Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

There's lots of good information out there on tech. You can watch a documentary, read a book, or review the research. But often ingesting that information doesn't motivate change. Until today.
Today we focus on what we CAN do, wherever we are in our tech use and with whatever information we've got on us as of this morning.
We'll talk about what it looks like to RESET & RENEW. Then we'll apply those to our families and have practical steps for making conversations, and changes, we need to love God and use tech.

Resources Referenced:

The Lexon Flip Plus: the alarm clock you've been looking for
a helpful article talking more about RESET
The 2 hour course I reference: The Gospel Tech Small Group Curriculum 
Our website: gospeltech.net
our social media: Instagram & Facebook
The Biblical Standard for our tech use: That we produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), not the fruit of the Flesh (Galatian 5:19-21 & Romans 1:30), that our content meets God's expectations for what we enjoy (Philippians 4:8), and that it reflects the fullness of God's love (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

Doug is a computer programmer, speaker on tech health, and author of the book [Un]Intentional: How Screens Secretly Shape Your Desires And How You Can Break Free.
We cover a lot of ground in today’s conversation, but the one take-away is the same:

There is great hope for raising healthy youth in a tech world
We as parents play a major role in making tech health happen within our homes and with our children.

At the end of the day we're looking for more than balanced tech for our families--we want hope. Doug does a great job of helping us connect our real world parenting with the bigger picture of our purpose and the hope that awaits all who call on the name of Jesus.

Resources Referenced:

Doug's Book: [Un]Intentional and his website www.thatdougsmith.com. 
Some great screen accountability options: Covenant Eyes (filters and scans for inappropriate images), Bark (scans text, searches, and images for unsafe and unkind content)
Screen Strong: A wonderful organization focused on reclaiming kids and reconnecting families.
Gospel Tech-RESET: a tool designed to help parents and young people assess tech health.

Today's conversation builds on the last two, and can be summed up simply as: Being humble & kind will make us curious.

When I’m humble enough to realize I have mistakes as well
and that leads me to be kind because I realize their value is equal to mine, and so is their opportunity
then what once would have seemed like obstacles that inconvenience me and problems I have to solve become questions I want to learn more about.

Today we will address four questions:

How do we develop curiosity in our children?
How Does Curiosity Help In Life?
How Does Curiosity Apply To Parenting In A Tech World?
How Does Curiosity Improve Our Relationship With God?


Resources referenced:

Indescribable, a devotional focused on God's wonderful creation, by Louie Giglio
Three verses that remind us of God's love, grace, and mercy: 

        God sent his son so whoever believes will be saved (John 3:16)
        He did this while we were still sinners, so not just for the good ones (Romans 5:8)
        And his plan, as a good shepherd, was to die in our place (John 10:10-11)

I referenced them enough, so you might as well see some video games that have some wonder built in: Nature, building & belonging, and if you REALLY care, this will just about sum up everything you need to know about the awe of God's creation inserted in to a game.

The second attribute we need as parents when raising healthy youth in a tech world is Kindness.
It’s going to impact our tech parenting in three ways. Kindness will change our tech:
1. Direction
2. Correction
3. Inflection


Bible Verses Referenced

God’s kindness leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4)
We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19)
Our goal is to always listen, and do, what the Father says (John 5:30)
Our love isn’t from our effort, but from our changed hearts (John 5:39-42, Matthew 23:13-30, Ez. 11:19, 36:26)


Helpful Resources:

Want to know if your tech RESET is healthy? Article by Gospel Tech
Tool to help make a Family Tech Framework
Want help making your family calendar as a family? Lome does a great job with this (not a sponsor, we just like their stuff!)
See the notes in episode 102 for help with accountability and big topics

Parenting healthy youth in a tech world is about more than just the right rules. It requires humility, which allows us to make two key realizations:

Our children will make mistakes
Those mistakes don’t impact their value in God’s eyes (or our value as parents)

In today’s conversation we’ll cover the practical ways humility changes our tech conversations, and how parenting from a place of humility helps us be more like Jesus to our children.
Resources Mentioned:
Two great resources for talking sex and pornography with your children:

Birds and the Bees (@birds_bees)
Greta Eskridge (@maandpamodern)

Building a hedge around tech:

How to block pornogrpahy from any device, Protect Young Eyes 
Content filtering and accountability, Covenant Eyes
Home network protection (wifi): Gryphon Router or Circle
Accountability and internet safety: Bark

A Biblical standard for tech: Gal. 5:22 & Phil. 4:8

22 months ago Justin Pavey and I took to the microphones to talk all things tech, nerd, and adulting. Today we continue that conversation, discussing everything from our tech low-points as youths to what it looks like to raise kids who are amazed by life, God and still able to appreciate Escape in its most Tolkienian form.

Resources Mentioned:

A Biblical standard for tech use: Phil. 4:8, Gal. 5:22 vs. Rom. 1:30, Gal. 5:19-21
A link to the Tolkien essay “On Faery Stories”, and his thoughts on the benefits of Escapism.

We made it to episode 100!
We are so excited to share this episode with you, so grateful for the fact that we have the chance, and we look forward to seeing what the Lord continues to do in the future!
Today we’re going to celebrate what God has done and talk about the three tech steps every family can take to help raise healthy youth in a tech world.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode: 

How do we know if our tech use is healthy? Use a RESET 
Building a hedge around your tech at home (routers and device protection!) 
Bonus: We really like Covenant Eyes for internet accountability (adults and young people), and Bark for home computers and phones (not sponsored, just really like both products!)

The changes to daily life have impacted all of us, but how have they impacted our children with special needs? Specifically, if I have a child with developmental-behavioral complications, such as ADHD or Autism, how might the increased social isolation and technology impact their growth and health? Today get to hear from a professional in the field who speaks to the benefits and practical steps we can take as families to support and love our young people wherever they are in their journey to love God and use tech.

We've all got one resolution for this year: Win at tech. It's been two straight years of bad tech habits and feeling like we "should" do better, and now we're resolved to do it. In today's episode we'll discuss three resolutions we can implement today that will help us all live healthier tech lives.

This Christmas I (Nathan) am picking up a tradition passed along by my papa Pete: Every Christmas Eve Papa would sit us down and read the Christmas story from the Bible--he'd make sure we all heard the promises of God before we dove headlong into our presents. As I prepared to do the same thing with my own children, nieces, and nephews I was convicted that I need to tell them more than simply a baby named Jesus was born. The entire point of Advent, and the anticipation of a Messiah, was because there are really three Advents promised by God and we need to live in light of all three at the same time. This episode is a reminder that we can do that starting today, and that it will impact every area of our lives.






A short list of verses to remind ourselves, and our family, of what God has done and is doing:

Genesis 22:15-18 (after Abraham puts Isaac on the altar to sacrifice)
Isaiah 9:2-7 - The promise of the Messiah - the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light…
Luke 4:16-21 - Jesus declares himself the Messiah, echoing what Isaiah
John 7:37 - rivers of living water
Revelation 22:1-3 - everything will be made right, and those rivers of living water will fill us, flow from us and from the city.