How Can Christians Step Away from Technology: (Re)Introducing the Go Dark, Shine Bright Campaign

The world is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny God. As such, we need thinking Christian to become as natural as breathing. Welcome to the Thinking Christian podcast. I'm Dr. James Spencer. Through calm, thoughtful theological discussions, Thinking Christian highlights the ways God is working in the world and questions the underlying social, cultural, and political assumptions that hinder Christians from becoming more like Christ. Now, onto today's episode of Thinking Christian. Hey, everybody. Welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian. I'm joined today by Maggie Hubbard, and we're going to be talking about the Go Dark Shine Bright campaign. Go Dark Shine Bright campaign is something we started a few years back. It's been really successful, and so we're just going to talk about the importance of taking a social media fast and how the media really forms and shapes us, why we think the Go Dark Shine Bright program is important, and all of those kind of ideas. So, welcome, Maggie. Good to have you on the show. Thanks for having me on. I am excited to talk about the Go Dark Shine Bright campaign. It's something that I think is really important and more people need to be aware about it. And so, yeah, let's just talk about how it got started. You were the one that had the idea and created it, and it's been widely successful. So, yeah, let's just chat about, you know, how it came to your mind and what came to be. Yeah, it was actually me and a couple of coworkers kind of sitting around, and we were trying to decide what problem we wanted to tackle in the church. And so we were kind of thinking through and brainstorming kind of what we saw as the issues facing the church. We'd actually done some research on this of our own audience, just trying to figure out, you know, where the pain points were for the church. And one of the things we started to center around was, you know, prayer is always a good thing. And why is it that prayer seems to be so difficult for people? What is it that's keeping people from prayer? And as we reflected on that, one of the things we came to was, there's just, we're cutting out the spaces where we would naturally insert prayer. In other words, our lives have gotten so busy, our lives have gotten so hectic, and there's always some sort of information that we can be putting into our brains that we decided maybe it's maybe one of the issues associated with folks not praying or doing Bible study or what have you, is that they're spending just too much time on distracting things that they're doing elsewhere. So we actually talked about everything from, you know, shopping on Amazon, scrolling on Pinterest, posting on Facebook and Instagram, TikTok really wasn't a thing, as big a thing as when we started this. But, you know, obviously, you know, all of those things where you can scroll or swipe sort of came to mind. And we decided to create a program where people could take a seven-day social media fast, actually 10 days when we started, 10-day social media fast, where they would be led through a series of prayers and Bible studies. And that could replace what the time they normally spent on just scrolling and looking at social media. So that's really how it started. It was designed to be this thing where we were going to help the church, or hopefully help the church, get into God's word and get into prayer. Yeah. And the term Go Dark, Shine Bright, that actually was, you created that off of a deal. Maybe quote, is that correct? It was. I'd actually, yeah, so the way the story goes, I had wanted to just call it Go Dark. I was planning just a straight social media fast. And one of, again, another co-worker said, Go Dark sounds very dark. It seems fairly negative. And so she suggested, why not add Shine Bright, and then alerted me to the D.L. Moody quote. And so as we started to look a little deeper into some of the D.L. Moody quotes that he had, you find all these different references to shining bright or being lights in the world, and those kind of things, which is very biblical language. Yeah. But then what ended up happening was the program sort of evolved. And so we said, okay, instead of just doing the social media fast, which would be the Go Dark phase, where you're stepping off of social media, you're not going to post, you're not going to look, you're not going to like. Then there's also a Shine Bright phase where you transition back onto social media and begin to testify to all that God did in your life during the social media fast. Yeah. So that was, it was very much a collaborative. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility, and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free retirement defense guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. Effort. I ended up writing a lot of the materials, but I think the idea came about just through our various interactions as a team and really trying to figure out, okay, what's the best way for us to implement this type of program? Where should we take it? What's the real message? And what are we trying to accomplish? And ultimately, we decided what we wanted to accomplish was not only to build the body of Christ through prayer and Bible study, but we also hoped that we could encourage evangelism through the Shine Bright phase of the project. Yeah, absolutely. And I love that quote. And if I get it wrong, forgive me, but it's... D.L. Moody had said, and the place that God has... Where we are placed by, you know, like in the place that God has placed us, I think there's too many place there. We are expected to shine bright for Him and be a living witness. It's something along the lines. Actually, I have it right here. It is. The place God has us, He expects us to shine, to be a living witness, to be a bright and shining light. While we are here, our work is to shine for Him. So absolutely. And, you know, social media has its place and it's not going anywhere. So why not make a concentrated effort as Christians to testify, right? To make sure that we're consuming godly content because it's out there. It might be screened a little bit more these days, but it is out there. And so it does have its place. And so I think that's a really important component of the Go Dark, Shine Bright campaign is we take a break, and then when we come back, we really focus on God and His Word and His truth. Because social media can be such a negative place with anxiety and fear, especially right now. I mean, there's so much going on in the world. And every time I just even pull it up, it's like I see something and I'm like, that's why I'm not on it. That's why I wanted to stay off of this. And so I'm just like, it's a lot of information to take in. And we as Christians have to be careful that it doesn't replace who the ultimate teacher is, where we get our source of hope and information. And we have this guide, actually, and you have put this together about kind of some steps, right, that people could take to prepare for a Go Dark, Shine Bright social media fast. And so I have it pulled up and we can, I can kind of go through this if you want me to, but point one is just let people know you're going dark. That's right. You know, we have some images that people can share in this guide. We know that social media is a great place to keep up with friends and family, but let others know that you're participating in this campaign and that you're going to take a break from these worldly distractions and step away from social media for, this year we're doing seven days. So it has been 10 in the past and we've gotten some feedback that is a little long. And so people, we tried five days and that didn't seem quite long enough. So this year we're doing seven. So yeah, just let people know you're stepping away. And number two, this is huge. And you touch on this, but delete your apps, delete your social media apps. If they're not on your phone to just hit them and scroll, you're less likely to go in there. Correct? Yeah. And I mean, I think I suppose I kind of knew this, but it is also something that people just need to be aware of that when you delete the apps off your phone, all your information is still there. So it's not like you're deleting your accounts. You're deleting your apps so that it's harder for you to get to the social media. Yeah. It less convenient than to just click on an app and just, you know, scroll. And so you actually have to make more of an effort to like log in. And it's just, I mean, who has time for that, right? That's right. Yeah. Nobody wants to do that. And even some of the functionality of the apps. I know on Instagram, I think it is. You can't upload things, I don't think

On everything you can do on social media. Chat absolutely. Social media and even just silencing your notifications, right? Like, obviously people work from there. It's a digital age, so we get emails and we have to respond. So we know that that's not, I mean, you can't step away from it 100%, right? But if you just have a few notifications on silent or, you know, you spend time checking those emails, but then not getting on the social media apps, anything to just really help cut out those distractions so that you can spend concentrated time in God's word and reading through the content that this campaign sends out daily. Yeah, and I think it's worth, you know, I was being interviewed on this campaign as we've run it in the past, and one of the gentlemen who interviewed me was basically saying that for him, being on social media, reading through the news, those kind of things is part of his job. And how is it that he could implement a social media fast because he's got this, you know, you'd have to take kind of a week off. And my comment was, you know, there's always, I understand that. And the point of this is not to, it's not to demonize social media. It's not to say that if you're on it at all, you're going to be deformed in some way, right? The point is to say, there are always voluntary uses, voluntary things that we're doing online, things that we don't actually have to do that maybe are disconnected from our job. And so why not just step away from those? For somebody who has, you know, a deep social media component to their job, maybe that will be a little bit more challenging. But my encouragement over the years as we've progressed with the campaign is just to say, there's almost always some form of media that you can get rid of. So get rid of that. And don't worry about the excess that you have to be involved with or what have you, but just, you know, move away from some of those voluntary things that are filling up extra time. Get rid of those and then replace that with Bible study, prayer, some sort of spiritually forming exercise that's going to advance your relationship with Christ. Right. And that actually leads us to the next, the next point that we have in this guide is three is make a plan, right? Like how much time are you really spending on social media? I mean, do you even know? I know that, I know that iPhones will send you like a report, like how much time you spend on this app and this app. But if you have a plan, right? Like, okay, I know that I need to be on social media for work from this time to this time. So I'm going to just do it from this time to this time. I don't know, maybe set a timer on your phone, right? When that timer goes off, you know that, okay, I need to step away. But having a plan and considering these following questions, when will I pray and study? So when am I going to set aside concentrated time without distractions to really focus on God's word and the content that's sent out and where you're not tempted to scroll and just mindlessly look at mind numbing information, whereas you're really getting into God's word. And then how will I study? So we provide, you know, content, daily content during the seven days. But are you going to print them, right? Because if you're looking at your phone, are you going to be tempted to hop on over to an app? Hopefully you deleted your apps. But in this guide, we actually have some note pages. So if people wanted to print this out, they could take notes or maybe get a like a notebook, like a special notebook and just say, like, this is my time with Christ during these seven days. But just really have a plan and figure out when you're going to spend time reading through this content and studying God's word. And then number four is focus on the good portion. So for the next seven days, we want you to commit spending minimum amount of time sitting at the feet of Jesus. Even if it's only five minutes a day, right? Five minutes a day in God's word can make such a difference and impact in your life. That five minutes that you maybe were scrolling or liking things that wasn't adding to your life the way that God's word can. Just focus on that, what you can do. You know, I'm a I'm a mom. You're a dad, right? We know we have busy lives. So set aside that time. Is it going to be in the morning before the kids get up while you drink your coffee? You know, are you going to spend that time? Is it after the kids go to bed when you need to unwind and really release the stresses of the day, but just have a plan and focus on that. And so number five is just set a minimum standard, right? Commit to doing something that will help you grow spiritually for a certain amount of time each day. Changing old habits or developing new ones requires effort. We know that. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed with inflation, market volatility and ongoing global uncertainty? More families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free retirement defense guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. But we still need to manage that effort. And this again, committing to spending 5 or 10 minutes a day even reading the Bible. You can journal, right? Read over scripture. And actually this year we have a theme scripture that we are wanting people to commit to and memorize. And it is actually Psalm 119.5. Your word is a lamp for my feet, light on my path. And something really cool, we connected with a really amazing organization called Dwell Differently. And they will actually be on the podcast tomorrow, Natalie Abbott. And they teach people how to memorize scripture. And so their story and how they got started is so amazing. But we agreed that this was a good verse to memorize. So guys, for the next seven days, if you're in this fast, this is the scripture that we want you to commit to memorize. And we will send you some really cool stuff on how you can memorize that. And so I'm excited about that for the listeners and who is participating in this fast. Yeah, I mean, it's worth noting that we haven't really said it yet, but today is the kickoff of the Go Dark, shine bright campaign this year. We do leave all the materials up all year. And so we recognize that whatever week we choose is going to be a bad week for someone. So we leave the materials up so that people can participate. We're going to be doing five episodes that are related to technology and to studying scripture and a variety of different things this week on Thinking Christian. So each of the days this week on Thinking Christian, we're going to be addressing some of these technological issues. Like you said, we have Natalie from Dwell Differently on tomorrow. We've got Christa Bowen, who does a lot of work with technology and children. We've got a great interview with Access, which provides a lot of resources for parents and for kids. And then we've got a conversation with a gentleman named Paul Lewis Metzger, who wrote a book called More Than Things. And so it's going to be a good week on Thinking Christian to just kind of dive in, think about some of these issues, really reflect on how technology maybe does form and shape us in good ways and sometimes in bad ways. But to just refocus and really think through our media use and how it is that we're interacting with the stories that the world tells that distort and deny God. So that's all coming up this week on Thinking Christian. Yeah. Yeah. And we're really excited to share this with you guys and our listeners. And like James said, it's all year round. So even if you don't sign up and officially participate Monday on the kickoff or today on the kickoff, you can get your own fasting guide anytime and make this a priority in your life. And I just also wanted to touch, this is our fourth year doing the Go Dark, Shine Bright campaign, and we have had more than 75,000 people participate in this campaign. So that's really awesome. And if you think about all the time off social media and people spending a concentrated effort in their walk with Christ, that is very impactful. And so that's over 75,000 people. So that's really exciting. And it just continues to grow. I think we all know that we need to step away from social media, even if it's for a few days. It's nice to take that break and just step, yeah, step away from it. So. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things that can be a really good thing when used appropriately, but oftentimes we fall into this unintentional use of social media where it sort of begins to drive our behavior as opposed to us figuring out how we want to use it when we want to use it. And I would say the same thing about news sites. I would say the same thing about the internet just more generally. These are great tools. They're fantastic.

to use. They have tons of benefit. And yet they can really become distractions and pull us away from, you know, the good portion. If I, uh, if I sort of channel the Mary and Martha story, the good portion of sitting at Jesus's feet. And so we want to encourage Christians to do is just do that. Sit at the feet of Jesus. And so whether you read your materials online or whether you download them and print them, you know, I do tend to encourage people to find a physical outlet, you know, find something that you can do that will engage you sort of physically in the physical world with a book, with a with a piece of paper or something like that. And so I just encourage people to maybe think about doing that and just staying away from the screen just that much more during your day. I know probably won't eliminate it completely, but there are some of those ideas that we just need to get our heads around that sitting in front of a screen all day probably isn't doing us as much good as we'd like to think. No, it's not. I mean, and I mean, yeah, we could go on a whole other episode over this, write about like what it is to blue light screens and yeah, and that's, that's a whole other, you know, podcast day, but um, yeah, so. Whole different beast. Yeah. Yep. So yeah, Go Dark Shine Bright. We encourage people to check it out. They can go to actually the website for it is moodycenter.org backslash go dark shine bright. They can also find it at godarkshinebright.com or godarkshinebright.org. They can search it, probably Google it, Go Dark Shine Bright, and they'll find it. But we just encourage Christians to go in, sign up, check it out. And, and yeah, just enjoy a five day or seven days this week or seven days this year. Enjoy seven days off of social media and, and just really think about how it is that God, what God is doing in your life. So. Yup, yup. Awesome. Well, thanks for having me on today to talk about this. Yeah, absolutely. Well, head out, everybody, join the Go Dark Shine Bright campaign, and we will catch you tomorrow on Thinking Christian with Natalie Abbott. And I'd encourage you to go in and subscribe to Thinking Christian on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever it is that you get your podcasts so that you don't miss any of the episodes we have coming up this week. Thanks, everybody. And we'll catch you on the next episode of Thinking Christian. Just want to take a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the Thinking Christian podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more. Finding uplifting news in today's headlines is often like searching for a needle in a haystack. At the Story Behind podcast, we believe in the power of finding heartwarming tales and are happy to share empowering stories with you every week. Get inspired by the note a waitress received from a patron dining alone and even hear about how one VIP passenger made a hardworking pilot get emotional before his flight. To start listening to the Story Behind podcast, visit lifeaudio.com.