Silencing Weapons of Mass Distraction For Disciple-Making

Attention problems are not new. The description—"confused, dazed, scatterbrained"—was written by American psychologist William James in 1890 regarding decreasing attentiveness. Distractions are a part of life. However, we know that the computer in the palm of our hand has exponentially increased the frequency and intensity of distractions.

Smartphones are widely dubbed as "weapons of mass distraction." We are barraged by an overwhelming amount of input: calls, emails, texts, notifications, and a host of messages from other sources. In a 17-hour day, smartphone users face a notification of some sort every five minutes.

Even as adults our brains are very malleable, and they are constantly adapting down at the cellular level to what we use our minds for. Nicholas Carr in The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains, says, "What we're losing is the ability to pay deep attention to one thing over a prolonged period of time."

Diminished attention impedes discipleship because it interferes with deep connection.

The nature of pastoral work is to help people avoid distraction and focus on practices that help them experience God. Spiritual disciplines require attentiveness, silence, meditation, a sense of awe and self-transcendence, everything that distractions war against.

Challenge disciples in their growth by alerting them to minimize distractions and highlighting the benefits of increasing attention and focus.

Resisting Distractions

Jonathan Haidt's 2024 book, The Anxious Generation, is a great resource. Written for parents and teachers helping youth, there is insight for disciple-making pastors.

Haidt points out that smartphones and social media interfere with the development of executive function, which includes self-control, focus, and the ability to resist distractions. These functions are essential to disciple-making. He says, "The phone-based life ... is a never-ending series of notifications, alerts, and distractions, fragmenting consciousness and training us to fill every moment of consciousness with something from our phones. Social media keeps the focus on the self, self-presentation, branding, and social standing. It is almost perfectly designed to prevent self-transcendence."

Focused Attention

Challenge disciples to grow by amplifying attention and focus.

"Attention is the choice we make to stay on one task, one line of thinking, one mental road, even as attractive off-ramps beckon. When we fail to make that choice and allow ourselves to be frequently side-tracked, we end up confused, dazed, scatterbrained." — Nicholas Carr

Haidt's challenge is, "Regain control of your attention!"

One of the best gifts you can give your congregation is the awareness of how their spiritual growth atrophies by distractions and accelerates by increasing attentiveness.

Focusing for extended periods of time can be harder than it sounds. You can't just decide to do it and expect it to be better. Like any creative skill you have to practice it.

Incremental Steps To Increase Attention

1. Start with becoming aware of distractions. As noted, smartphone notifications

can average once every five minutes.

2. Early is often the best time to focus because you have the most mental energy you will have

all day.

3. Turn off notifications on your phone when you read your Bible, pray, or meditate.

4. Even better, leave your phone in another room.

5. If you use a Bible app for reading, turn off your phone after you finish.

6. Read from a print Bible.

7. Journal. Manual writing tends to keep you focused on creating the content you are writing.

8. Turn off your phone for an hour at a time. Increase to 90 minutes.

Concentrating for ten minutes may feel like active work. The most important thing is to start with where you are and to do what you can do.

Take note of how you feel and how close God feels when you silence distractions.

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