Digital Fast January 2025

If you have been at church at all the last few weeks, we have consistently announced that our church would be doing a digital fast. So, starting on Monday January 6 2025, we are inviting all members at Sola (and anyone else!) to join us as we fast from portions of our digital lives in an intentional way for the month of January.

Fasting is not just abstinence. It is saying "no" so that we can say "yes" to other things. When we fast from food, we are saying "Jesus, I want you more than food." Thus, when you fast from other things, it functions in a similar way. Fasting in the Bible is a way that we wake ourselves up to the things of God by intentionally limiting and abstaining from other things - idols you could say - that do not allow us to live in the way of Jesus. Here are 3 reasons why we think a digital fast will be helpful for our church family at this time.

To be more Present in our lives.
To God. One of the biggest distractions to a life set apart for God and His purposes is our phones. They crave our attention and we give it to them. But when we intentionally lay our phones down we gain something of our spiritual lives back.

To Others. When we are looking down at our devices we are not seeing the people and relationships that are in our lives, the people that God has called us to listen to, love, and share our lives with. Time away from devices is time present with those whom God has called you to be with. The research is overwhelming here. Devices rob us of life giving relationships. Lets fight against that by probing what it would truly look like to be relationally present to others for these few weeks.

To Ourselves. It is pretty straightforward. Most of us do not really know how we are doing (emotionally, physically, spiritually) because we are distracted or escaping our negative emotions by giving our attention to other things. Phones really hinder us here. Furthermore, they slowly perpetuate a lie about what it means to be you. We are not digital beings in a cloud. We are embodied souls, grounded in reality. Laying down devices give us the space to explore our whole selves in fresh and needed ways.

To devote ourselves to the things that will lead us to a life of love and joy
Most people tell me that the biggest hinderance to their spiritual growth is time and attention. They do not have the time to truly pursue God in their lives as they seek to manage all other responsibilities they carry each day. But in many cases, when you truly examine how they spend their time, its not uncommon to see hours upon hours of screen time logged on their phone each day. If you were to trade screen time for life-giving, joy-infusing habits, we would find that we actually have a lot more time than we think!
(disclaimer: its important to note that part of the problem here is that our hearts, minds, and bodies are not trained to actually be able to enjoy and love the things that give us the most joy, but thats for exploring at a later time.)
The digital fast is for this purpose: to give us space to do the things that truly lead us to flourishing. Don't you want to live a life like that? Don't you want to give yourself to Life and Joy?

To be more productive.
This is somewhat connected to reason #2, but I find it important to make a distinction between doing things that give joy AND, on the other hand, making the best use of your time. After the dishes are put up and the kids are in bed, there may be legitimate reasons why we immediately find ourselves on the couch scrolling our phones. It may be because we are tired and we need to rest. But sometimes during those moments, we need to resist the urge of self-pleasure through scrolling-dopamine-hits and turn our attention to love and serve others, finish that task around the house, or finish a few things up for work SO THAT, when the weekend comes you can truly lay things down and prioritize a sabbath rest. These are decisions you ultimately have to make. But I can tell you with confidence that, at some level, the phone is distracting you from these things.

So we have talked about why we think a digital fast is necessary right now. Lets now turn to how we are actually going to do this during January 2025. Here are 8 recommendations for you as you seek to establish a digital fast for you and your family over the next few weeks.

Delete Social Media Apps AND any other app that tempts you for the month of January
Trust me. You can do it! You can be “out of the know.” You can miss the latest giveaway from your favorite influencer. You can even lose a few followers if that is what it comes to. You will be fine. Matter of fact, you will be better for it.

And when February rolls around and the digital fast is over, ask yourself how your relationship to social media and distracting apps/devices needs to change.

Limit Television to 1-2 nights/week
Television is not evil. It can be, but the television itself is not the problem. So you do not have to completely be free from it unless you want to, but for a month you could limit it. How can you limit your television intake during January?

No Phones at church. Only Bible
Leave phones in the car or at home. Or on the pool table in the back of the church! You don’t need them during service. This is a gesture that anticipates "immense encouragement is available for me - from the Lord and through others - if I can allow myself to be present for these few moments. And I promise that you will be strengthened in the faith.

Devote yourself to the Bible Reading Plan for the month of January.
The early-medieval church understood that to read the Scriptures spiritually you needed to linger and meditate on it. Not just read to check the box. Meditate and think about Christ. Chew on it. Ponder it. Treasure it up in your heart. Don’t easily move on. Thats where Jesus is at in Bible Reading.

Here is a Bible Reading Plan that I am doing for the next 2 years. It is slowly and methodically going through the Scriptures 2 chapters/day(ish). This is the most popular Bible reading plan in the world and has been around for hundreds of years.
You dont have to do this one. But you should intentionally engage the scriptures. How do you plan to do that? If you want more suggestions, Ill happily give them!

Practice a Digital Sabbath where you put your phone in a box every Sunday
Our family does this every Sunday as we practice the Sabbath. We take our devices (our kids bring their tablets) and we place them in our “sabbath” box for the day as a way to give them over to God and be present with Him and one another. But it does not have to be a box. It could just be a special place in your house. Just somewhere that clearly sets the day a part as free from devices.

Choose to be less available
Have moments in your day where you are not reachable by others (or by notifications). A daily time set aside for deep work that allows you to give your full self to your job, or your kids, or your home, or to Jesus. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb and answer texts at a certain time of day after you have finished your tasks and responsibilities. Most texts and calls can wait. But you have to have the courage enough to say no and to push it off to later.

Give weeknights a more intentional focus instead of “vegging out.”
Maybe Tuesdays and Thursdays you let yourself enjoy a book and on Wednesdays it’s game night with the family. Fridays are for focus on your spouse or some friends you want to connect with more. Be intentional and don’t let your devices dictate where and what you give your attention to. Ask yourself how you can leverage your time for the things you want to use it for. Better yet, ask God how you need to make the best use of your time (Ephesians 5:16). We know that the latest TV show or notification is, generally speaking, not leading where you really want to go or really want to do. So set nights aside for intentional practices.

In relation to this, Sarah has been thinking through some intentional ways that she can assist families in engaging with each other more intentionally during the week. There should be some resources/ideas that she gets to you all soon.

Scheduled times of kneeling prayer 3x/day
By kneeling, we embody humility and surrender, aligning our hearts with God’s will and acknowledging our dependence on Him. This practice not only deepens our relationship with God but also integrates faith into the rhythms of daily life, fostering a holistic discipleship that permeates every aspect of our being.

Here is a short blog to read that helps explain what I mean in more detail, but here is the basic gist below:

1. KNEELING prayer Morning, Midday/Afternoon, Night
2. Pray through a psalm for 5 minutes on your knees at 3 points during the day.
3. Wherever you find yourself (Office, home, Car, Friend's house)
4. Its doesn’t have to be much. It’s not long. But engages the body and turns the heart and mind toward God instead of other things.

Think of it as replacing the mindless scrollings in the middle of the day that happen in between meetings, tasks, etc. Instead of scrolling you pray. That seems like a little adjustment that can make a world of difference.

[NOTE: I think this could easily be the least practiced of the 8 points for the next few weeks. I want to encourage you to truly prioritize these small moments of the day. And be undignified and get on your knees and seek God's face. Imagine what the Lord could do in our church and in our city if there were a group committed disciples who did this every day for a month. Its impact could be incalculable!]

If you take this seriously, I can almost guarantee that you will reap the benefits of a more relationally present, spiritually vibrant life. And when you do, you are not done. You are tasked to share with others what God is doing in your life. One of the most beautiful aspects of the early church is how they were so eager to open up and share their lives with one another. This is a practice that slowly drew others in. It legitimized the good news of Jesus that they preached. So as you fast this month, as you seek to live free from distraction, share these good things with your leaders, pastors, and others church members so that we can rejoice and experience more grace together.