Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

Christmas is an amazing time to remember the gifts God has given us: His only son and the Holy Spirit (Lk. 11:11). As parents we get a chance to show our children a bit of what it means to give good gifts, and today we're going to talk about how. Today we address: 1. A great way to think about gift purchasing 2. How to assess new tech for your family 3. Ten analog adventure gifts for Christmas! Re...

As we head towards Thanksgiving, lets take this opportunity to call out these areas in our lives that steal our Thankfulness: Control Anxiety Distraction And let’s combat them in Christ with the tools we’re given: Draw close to God Stay connected to the vine Check the fruit Timeline: 0:00: Intro 2:10: Thank You 5:30: What deters our thankfulness? 6:30: Control 15:30: Anxiety 17:30: Distraction 21:...

🎉🎧NEW PODCAST (Ep. 146) IS LIVE!🎙🎉 Wonder is critical when it comes to living as God calls us to live. Wonder helps us realize our place in creation, it re-establishes the pecking order of power, and it reminds us not only of God’s greatness but also of the loving, kind, and gentle Heavenly Father he is—one who gives good gifts. In our digital age it feels like we live in an Age of Wonders, yet...

Hope can be hard to come by in a digital world. We are surrounded by bad news, inundated with people doing better than us, and constantly teased with promises of a better life if we only play that game, watch that show, use that product. When we talk to our children about technology, and parent them in a tech world, we need to remember that hope means having a reason for today and a purpose for to...

Comparison is often a natural part of growing up, but that doesn't mean it's healthy. Getting value by feeling better than others is dangerous to our hearts, as well as to our relationships and mental health. In todays' conversation Kristen Clark of Girl Defined walks us through her journey with the Lord from a place of comparison to one of contentment, and gives us powerful insights into how we c...

🎉🎧NEW PODCASTS (Ep. 143) IS LIVE!🎙🎉 Today we continue our conversation about building tech trust with our children. Last week we discussed how to ensure tech is a good fit for our family, child, and season of life. In today’s conversation we look at ten ways to gauge tech trust, as well as what to do when tech trust is broken. There are three ways to listen: 🔗 click the link in the profile 🎧...

How do we build tech trust with our children? The first thing we do is make sure the tech is a good fit for our family, our child, and this season of life. We should not give our children devices that are inherently unsafe, go against family expectations, or damage or distract from his or her purpose in Christ. In today’s conversation we’ll cover what it takes to ensure a new tech is a good fit fo...

This is our last episode on the "Back to School" series! To wrap this all up we dive into conversation with Anna about how we can make Analog Adventures with our own families. The emphasis of today’s conversation: You can do it, even on a low budget, even if it doesn’t look great on Instagram🤗. To quote the amazing @maandpamodern: Adventures aren’t the goal in themselves, they’re the vessel for d...

In today’s episode Anna weighs in on our conversations through the first four episodes, and brings her insight and wit to bear on subjects that matter to us as parents as well our kids. Resources: .Bark: A fantastic resource to help make the internet a more loving place for our kiddos. We’re such big fans of this resource that we’ve partnered with Bark: You can enter GospelTech10 at checkout for 1...

How do we keep the internet safe at home? This question haunts the minds and hearts of parents who have young children and a house filled with modern tech: smartphones, smart tvs, tablets, laptops (some provided by school), how do we raise our kids to be healthy and whole? Today we answer this question! We’ll focus on three practical areas: 1. Develop a culture of healthy tech 2. Set healthy bound...

Today we wrap up our conversation on finding balance with gaming. We focus specifically on: 1. How to know when gaming is healthy 2. How to be a part of your child's gaming world I also address one of the most-asked questions I get when discussing video games: How do we handle spouses who play video games? Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3UnZXi5

Video games can feel overwhelming for parents. How do we know if video games are a good idea? Which games should we pick? Today we answer these questions and give all parents a firm-foundation with which to love their children and make intentional tech choices when it comes to video games. Resources mentioned: .Ep. 133: What to do when your child asks for new tech: https://www.gospeltech.net/133-b...

Being present matters. Today's conversation is an extension of Tuesday's, with three examples that help us connect what we learned about friendship to our own daily lives. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3BKuFui

Are smartphones and social media the new cul-de-sac? Do our children need to be online in order to have friends? In today's episode we talk about what it takes to make a friend, be a friend, and keep a friend in this digital world. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3L7gJxo

In our previous conversation we discussed how to handle conversations about new tech with our children. Today we're going to walk through specific conversations addressing three tech parents hear about most often: smartphones, social media, and video games. Time: 1:30. Smartphones 11:45. Social Media 20.15. Video Games Resources: Video Game Grades: I've made a simple tool to help determine if a vi...

It's going to happen: Your child is going to come home from school completely enthralled with some new tech. One of their classmates, or someone on their team, will have something new and shiny, and they're going to bring you a pitch for one: a smartphone, video game, or the latest social media platform. Whatever it is, you’ve got to have an answer. In today's episode we'll walk you through exactl...

2/3 Parents say they believe it's harder to parent now than it was 20 years ago, with many citing technology as their reason (Pew, Auxier et al, 2020). That feels about right. Parenting can feel downright overwhelming in this tech world! Today we'll discuss three steps we can all take to help ensure we have healthy tech as we take on the coming school year. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3e7txYs

How do we prep our tech for school? We use a RESET. In today’s conversation we’ll discuss the two types of tech, how to assess tech health, and some practical ways we can begin these conversations at home with children of all ages. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3AOIx6x

Roger Smith is a 30+ year educator, the VP of a national sports camp, a parent of two young adults, and a major advocate for young people growing up in a tech world. Roger has been on the front lines of education since the advent of the personal computer and the internet. Now his elementary school students show up with smartphones and are issued school laptops. In today’ interview he shares encour...

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 thos...

There’s a really good chance your child has asked you to get them a smartphone. My first conversation was with my oldest child when he was in kindergarten. His classmate had one and used it to play games during the school day. Whatever age you child, this conversation is fraught with big emotions, a predictable “but everyone else has one” argument, and the difficulty as a parent of threading the n...

Should my child be on social media? This question can feel loaded, but it doesn’t have to be. Social media conversations are fraught with strong opinions, a desire for belonging, and the parenting version of the boogieman: We don’t know everything ab out every app, and what we do know is often enough to make us lose the little sleep we get. Today we're going to clarify that there is, in fact, a Bi...

Pornography is real and it is hurting the minds of our children. 7/10 tweens and 8/10 teens will encounter nudity or content of a sexual nature online (Bark, January 2021). So what can we do? A lot! There is great hope for this conversation and very practical, loving steps we can take to help our children know what love is, what God says about their bodies and sex, and how to handle pornography wh...

There is a lot of new tech out there. As parents, we often ask: Should my child use _________ (insert new amazing device)? To help us answer this question we often want data, research, and public opinion. Is it worth it? Should they have it? While this question spans the breadth of all tech, ranging from VR to e-readers, we’re going to focus today’s conversation specifically on video games. The co...

Welcome to Week #1 of the Gospel Tech Crash Course! Each week this summer we’re going to address the most-asked questions from families, starting this week: Why do we need the Gospel in our tech conversations? The Gospel is more than just “good information”, it’s Good News, and in today’s conversation we’ll look at how that Good News changes even the way we use our tech. Thanks for joining us, and...