5 Signs You May Be Experiencing a Mid-Faith Crisis

Nobody wants to admit to having a crisis of faith, especially in the age when everyone is talking about deconstruction. Maybe that’s because of the word “deconstruction” itself, which has become a vague cliche. If someone says she’s deconstructing, she might mean anything from “I’m asking questions” to “I’m demolishing my faith with a spiritual wrecking ball.” In both cases, it is easy to assume that she is doing it on purpose; that deconstruction is a thing a person chooses with eager intentionality.

But what happens when a spiritually devout person finds herself battling doubts and fears and questions she never asked for, and never wanted? That’s not an example of active, defiant deconstruction, but rather a crisis of faith, or a mid-faith crisis, as we call it. Such seasons can feel like a dead end. They can bring on bouts of spiritual anxiety and deep pain.  

So, how do we know if we are experiencing a mid-faith crisis? Here are five signs:

1. Your prayer life no longer fits.

When you were coloring bible story pictures in Sunday school, your understanding of prayer was probably simple. You asked God for things, and you expected He would give them to you. As you aged, you started to realize life was a little more complicated than that, but you still believed that God was always listening and would always come through.

Then, it seemed He went silent. Despite your most fervent prayers, God didn’t answer the way you had always believed He would. You prayed hard for certain outcomes, but those outcomes never arrived. And now, you wonder if prayer even matters. You talk to God still, but not like before, and you can’t help but wonder what the purpose of prayer is now.

Prayer is supposed to be a primary foundation of our relationship with God. So when our prayer life begins to dry up in this way, it can lead to a full-on mid-faith crisis. 

2. Your concerns about the Bible are growing.

Perhaps the Bible was always a source of encouragement for you. Sure, you had questions, but the math always added up after a bit of investigation. But lately, you’ve noticed things you haven’t seen before, and they trouble you. Was that violent passage always there? Why is that in scripture? Why would God allow such terrible things to be happen, much less to be written down in his book?

You want to talk about your concerns, but you’re nervous to do so. What would people think? What would your pastor think if he knew you were asking these questions? You don’t want to find out, so you wrestle privately with your questions, and distance yourself from the book you’ve always loved.

Such private battles can induce a lot of shame for the Christian. The Bible is supposed to be a safe place, so when it morphs into something that induces fear, it can lead us straight into a mid-faith crisis. 

3. The scandals have made your head spin.

It was easy to overlook the scandals at first. A few bad apples doesn’t mean the whole tree is rotten. But then they kept coming. Charismatic men who spoke passionately on stages around the world were revealed to be liars and abusers.

It would be one thing if you had never heard of these men. But some of them helped to shape your spiritual life. They had inspired you. You wouldn’t love God like you do if not for their words. So now, what are you supposed to think? Was it all a lie? Did they ever believe? And what about the churches and organizations that looked the other direction and let these men get away with living a double life? Is anyone actually being authentic?

Nothing brings on cynicism and spiritual disillusionment quite like the hypocrisy of fallen heroes. When we see it happen in the church, we begin to wonder if there is any moral benefit to following Jesus, and if there is any integrity left in His bride. Such deep, painful questions can lead us squarely into a mid-faith crisis.

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4. For the first time, you feel the presence of doubt.

In your early life, you had rousing answers to all kinds of questions. You believed with all your heart in the essentials of the faith: that God was really there, that Jesus really loved us, that the Bible was absolutely true. You spoke about such things with unwavering conviction.

But now, when you speak them, your voice cracks. You want to believe—and you do believe—but part of you wonders whether you have it correct after all. And you worry that if part of you is still wondering, then that part of you doesn’t truly believe.

Doubt is a fear-filled word for many of us. People told us it was the very enemy of faith, so we built up defenses against questions that could leave us vulnerable. So what do we do when we start to notice it in our own hearts? It can quickly lead to a mid-faith crisis, with an accompanying fear that a full deconstruction is just around the corner, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

5. You can’t make sense of your own suffering.

You haven’t been naive. You know awful things happen to good people. But in the past, you’ve been able to treat this phenomenon as a theological puzzle of sorts. Somewhere between the sovereignty of God, the will of man, and the redemption of Christ, it all made theoretical sense.

But you’ve suffered yourself now in ways you never expected. You’ve lived through serious trauma. You’ve lost loved ones to cancer. You’ve been betrayed. You’ve sat in hospitals while receiving terrifying diagnoses. And now, the theological explanations you clung to seem to ring hollow.

For many of us, suffering is the final blow that ushers in a mid-faith crisis. How do we square our belief that God is good with our experiences that suggest He is absent? We say He is all powerful, so why doesn’t He step in to deliver us from the evil we experience in this life?

So, I’m in a mid-faith crisis. Where do I go from here?

If you find yourself in a mid-faith crisis, take a deep breath, friend. You’re not alone. In fact, according to a multitude of researchers, a season of spiritual upheaval is a normal and predictable part of faith development. In the same way, as puberty is a predictable stage of becoming an adult, so a crisis of faith is a common season in the life of a growing believer.

Such seasons are not comfortable, of course. They can be full of pain and disorientation. They can bring along a fear that our faith is going to slide away for good.

But embedded in these times is an opportunity to endure, to adapt, and to grow. Our faith might never look like it once did, but maybe that’s not a bad thing. Maybe there are new practices that can bolster our faith in this new season of life. Perhaps our prayers can look different. Perhaps there are more ways of reading the scriptures, and of wrestling with truth. Maybe there are new and better heroes out there—people whose names and faces no one knows. We might even find ways to suffer well.

A mid-faith crisis will be painful, but it does not have to lead to the death of faith. In fact, it might provide a pathway to a stronger, more resilient spiritual life.

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Catherine McNiel and Jason Hague are the coauthors of Mid-Faith Crisis: Finding a Path Through Doubt, Disillusionment, and Dead Ends

Catherine is a chaplain, author, editor, and speaker searching for the creative, redemptive work of God in our ordinary lives. She lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband, three children, and one enormous garden. Catherine holds an MA in human service counseling and is finishing a Master of Divinity at North Park Theological Seminary. Her previous books include Fearing Bravely, All Shall Be Well, and Long Days of Small Things, which was an ECPA finalist for New Author.

Jason Hague is the associate pastor of Christ’s Center Church near Eugene, Oregon, and the author of Aching Joy: Following God Through the Land of Unanswered Prayer. Jason has written extensively on the subject of the Christian faith and autism, special needs families, and his own spiritual journey toward hope for his own non-speaking autistic son. His writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Focus on the Family, and Fathom. He and his wife have five children.

Originally published May 15, 2025.