Netflix and Jesus? Finding Faith in a Streaming World

This will date me, but I remember having a TV with three channels. You didn’t get to choose what was playing. You either watched or waited. A weekend highlight was heading to Blockbuster, scanning the aisles for a new movie, begging your parents for candy, and being told ‘no’ before heading home to watch what you had picked out.

It was a simpler time.

Today, more content is being produced and made available than ever before. Last year, Americans only streamed 12 trillion minutes of content. That’s 21 years of continuous streaming!

‍As a follower of Jesus, how do we find and maintain faith in a streaming world?

‍The Apostle Paul gives us some crucial insight when he says,

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

Whether you realize it or not, you are being shaped by the world we live in. We cannot approach the subject of what we consume passively. It is simply too attractive and too available. We must be sober-minded and conscientious, or we will be swept away.

Having a plan is the key to finding and maintaining faith in this world. Let me give you two simple thoughts to get you started.
 

1. Watch Less.‍

This is critical, albeit very straightforward, advice. We are not nurturing our faith if we spend hours a day staring at a screen. This is to say nothing about the moral quality of the content we consume but simply the deleterious effects of quantity.

If we want to know God’s will, we must renew our minds, as Paul instructs us. But if we don’t create the space required, our minds will be too distracted and overwhelmed.

Clear thinking requires time, quiet, and minimal external stimulation - the opposite of what streaming content gives us.

So set limits and boundaries and built-in times to nurture your faith through the studying of scripture and in prayer. Let this be the foundation for what you believe and how you think. Let these spiritual disciples be the framework through which you evaluate and discern the worthiness of all other activities.

To get there, you need time, and since the number one enemy of our time is the never-ending supply of highly entertaining, highly addictive content, step one is to watch less!
 

2. Watch Well.‍

Our ability to make art is a gift from God. It is part of our divine inheritance, and when appropriately stewarded, it can bring Glory to god and beauty to this world. Good art can challenge the status quo and change the world.

While art can do this, most of it does the opposite. Most of what is streaming today is superficial, unimpressive, and, at worst, degrading and defiling.

Paul tells the Philippians, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

I am often saddened and shocked by the casual watching habits of professing Christians. We must guard what we consume to find and maintain our faith in a streaming world.

‍Ultimately, we are the product of our thoughts, and nothing shapes our thoughts more than what we consume. Why else do companies spend billions of dollars on advertising? They know that if you can see it and see it often, it will shape your behavior.

It is not enough to watch less; we must watch well. Followers of Jesus must allow God to be their standard for what we are willing to put in our hearts and minds. If we are naive and compromised, this world will shape us in its image, ultimately destroying us.

Every moment in history presents new challenges to followers of Jesus, and our present streaming age is no different.

Fortunately, the truth found in scripture transcends every cultural moment. God has given us a guide and a better way forward. A resilient faith is possible for anyone who seeks it out, but to find it, we have to cut out the noise, and the first place to start is Netflix.