Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

It's a story I'm hearing more and more often: a high school junior who swapped Instagram for Whatsapp to reclaim her goals and time a twenty year old who deleted social media to spend more time in his own life rather than the lives of others a college senior who asked his mom to put parental controls on his smartphone to help him focus on his schooling and career Today we talk about how we can use...

Love and dating is always an awkward world, especially in middle and high school, and tech only makes it worse. Today we'll talk about what it looks like to truly love someone, how we can step into loving relationships, and what we must get right about love and tech. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3Ky5EGg

“What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;  or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?" (Luke 11:11) I love to give my children good gifts. Whether it's a delicious treat, snappy new clothes, or a new game or toy, I love being able to provide my children with not only what they need but also what they want. Sometimes, however, my childre...

It's tough being a kid. Being raised in a tech world is even worse. In today's conversation I talk directly to the teens in our lives, and give a reminder that yes, our choices matter, and God's call is even bigger than our mistakes. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4brDl8q

Prioritizing isn’t one of my gifts. I’ve got great energy, I’m adaptable, and I can do a great job being present. Being prepared is another thing. While I’d love to justify my lack of planning on account of my spiritual superiority (I’m clearly a Mary, not a Martha), I have to acknowledge that we are called to count the cost of following Jesus. That’s not possible when I have no idea what is at st...

Proverbs 22:6 tells us to raise our children in the way they should go. Galatians 5:19-22 reminds us of the fruit we are to look for in our lives and hearts. Today we'll talk about how to do the first when the second isn't going the way we'd hoped. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3UtjsGQ

Today we sit down with uber-dad, top-tier nerd, and my good friend Justin Pavey to talk about how we can help our children see more of God through the talents, interests, and opportunities he's given us. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3WpWFOD

God calls us to a relational, embodied existence. This is impossible to do in solely virtual spaces, and trying to exist only online causes anxiety, loneliness, and depression. We have the opportunity teach our children how to be present, and it starts with making space in our lives and calendars to be together. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3wcQe6P

Everyone wants to live their best life, but what if living your best life now literally means living for, and with, Jesus? Today we end our Season One of Can We Talk with a conversation about how Christ empowers us to live the best life possible, and how that doesn't always look like what we'd plan (mainly because our plans are rarely ever truly what is best). Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3UxknHe

Drool Tech is designed to take our time, focus, and money. Not only does it manipulate our decisions, our investment includes the loss of opportunities we would have had if we'd been able to move on with real life. The loss of relationships, real world stress, and experiences of personal agency (you made a choice, saw the outcome, and learned from it), have made a brittle and anxious generation of...

What does it mean to be a Christian? It seems simply, we've all known this since summer camp: Put your faith in Christ and you get eternal life. But is that what Jesus taught us? What did Jesus say about his power for our life today, not just our life in eternity? Today we're talking about what it means to be buried with Christ, raised to new life with him, and how that empowers living for God's k...

Jonathan Haidt’s new book changes the tech conversation. From this moment onward, no one can respond to concerns about tech with “nuh uh” and be taken seriously. The research has been compiled, the conversational table has been set with delicious morsels of facts, research, relationship, and experience, and now the meal can commence. This book will change the way legislation, lawsuits, school boar...

We can know God. Not just as a theory, or a vague idea, but as a person to interact with, talk to, and be loved by. Today we discuss how we can know God, why it's reasonable and relevant to do so, and what knowing the God of the Bible means for the rest of our daily life as believers. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4aOl1Wd

Martin Luther, in summarizing many church fathers and mothers, cited the three temptations that draw us away from God: The flesh, the world, and the devil. Technology offers the same three distractions from God's best for us, and today we look specifically at how these sublte lies slip easily into our daily lives, and what we can do to recognize and resist them with truth and hope. Show Notes: htt...

”The devil’s three temptations of Christ aren’t about getting him to “sin”, as we think of it, but to get him to take his rightful kingdom by an easier road—to do the right thing in the wrong way.” -John Mark Comer, Live No Lies. Today we discuss the three temptations of technology, not to be afraid of it, but to expose it for what it is. We can live free with tech, and we can also live free of it...

God matters today. Many of us believe that, but we need to connect that truth to our daily lives in a world filled with frenetic goal chasing, instant gratification technology, and the many fears being shouted from every digital rooftop. Today’s conversation focuses on how God fuels the most important conversations and solutions to the problems of our day. Show Notes: 

How do we teach our children to use tech well? We've setup hedges, we've assessed tech health, and we know the lies tech will tell us. Today we discuss how to help our children use tech well by looking at the fruit, the fit, and the safety of our new tech. Doing this empowers us to use the best tech, stay hope focused, and fight for our children (not just with them) when it comes to technology. Sh...

Today we focus on the "tech" of culture, God, and tech. Nathan Sutherland shares a bit of what we can do to be intentional with our tech use, how we can talk about tech with our children, and how there is great hope for tech used well for ourselves and our children. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/43qKq5S

We continue our conversation about how to use to use tech well with a look at how to keep our tech use healthy. We do a quick dive into RESET and building hedges, and equip ourselves with the information we need to fight for our children, not just with them, when it comes to tech. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/43rGfqn

Our cultural moment is unique because we aren't just post Christian, we're quite nearly pre-Christian. As a middle school teacher Nathan Sutherland saw the number of students who didn't have proper context to understand even simple Biblical text references from Western authors: baptism, floods, and overcoming giants. Today we discuss the idea of what has shaped modern thinking, what it means to be...

Today we begin a three-part series addressing a parent question about how we can use tech well. To begin, however, I need to address the elephant in the room: Tech isn't without goals of its own. Tech makes four promises it cannot keep, and we run into trouble when we begin to believe these lies and try to use tech to fulfill needs it cannot meet. I end the conversation with a host of amazing thin...

There are some conversations that feel a little too loaded, even a little too taboo, to discuss with neighbors, co-workers, friends, or family (sometimes that last one especially). Today we kick off a series called Can We Talk, a discussion designed to help us reclaim the conversation around culture, God, and tech. You won't find hot takes, click bait, or knee-jerk reactions from our Twitter feed...

Covenant Eyes can be an amazing resource for image accountability on digital devices, but it can also feel overwhelming. Today Anna and Nathan talk through when Covenant Eyes is a good resource, and how it might be a benefit to families. Check out the video version on YouTube for the extended version that includes a full walk through of installing Covenant Eyes on Anna’s phone. Show Notes: https:/...

Today's conversation is aimed at the men in the room: Those same ones I've talked to about what it means to be a nerd dad. How can we be great husbands, fathers, and men in a digital age? What does that look like when Jesus never mentions the internet, smartphones, or video games? Today we'll talk about the clear standard we are given as men to live humbly before our God, and what that looks like...

iPhones are notoriously difficult to keep accountable and therefore to keep safe for young eyes and minds. Apple has doubled-down on user privacy at all cost, which means it is difficult for an iPhone to default to safety. It’s not surprising then that one of the questions I’ve been hearing a lot recently is how to protect, track, and mend mistakes made on an iPhone. In today’s conversation we’ll...