Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

It's important to understand what we mean when we say "tech". Is it anything that plugs into a wall? Anything with a screen? Our answer will determine how we understand healthy tech boundaries as well as how we can best connect the Gospel to our daily tech use. Today we'll talk about how there are actually two types of tech which are quite distinct when it comes to healthful tech use. 

Safe tech is about more than simply having good rules. We need to get beyond good guidelines and talk about the basis of making our homes safe from the inside out. In today's conversation we set the basis for our conversation in the Gospel, showing how Jesus clearly addresses how our hearts should interact with tech (and how we can know if we're doing it wrong), and then build from there to point...

We hear lots of scary stuff about tech: unhealthy screen time addiction to tech dopamine triggers increasing depression and anxiety lurking bullies and stranger danger So how do we know if our child's tech use is healthy? It's actually quite simple. But knowing tech health is easy, and almost useless. We need to have a larger conversation that includes tech health, equips us to focus on the hope o...

How does the Gospel effect our entertainment? Specifically, how does the good news of Jesus Christ impact our gaming? This is more than simply knowing the right rules or only playing the "safe" games. This is a deep-dive into what makes us tick, into why we game in the first place, and making sure there aren't any strongholds in our free-time, our amusement, or our hearts that might cause us to lo...

Our lives are awash in big questions: politics, education, faith, technology--the number of things we're expected, as parents, to get right is staggering. Today I can help you clarify at least the faith and technology part, because today we are going to address three reasons you need the Gospel as the foundation of your tech use.  For more resources visit our website: gospeltech.net You can also f...

It's easy to miss the moments to teach our children healthful tech. It's equally easy to feel overwhelmed when we realize we're faced with one of those moments. Today's conversation focuses on three practical steps we can take to help our family have a firm foundation for tech conversations, as well as a meaningful action plan moving forward.

Today we'll address three steps every parent can take to address healthy tech with their kids. If you feel like tech in your family is an uphill battle, or maybe you feel like you've already lost and it's not even a battle anymore, then prepare to be encouraged. These are steps every parent can, and should, take when learning to fight for their family when it comes to tech.

Addictive video game design isn’t some kind of voodoo magic. It’s a science. We can look at a game and very quickly assess whether it is designed to be unhealthy—whether the game is more than just a great story or engaging gameplay, but in fact is programmed to extract time and money from those who play it. This episode is a practical approach to understanding the health of our gaming choices and...

As parents we want answers. We don't want theory, we want actionable steps we can take right now.  If my kid isn’t sleeping I don’t want a bunch of research about sleep, I want my 8 hours of sleep back. Now!  If my kid has a bad attitude I don’t want general facts about child development, I want concrete actions I can take to help win my child’s heart. This episode will address actions you can tak...

There's a lot of news and information available in the digital world. What we don't need is one more talking head telling us what to think about current goings-on. We need to be reminded of the Gospel and how it applies to the way we consume our news and information. We absolutely must engage the news and the world events around it, but we don’t serve the news. We don’t worship any individual, out...

We need to understand this conversation in order to apply the Gospel to this area of our tech. We need to understand: what we mean by addiction what make video games unique from other activities what we can do with this info to help us raise healthy youth in a tech world Here are the resources referenced in this episode:  intro of Animal Crossing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AkEFot5UF0 Epic G...

Today's podcast is dedicated to answering a listener-submitted question (Thank you amazing listeners!), and it also happens to be one of the more common questions we hear from parents: When should my child get a smartphone?  This conversation is foundational to applying the Gospel to our daily tech lives and we'll tackle it in three parts: 1) the big picture around smartphones 2) weighing the upsi...

We talk a lot on this podcast about how we can intentionally raise healthy youth in a tech world. We talk a lot about the Gospel and how it empowers our actions, but what about when our child makes poor choices on purpose? What if we've done all the right stuff and they simply refuse to go along with it?  Today's conversation is dedicated to the reality that sometimes our children are prodigals: T...

Modern life often requires we adopt digital tech, but some tech has been slow to drop the Drool tech and enhance the Tool tech. Today we talk with Chris Kaspar, founder of Techless and the Wisephone—a phone for those who want a phone, pure and simple.  Chris talks to us about his experiences in the tech industry, what inspired his creation of Wisephone, and how we as loving parents can use tech su...

When we go online we need to act out of the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel transforms us, it changes who we are, what we want, and why we want it. So when we go online, the same is true. Today we walk through how the Gospel changes our social media use. We’ll base our discussion out of Matthew 22:35-40 and look at what it can mean for us to truly love God and love our neighbors in this online, di...

We need to learn how to talk about tech, especially in our marriages. Today we talk about lessons we learned from a reason tech-instigated kerfuffle and how we can all apply these lessons to strengthen our resolve to truly love one another as God has called us to, and use tech in the process.

Today’s podcast is going to focus entirely on a question asked by a concerned parent: “What are the best tools, workshops, and tips for protecting our families [from sexual content online]?” Today we’re going to talk specifically about online accountability, pornography, and some specific tools, workshops, and resources you can use to equip and support your family in this critical area. Resources:...

We get told a lot of things in a day: our kids tell us what they want from us. our spouse tells us what he or she needs. our boss tells us (usually) that we could do better. social media tells us how amazing other people are. the news tells us the world is going down in flames. our flesh tells us we’ve worked hard and deserve an escape. Yet what does God tell us? We only know when we listen. Let’s...

Today marks one year of doing this podcast!  A year ago Anna and I sat in our kitchen trying to figure out how to do this podcast thing. I spent two hours trying to figure out why only one mic would work (spoiler alert, it’s because computers can’t recognize two yeti mics at the same time. THAT SHOULD BE ON THE BOX). Now we're in 2021 and so thankful to God for His many provisions and to each of y...

Today we complete our conversation about the seven steps to healthy tech. Do you want to have healthy tech? Do you want to know what to do if your tech isn't healthy? We'll get you there by the end of today's conversation. Today we specifically address: Replace with Amazement Create Analog Adventures Question what you’re consuming Have hard conversations 

In the last two years of running Gospel Tech I've been asked the same question a LOT: "What does my family need to do to fix our tech?" Today I'm diving in to give everyone what they have asked for: A few simple steps to get this healthy tech conversation started! Ok, I say a few, but I mean seven...it feels like a few.  I've broken it into a two-part conversation and today we will focus on the cr...

Let’s be real: The reason Drool Tech is so prevalent as an outlet for kids and adults is it’s SO convenient and it works SO well! Sometimes we just need that one show to buy us 20 minutes to shower, or have a quiet time, or even just sit in another room with our palms pressed into our eyes and think our own thoughts for just one minute! The problems come when we start to train our children to beha...

Anna's back on the podcast! Today we look at the norm of TV in culture and push back on it a little bit. We’re not saying you need to throw your TVs out the window—but like anything  our culture presumes to be “normal”, we want to align our ideas with a Biblical worldview, including our beloved televisions.

We all make mistakes, and our tech lives are no exception. So what can we do if our tech isn’t healthy? We ask God to give us new hearts that want to do his will (Psalm 51:10). we remove anything that causes us to sin (Matthew 5:29-30). we replace the unhealthy with faith in action (Matthew 7:24-27). Resources referenced:  Last week's episode (S.3, ep.19) will help you determine if your tech use i...

Let's start this year of right with a reminder of the Gospel and a clear look at how we can know if our tech use is healthy. Today we'll talk about: The good news of the Gospel The two types of tech How to apply a RESET to our own lives and extend that to our children