Why your phone is killing your ministry
and a few ideas of what to do about it.
Your phone is killing your ministry.
It’s keeping you from focusing on the people right in front of you.
I am sure we have all had this experience, but it’s less fun to think about the times we’ve done it ourselves: You’re in mid-conversation with someone, and a buzz on their wrist or in their pocket visibly changes their attention. When have you done that to others? How can you love someone well when you are distracted?
It’s keeping you getting all you can out of church and discipleship gatherings.
Youversion is both the best and worst app ever created. With it, I can share a story of God’s word in nearly any language imaginable. I can hit play and listen to an audio Bible as I drive… in multiple versions… some dramatized! But also with it, I can get a text that distracts me from 5 minutes (or more!) of a Bible study. It’s not just Youversion. I can start a group text with the people in my church and then never come back to meaningful conversation and prayer because I’m following the rabbit trails of communication on my phone.
It’s keeping you from deeper learning.
Deeper learning at conferences and retreats. Deeper learning from books, blogs, and podcasts. Yes, ironically, this is a blog post, and I regularly podcast. But the medium of reading and listening through a smartphone opens you up to instantaneous distraction from what you are trying to learn.
As an aside: I would encourage you to NOT read these posts in the Substack app. They come to your email. Read them on your time when you are ready. I won’t know or care.
Speaking of email: Get it off your phone. And turn off notifications for it. Email was created for asynchronous communication, meaning we don’t need to be in sync when we communicate. We can talk about things over an extended time period. Except, I recently read that the average email gets responded to in less than two minutes! So much for asynchronous.
Or worse, you read every single message that comes your way. And never do anything with it. Those messages are just pinging around in your head and filling up your apps to the point that you could never think clearly even if you wanted to. Now I’m ranting.
Let’s get back to deeper learning at conferences and retreats, I wasn’t finished before I got distracted. I remember six years ago going to a retreat with my organization that had maybe 50-75 people. I have a specific memory of this thought: “I can’t believe how locked in and in tune everyone in this room is. Everyone is taking notes and actively listening. This is incredible.”
It was incredible, and unfortunately, I don’t see it much anymore.
At a similar conference this year, we … yes, I am just as guilty in what I am about to say… we were passively listening, responding to texts and emails, and probably scanning social media throughout the entire conference, no matter who was speaking. I don’t know if any of us were locked in and actively listening. What happened?
Generally speaking, what happened is the problem I’m writing about. Our phone use has become ubiquitous with living life.1 We can’t actually sit in a room and listen to someone and end that sentence with a period. We sit in a room, half listening to someone, and more than half being distracted by our devices.
I’ve found that the less I look at my phone, the clearer my thoughts are. I can listen to the Lord more easily. I have the mental space to read the Word and modern-day case studies and apply them to my own context. I can actually write a blog post. These are all difficult things to do when we are constantly in a distracted environment. We need mentally clear spaces to pray and think.
And speaking of prayer…
It’s keeping you from a closer walk with Jesus.
Read John 15 and see how abiding in Jesus meshes with your phone use. Think about Jesus, Paul, and others who spent days fasting, and let me know how much you would NEED your phone in that same time frame.
My own phone addiction (yes, I think it’s okay to use that strong of a word) became apparent to me when I first tried to take a 24-hour break from it. I was constantly thinking of it, wondering if I had any new messages, looking at the clock for when I could check it again… sounds a lot like someone who is addicted to nicotine, doesn’t it?
Maybe I’m just carnal, but before you judge me, you should try the same thing. Turn off your phone for 24 hours and don’t pick it up. Do you notice any addiction markers in your life?
Let’s end this rant with a few ways I am fighting back:
The aforementioned 24-hour phone break. If you can’t start with something that long, try 4 or 8 hours and build up your tolerance.
Phones stay away from my bedside. A friend wrote about those benefits here.
Whenever I can, I turn my phone off at night. And just as importantly, I wait as long as possible to turn it on the next morning.
Full disclosure: I could often wait longer, so this is still a goal to aspire to: Wait to turn on your phone until you actually need it.
Even when I have my phone on, I have been leaving it in inconvenient places: A floor away from my home office and in my car when I have a meeting at a coffee shop. The message I am telling myself, the people I meet with, and the projects I’m working on is this: You are more important than whatever notification is going to buzz through.
Make your phone as utilitarian as possible. Save social media for the computer. Delete the apps. Instead of adding apps indiscriminately, seek to have the bare minimum to be functional.
I respond to messages, but I am seeking to do so at set times throughout the day. Instead of being ‘always on’ I have found that checking my phone and responding every few hours is more than adequate.
What about you? Is your walk with Jesus better because of your phone? Are you better at focusing on others with your phone around? What steps do you need to take to grow in these things?
This hit home to me as I was watching March Madness basketball this year. Nearly every commercial featured a smartphone prominently. Check for yourself and see if I’m wrong.