This November, together with your church community, step away from the attention economy and be reoriented to your deepest reality and the deepest truth that we have in common: that we are held in the love of God.
For 30 days, we’ll put down our social media apps and unplug from the algorithm to practice embodied presence together —
engaging with God and one another through prayer, gratitude, reflection, and personal connection.
Hear the heart behind the Social Media Fast from Pastor Corey Widmer:
Where technology and screens can deceive us into thinking that we are present with others, we know that this is only partly true.
Screens also work hard to distract us, numb or inflame us, and distance us from the actual people God has put in our lives.
In Scripture, we see that it was through the physical gathering of Jesus’s disciples that all their differences were held together through the unity of Christ. It is in direct communion with Jesus that we can be formed first and foremost as citizens of his Kingdom, and not of this world.
This November, we are engaging with God and one another through prayer, gratitude, reflection, and personal connection.
The Fast
what you’ll receive:
One email each Sunday with the week’s focus
Plus, a practice to embrace, verses from Philippians 4 to meditate on, and help for engaging with the people and world around you.Resources for personal growth
A compilation of resources that empower you to practice embodied presence. Find those resources below.
how it works:
From November 1 - 30, fast from social media
If you are not on social media, we’d ask you to consider something else like cable news, internet forums, maybe even chat threads, or podcasts.Embrace being present with God, yourself, and others
Engaging in prayer, gratitude, reflection, and personal connection.Alongside your whole church community
We’ll dive into what this looks like together. You’re not doing this alone.
Everyone enrolled in our Third Weekly email list will automatically receive 1 extra email per week in November related to this fast.
If you would like to be added to this list, please sign up here.
Resources
Weekly Focus, Scripture, and Reflection
Prepare for the Fast: Discernment & Reflection Guide
Resources for Week One: Listen
Guided Prayer
Lectio 365 — Daily prayer app with morning, midday, and night devotionals
Lectio for Families — Guided Devotionals for Families (suggested for ages 7–11)
Pray-As-You-Go — Daily Guided Scripture, Music, and Prayer
Abide — Audio Bible, Daily Devotions, and Daily Bible Reading Plans
The Daily Prayer Project — Collection of prayers, art, and poetry available for purchase in print and digital formats
Listen
Read
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Fasting is a voluntary act of humility and dependence on God. Traditionally, fasting involves abstaining from food, but we may also fast from distractions (such as media or technology) in order to turn our attention from ourselves and toward God.
Fasting is not performative. It is not about earning favor or following a rule. Instead, it allows us to create space for prayer, repentance, and renewed dependence on God’s grace.
Our hope for this month is that as we resist social media (or media of your choosing), we are able to embrace our actual, physical presence with God and one another through gathering, prayer, gratitude, and even feasting. This is both an individual and collective act of dependence on God.
-
This means simply that this month we are reclaiming and recentering what it looks like to prioritize our actual, physical presence with God and one another through gathering, prayer, gratitude, and even feasting.
-
We realize that not everyone uses social media. If that’s you, we encourage you to select another media source that you may be turning to routinely or even compulsively for comfort, distraction, news, or commentary.
Our heart behind this is not to be legalistic and check a box, but instead to ask God where you might be distracted and disembodied and where he might be inviting you to experience embodied presence with him and with others in this season. -
Social media is built on desires that are often good and healthy — desires for rest and relaxation, laughter, wisdom, appreciation and admiration, relief from a world that is too much, connection and intimacy, meaning and significance.
However, all of us have experienced ways in which these good and healthy desires can become twisted. Sometimes this is due to something within ourselves and sometimes it is due to something (or someone) external.
So what if we chose to disconnect, even if just for one month? What might God show us in that time? What might he reveal about who he is and who we are? Who might we notice when we aren’t looking down, but we’re looking around?
We aren’t fasting from social media to check a box or wear a badge. Instead, consider this an invitation to intentionally choose presence — presence with God, presence with ourselves, and presence with each other — for just 30 days, and see what happens.
“You are held in the love of God.”
This is your deepest reality. This is the deepest truth we share.
Join the social media fast + practice embodied presence with us this November.