Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

As parents we worry about all the mistakes we have made with tech, or might make parenting tech, and wonder if there comes a point where we've irreparably harmed our children. The short answer: No. There is no tech mistake that can make your child a mistake. Today is an encouragement to parent from that truth, wherever you are in your tech-parenting journey. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4s4pbmE 

Nathan offers a helpful way to think about technology: there's “tool tech,” which helps us create and accomplish things, and “drool tech,” which is designed to keep us consuming and engaged. The difference isn't that one is good and one is bad, but understanding how they're designed can help parents and grandparents make wiser choices about the screens in their lives and their kids' lives. It's a...

Jesus tells us to give good gifts, so let's ask the question: Is a smartphone a good gift? Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4AOPMs1 

AI can be a helpful tool when it's used to support learning, creativity, and problem-solving, but it's important that it doesn't end up doing all the thinking for us. A good question for families to ask is, "Is this helping my child grow, or is it replacing the work they need to do to learn and develop?" There is also a growing concern around kids using AI as a substitute for real relationships. W...

So, you've decided games are a good fit for your kiddo; what now? The conversation you'll have when deciding which games to play is just as important as the final decision. Along the way you'll learn to read the box, trust your gut, and grade the game for yourself so you are equipped to think, and act, rightly when it comes to video games. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4jveM16 

Technology is woven into almost every part of our lives, and if you're a parent, grandparent, or caregiver, you've probably wondered how to help kids use it wisely. In our first "Frequently Asked Questions" conversation, Nathan shares practical encouragement for raising children who love God first and use technology with purpose, not just by setting rules, but by addressing the heart behind our sc...

What can we do if tech makes bedtime a frequent struggle? I've found that thinking about time, place, and content as ways to create excellent tech hygiene for our children, and reflecting on their sleep as an example of if it is working, can be a great way to develop healthy relationships with our tech at home. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4jqrGxc 

We can parent the technology schools send home and ensure these devices are a blessing in the classroom and beyond. We start by talking about using tech well with our kids, then we ensure the school and our home have hedges to keep these devices safe, and we remember that tech in the classroom should benefit learning. With these three in mind we are able to parent school technology well. Show Note...

How can we tell if a child’s tech is just different, or if it’s actually becoming unhealthy? Today we'll walk through the practical applications of a RESET and how it empowers us to fight for our children, not just with them, when it comes to tech. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4ivrGMi

Young people, you can make your tech support the good choices you want to make. Set spiritual practices, healthy habits, and safe hedges (Ephesians 2:1-10) Use your words and actions for building others up (Ephesians 4:29) Look to help (James 5:19-20) Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4gMgE2F 

Parenting tech doesn't have to be complicated. Two questions to help us on our way: Is true? Does it bear good fruit? These two guide our tech decisions about whether we change our tech choices, or simply remove unhealthy tech and replace it with new and safer activities. Show Notes: 

The transition from summer to the school year is a wonderful opportunity to reassess our routine and priorities. It's a time to make sure we're planning for healthy sleep habits, recalibrating screen time, and protecting what matters most from getting lost in the busyness of the fall season. Back-to-school season is the perfect time to be intentional about using tech in ways that support our goals...

In 2016 Anna and I started a nonprofit focused on sparking positive purpose in youth. I began teaching part time and speaking part time, and ten years later we are doing this as a full time ministry to equip and empower parents, youth, and leaders to love God and use the best tech well. As we look to this next year we feel a strong conviction, especially after six months in the classroom for Natha...

Safe, Ready, Good is the standard every parent can apply to the tech in our homes, and to any tech we dream about bringing through our door. First we ask if it is safe. Is this technology safe by design, or are there additional controls we can add that will help to keep it safe? Then, is my child ready? Sometimes this is an age thing (they should be 15 before getting a smartphone), and sometimes i...

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8 Philippians 4:8 is a gift to everyone living in this tech world. We can quickly reflect on the what, why, and where of tech quickly in order to use tech intentionally. Show...

God has given us our children as a mission field, and He's proclaimed His Good News that we aren't in charge of saving them; just loving them. It's not easy, but it is freeing, and it's exactly what our children need. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4px0rSK 

Parenting is hard, and parenting in a tech world can be downright overwhelming. The good news is that we have a good God who calls us to faithfulness, not perfection. So today, rather than focusing on ourselves as parents, we're going to reflect on who God is, who we are, and what it means to be a child of God. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4fxV1ma 

For part two of our conversation as we dive back into the unexpected places our children may run into unsafe pictures, and how we can intentionally help them both before they find such content, and especially after they've come across it. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4ffawQF 

Today we get to talk with Kristen Jenson, author of Good Pictures, Bad Pictures, a resource that has been an encouragement to Anna and I as we raise our humans in a tech world. It's also one of the resources we reference most when giving workshops for parents on how to engage this tough conversation. Today we discuss Kristen's new book: Good Pictures, Bad Pictures, A Guide for Girls. Show Notes: h...

Our opportunity as parents is to set loving boundaries. This will involve saying "yes" whenever we can and "no" as often as we need to. When it comes to tech, it is unloving to give our children gifts we know will harm them or those around them. Instead we give them gifts that will produce good fruit, that are safe by design and, in the case they're not inherently safe, they are appropriate for th...

Our kids are capable of having fun at the pace of real life. It's hardwired into them. Teaching sixth grade this year gave me a front row seat for just how much today's youth love having social, interactive, creative fun at the pace of real life. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4xFUpmw 

The last six months of consistent classroom teaching has reminded me of an important lesson: Students are more capable than they think. In reading, writing, and math, many times what our students need aren't intensive lessons covering specific steps for success, but rather repeated opportunities to achieve, to practice doing important skills even if they do it poorly early on, and a chance to see...

Many of us feel the tension between wanting to use technology well and wondering if it’s quietly shaping us in ways we didn’t choose. This episode digs into that tension, from Pope Francis’s vision for Christian humanism in the age of AI to the surprisingly spiritual discipline of embracing boredom, and why both matter for families trying to follow Jesus in a noisy world. If you’ve ever caught you...

Students risk losing up to 40% of their learning over summer break (Atteberry and McEachin). In 2020 two researched looked at 200 million test scores from 18 million students across all 50 states over an 8 year period (2008-2016). The take away: The Summer Slip is real, and it can be neutralized with just 15 minutes of reading and math each day. Parents, we don't have to run a boot camp, but we ha...

Today we cover how Anthropic's Claude Mythos was trained, the sheer enormity of the processing power we're putting into making these AI resources, and what this might look like for us to use this tech well and not as a Tower of Babel to reach heaven whether God likes it or not. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/49jyqrb