me buy a home in a war zone? He says, the cross was crazy too. Catching fish to pay taxes — that's crazy too. Putting water into jars and turning it into wine — that's crazy too.
Philip:So we're believing God, and we're halfway there, to buy a home in Ukraine for girls that have no one else to go to — a place of safety. I want you to watch the video that they made. I didn't make this video. They made this video. It's their voice. Jazz — the book — the voice you'll hear is a house parent. Watch this.
When God challenged us to open a home, just a year ago, we looked for many months to find a place big enough to make a difference in young girls' lives. We finally found the perfect place that can house 24 girls. We signed a long-term lease with the owner, and it has just ended.
At the moment we are able to house the Ukrainian girls in Moldova, but as the war drags on there is pressure to have those who escaped the Russian invasion to return to Ukraine. Moldova simply cannot afford the cost of maintaining so many refugees. Many have returned to Ukraine. Many have left for Europe and the USA and will never return. Our girls wait every day to return to their homeland. If their home is sold, there will be nowhere for them to go.
In the natural it seems impossible. We have already strained every sinew in our ministry this year to care for thousands of destitute lives. We are about to send a place — two containers back with warm clothes to help these lost souls survive the brutal winter. But what about the young lives we are already committed to protecting? Where would they go?
Can you imagine handing them a bus ticket to the street and telling them, you are on your own. We have nowhere for you to go. Your home has been sold. How would they survive in a country stuck in the no man's land of war? We are going to believe God to buy this special place. We will continue our work in Ukraine and trust him for protection as the days ahead unfold. We will be right there in the middle of tragic events, with a place of refuge for young girls to find rest in a home provided by loving hearts.
If God moves, the home we need is already waiting. We just need you. Will you pray? Will you give? I'm certain everyone who could wouldn't even hesitate to help this miracle take place. That is how this huge door of opportunity could open. We can minister to these dear souls for years to come and be a beacon of hope on a battlefield of despair.
Philip:Can you help me get this home — buy this home — and give these girls a place of safety? God challenged me to give two thousand dollars of my own money and challenge 99 other people to believe God with me. I'm halfway there. Maybe you're one of those people that God is speaking to. Whatever you give, whatever amount you give, you can help. If you just make sure that you write on any gift — whether you write us or email us — for the house in Odessa, and we will put that in a separate fund that will go to buy this home in the next few days, by the grace of God.
Philip:Our address is very simple: The Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. Go to dailyfaith.tv. There's a giving button right there. Make sure you put the Odessa house on there and we'll know to apply it to help that miracle take place. Let the Lord speak to you in the name of Jesus, because these kids have nowhere to go unless we make that miracle happen. So be his hand extended, especially this time of year. God bless you. I'm excited. I have a great guest for today, and before I introduce him, I want you to watch this short video. Watch this.
Defining Faith Deconstruction in America
Philip:Now you can tell just by that few seconds that's a church where the Holy Ghost is welcome and is moving by the Spirit. And I am delighted to have JC Worley with me today. JC, from Go Church — I am so thrilled to have you on Daily Faith today. I'm sorry it took so long to get to you, but we're fighting a crazy battle right now.
JC Worley:Philip, no apology needed. Two things before we really get started. Number one, thank you so much for having me on Daily Faith. This is a tremendous honor. And then secondly, the reason you don't need to apologize — prior to coming on Daily Faith I didn't know about the work that you all were doing in Ukraine, but my heart is stirred and I want to be one of those individuals that partners with you all. And I would challenge anybody watching Daily Faith today, as we go into the Christmas season — not a better gift that we could give than sacrificing a little bit of our finances to help those in Ukraine. So to my new friend Phil, I'm all in, man. Let's go. Let's make it happen.
Philip:Thank you. I feel guilty — I didn't have you on the program to try and shake you down for some money for a house, and you've made a promise. But I am deeply thankful. This is a miracle in the making, and we always want the testimony. We don't like the test — we like the testimony — but the test part is the bit that, you know... You have a multi-campus church, and the waters are rising, and in most people's gauge you're successful. But God's been showing you and you've been ministering in something that really set me off when you spoke about deconstruction happening in America as it did in Scotland. And I want to explain to the audience what is deconstruction and how we've got to fight and believe God for our miracle.
JC Worley:Yeah, well I think deconstruction is not easy to define because in different contexts it has different meanings. So in academic circles it has technical meanings, and in faith contexts it may have various informal meanings. But what happened was, we went through this pandemic a couple of years ago, and then the Lord just really showed me that especially in America we're also in a spiritual pandemic, and this is known as deconstruction. And deconstruction has become increasingly popular in American evangelicalism. And so while it's hard to define, I'll kind of give us a little bit of a working definition.
JC Worley:I would define deconstruction for someone — and someone watching the show today maybe — as the process of deconstructing, so they would be questioning their faith, maybe doubting their faith, or ultimately rejecting certain aspects of the Christian faith. Now let me pause right there and just say this, because I think the enemy would love for us to think that if we ever had a question about our faith, if we ever had a moment that we were doubting our faith, then we must be deconstructing, and I don't think that's true. I think great questions lead to great faith.
JC Worley:And so I think that our doubts and our tough questions and studying the Bible — that's not deconstruction, that's actually discipleship. But people think that anytime they have a doubt, or anytime their faith wavers, or anytime they have a question they can't figure out, well, they've got to reject the Christian faith altogether. But that's not true. But the truth is this — deconstruction is not some foreign concept, it's a modern day reality. Pew Research — I know you're familiar with them, they do all kinds of research studies — but they recently did a study where they presented four hypothetical scenarios about the future of Christianity in America. And all four of these scenarios point to the fact that within our lifetime — your lifetime and mine — by 2045, America will be a post-Christian nation.
Pew Research: Post-Christian Nation by 2045
JC Worley:Meaning that people — and this was the quote literally from Pew Research — that people are leaving the Christian faith. They're leaving Christianity and they're becoming atheist, they're becoming agnostic, or they're becoming what they're calling now nones. Now, nones — not like in the Catholic church — but nones would be no particular faith at all. They identify as no religion or faith group in itself. And so again, we're just on this fast track here in our country where people are rejecting Christianity. They're walking away from the local church, which is a tremendous hit on their faith.
JC Worley:I believe in the assembling of the saints — scripture teaches us that absolutely. They're getting away from the church, they're deconstructing in their faith, and ultimately they're rejecting Christ, they're rejecting God. And the danger of that would be eternal separation from God, because we'll all stand before God one day and will be held accountable for every action, word, and deed. And on that day we'll have this test — a question to the test — and the question will be, did you know and accept my son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
JC Worley:And so the pandemic happened here, and I saw the spiritual pandemic where dozens and dozens and dozens of people weren't just leaving Go Church, but they were leaving the church, they were walking away from Christianity altogether. And it is alarming. It's alarming to think that within the next 20 years America will no longer be known as a Christian nation.
Signs and Symptoms of Deconstruction
Philip:The thing is this — and why this is such a sensitive point to me — I come from Scotland. Scotland was once known as the land of the book. And the Covenanters boasted and said to the Catholic church that wanted to take the Bible out of the common people's hands, that if you take every Bible out of Scotland, we will rewrite the book from our memory. One man memorized the entire book of Psalms, another man the Gospels. And these Covenanters were chased by the Catholic church trying to destroy them. And so our country — most of the Presbytery that you understand in the churches that we have today came from the Scots Worthies, that revelation of the church.
Scotland as a Warning to America
Philip:But today Scotland — less than 1% is born again, less than 3% goes to any kind of church. There are more Mormons in Scotland than there are born again believers. So what you're talking about, JC, is so important for us to understand — that America is, according to Pew, 20 years from becoming post-Christian.
Philip:I'll be honest with you, this has happened in the last 20 years. Less than 20 years. Things that we are allowing as Christians — we've shut our mouths and folded our hands and moved over and let them — let the secular world dictate to us about sexuality and marriage and transgenderism and all this stuff that's going on. And it's not the world's fault. It's the church's fault, because we've lost our voice, as far as standing.
JC Worley:That's right. Well, I think — go ahead and preach, Philip. You're telling the truth right there. So this is what we're seeing — modern deconstruction usually means that we're going to replace uncomfortable biblical truths with culturally comfortable ideologies. Convenience. So people don't — I guess — understand this fully or even appreciate it, but the gospel is offensive. The gospel calls us out of our life of sin into a higher standard of living, the pursuit of holiness and righteousness. So the Bible calls sin sin, and people don't like their lifestyle or their choices to be considered wrong or sinful. So they'll replace biblical truth with ideologies that feel more culturally comfortable, and that is a sign of deconstruction.
JC Worley:Which is — we're going to deny the authority of scripture. And look, if you're not a Christian, okay, but if you are a Christian, then we know that God's word is our final authority, it's our ultimate authority. So here's kind of the signs of deconstruction. They deny the authority of scripture. They choose a subjective morality over objective morality. They abandon regular church community, and we see that a lot — we start getting away from the church community, and man, what that does — it erodes your faith. People will reframe every single negative church experience as spiritual abuse, and that's just not true.
JC Worley:And I'm not saying that church abuse doesn't happen, but just because you were told to sit down because you needed to grow up in the Lord — that's not church abuse, that's discipleship. But they'll reframe every negative church experience as, well, you know, I was spiritually abused. And then they'll resort to virtue signaling and demonizing others in a way to prove their particular point. And I'll say what I want to say is just food for thought, because I don't know if this is theologically accurate, but I'd like to present just a thought for us to consider.
Deconstruction and the Great Apostasy
JC Worley:Is maybe what we're experiencing in America with this sweeping spiritual pandemic of deconstruction — is there any connection to the great apostasy that we read about in the New Testament? Is it possible? Because the Greek word for apostasy is literally translated as an abandonment of the truth. And so before the return of Christ happens, there has to be — according to 2 Thessalonians — there has to be this rebellion, this great falling away. And I don't feel it — I just wonder — maybe the deconstructionism that we're seeing in our country is connected to the great apostasy and the inevitable return of Christ. Because listen, and you know this, but Jesus is coming back, and he's coming back very, very soon.
Philip:What amazes me is that we have — instead of us being made in God's image — we have made God in our image. So you'll hear them talking all the time: my God, my faith, my belief system, this is what I believe, my truth. And my dad used to hit me with this all the time: Philip, you don't break God's laws — God's laws break you. And unless there's absolutism — it's silly. I come from Scotland and we drive on the other side of the road. So when I came to America, if I'd gone out of the airplane and said, I'm going to show these Americans — I'm going to do it my way, I'm going to drive on the other side because this is my truth — do you know, I would have gotten out of the airport and wrecked a car. And what's happening is the church and the world are into this relativism, this my-truth-ism that we are into.
Subjective Truth Eroding Biblical Authority
Philip:And then once you get into that, you can start deconstructing very easily. Well, I can sit and watch it online. We've been doing that for three years. The government is doing that. Well, why? What's the point? I'm more comfortable in my pajamas. And what you're doing is — I don't know much about American sports. God plays football — that's the real one, that takes place on the other side — but I watched these guys very rarely, and they leave the base and they try to sneak towards the next base. And if they get too far away, the pitcher will throw the ball and they'll be counted out. And what we're watching now is this movement away from the base, the foundation. We're moving further and farther away, and the devil's saying, keep on going, because once you're too far away from the base you'll be caught out.
Drifting From the Foundation of Faith
Philip:We are out of time — 40 seconds left on this program. Will you come back and talk more about this and whatever else — you bless me today with this ministry.
JC Worley:Well listen, I would love to come back and maybe have a part two on the conversation of deconstruction, because I'd love to share the external factors of deconstruction, the internal factors of deconstruction. So how about today's conversation was just an appetizer — I've been to the conversation a beginning.
Philip:Yeah, okay. Sounds great. JC, thank you for being with us. That is JC Worley from Go Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia. You need to go and find his address — it's mygo-church.com. Thanks for watching Daily Faith. We'll see you again. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They championed the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons, and in the process orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus.
God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine.
If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833-Daily-Faith. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Topics
deconstructionworleypost-christian americaapostasychurch attendancebiblical authorityrevival