What is a 30-Day Secular Media Fast?

What if the noise of godless media is drowning out the voice of God? Not all media is bad... but maybe the distraction away from God is making harder to hear and see God at work.

This is a journey of a group of high school students who have committed to take 30 days to focus on God through God-centered media. This includes TV, movies, books, magazines, smart phone apps, and many social media outlets.

Here, you can follow their stories, their lives, and their challenges. Feel free to leave comments and encouragement.

Read
Relate
Respond

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Third Times the Charm

Wow it's already Media Fast number 3....Woot! I think this has been the hardest one to start for me so far. Starting on a Saturday was challenging because I had some free time but I realized right away that that was exactly why I needed to do this. It's cool that my friends already know about what is going on with me and the Media Fast from when I have told them about it before :) they even ask me about how it's going and I'm glad I can share the Word with them like this. Keep on keeping on guys! I'm praying for everyone but I know we got this!

Attention on God...and the road

First off, this is my first post. Oh yeah! Well anyways, this week I have been driving a ton: to softball, school, errands, you name it. Because of this, I have been listeing to 103.9 the fish nonstop (it's awesome, check it out). And have been using that time as my "intentional worship time." I sing along, think about the lyrics, and focus all of my attention on God, and the road of course haha. This is the easiest switch to make while on the Media Fast. Instead of learning all the words to that new Justin Beiber song you hear every hour of every day. You can learn the words of songs that have so much more meaning. And by committing those to memory, they come back to you during the day and can give you that little boost of encouragement. It's almost like memorizing Bible verses, but not quite. Anyways, that is how I have started this first week of our Media Fast. I am praying for you all and really, if you are lost and hate the silence of the car, turn up 103.9. I promise you will be much happier. Good Luck!

Friday, March 8, 2013

New Hashtag Feature

Yes... now, if you would like to post something immediately, just Tweet it with the hashtag #ourthirty. Pretty cool!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Ambassador

Today, God showed me that I waste a lot of opportunities to show Christ to my non-Christian friends. What the heck. If I truly love God and others more than myself, that should honestly be a bigger priority in my life. Awkward. If you could pray that the Holy Spirit would show me how to be a better ambassador, that would be awesome. If my friends came to know God, that would be so dang cool. Going media-less hasn't been too hard thus far...but we'll see...I know that moment is going to come sometime. Ha. I've been reading Philippians & playing a lot of Rend Collective Experiment & John Mark McMillan. Really good. My favorite McMillan songs have been "Skeleton Bones" & "Death in His Grave", and because I just realized that sounds really dark (it's not, I swear. Baha), "The Medicine" is good too. Can't wait to grow closer to God without all the media distractions! Praying for everyone.

Monday, March 4, 2013

New Year... New Perspective

A new year... a new perspective... on the media, anyway.

This year, the challenge is to avoid any media that takes your mind away from God or Godly things. Now most of time, I don't think that it's wise to take one verse from the Bible and try to apply it. Often times there is a lot of context that we miss... and without context, we may be just taking a verse and making it fit our desires, not God's. And that's dangerous...

That being said, I ran across a verse in 2 Corinthians 6:12, "You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections." Paul was writing to the Corinthian church and discussing their desires. The things that may be keeping them from growing in their relationship with God. Many of them were rich and had just about anything they needed or wanted. Later, he goes on to talk about their bodies being the temple of God (and one of the most misinterpreted verses in all the Bible... "do not be unequally yoked..." 

Here's the issue... the media fast is not meant to be a limitation. It's designed to help you see how your choices (what you watch, listen to, or read) and actually limiting you. It's those very things that stir up your emotions, direct your thoughts and dreams, and take your time away from God. The church isn't designed to restrict you... but your own desires and choices do restrict you probably more than you realize.

So this year... it's not about "what I can and cannot do." It's about recognizing what is restricting you in your walk; what is restricting you in your relationships; and what is restricting your hopes and dreams. Right now... your affection is for your favorite band or TV show or book. Maybe your affection is your video games, Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Snapchat / Pintrest / whatever... if your affection is on something other than God, there's a pretty good chance that this affection is the real problem with you growing in your relationship to God.

Media Fast + Time with God - "Other-than-God" Affection = Gospel-centered Growth