Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

Gospel Tech is a resource for parents who are feeling outpaced and overwhelmed as they raise children in a tech world. <br /><br />Our goal: Equip parents with the tools, resources, and confidence they need to raise kids who love God and use tech.<br /><br />Gospel Tech’s mission is to equip families to love God and use tech. We want to empower parents to:<br /><ol><li>Talk about healthy tech</li><li>Communicate the Gospel</li><li>Connect the hope of the Gospel to their everyday tech lives</li></ol><br /><b>Introduction to Gospel Tech</b> <b></b><br />Three years ago I (Nathan) started Gospel Tech as a ministry to help connect the Gospel to the daily tech lives of families in practical ways. As a middle school teacher I saw a need for intentional, Gospel-focused conversations about tech. Tech was creating more distraction than inspiration in the classroom, and I saw the need for more than just new habits—there was a desperate need for new hearts.<br /><br />Gospel Tech bridges the gap between scary tech conversations and the hope of the Gospel. With engaging stories and practical applications I bring Gospel-centered tech solutions families can apply in everyday life.<br /><br /><b>Gospel Tech Resources Beyond The Podcast</b><br /><ul><li><a href="https://youtu.be/DwED5hnXxas" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><b>The Parent Tech Workshops</b></a>: A two-part series addressing:<ul><li>How should we handle Tech’s Big 3 (smartphones, gaming, pornography)?</li><li>How do we make tech safe at home? (two types of tech, tech health, and building tech trust)</li></ul></li></ul><ul><li><b>Youth Talks:</b><ul><li>The Tech Talk: Use the best tech on purpose, not for purpose.</li><li>The Hope Talk: A conversation about our goals, purpose, and how making a mistake doesn’t make us a mistake.</li></ul></li></ul><ul><li><a href="https://gospeltechworkshop.thinkific.com/courses/gospel-tech" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"><b>The Family Tech Framework</b></a>: A two-hour workshop where families leave with the words to say and the plan in place for healthy tech at home and in daily life.<ul><li>Part 1: Talk It Out: Parents learn key points of discussing healthful tech.</li><li><b></b>Part 2: Walk It Out: Families work together to create a Family Tech Framework customized to their needs, goals, and season of life.</li></ul></li></ul><br />At the end of the day our children aren't problems to fix, they're people to love. We need to point them to the purpose and hope available in Christ, in the work he's already done to make them new and to call them on to good works, and then use tech from that hope. This is why I love to say that in Christ we use tech on purpose, not for purpose. <br /><br />That's the goal of Gospel Tech. Thanks for letting me be on this journey of parenting with you.<br /><br /><br />-Nathan Sutherland

Grace & Tech

Grace is key to parenting tech well, and to overcoming unhealthy tech habits. Grace is costly, grace overcomes wrath / judgement at mistakes (specifically God's wrath at sin), and grace demands a response. By understanding God's idea of grace we can better apply it to ourselves and to our children when parenting tech.Show Notes:

12-16
27:20

Tech Prodigals

The good news of the Gospel applies even to our tech lives. Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son is a beautiful reminder that in tech, as in life, there are three types of people: rebels, self-righteous, and saints.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4ptaQ1a

12-09
28:21

Purposely Presents: Luke - A 24-Day Journey to Christmas

Prepare your heart for Christmas by walking through the Gospel of Luke — one chapter each day. We're already a few days in, but it isn't too late to join us on this journey... We're giving you the gift of the first episode to give you a little taste of what's to come. If you'd like to continue the journey, find and follow our "Luke: A 24-Day Journey to Christmas" podcast mini-series on Purposely.com or wherever you get your podcasts.Merry Christmas from Purposely!Podcast Info: Luke: A 24 Day Journey to ChristmasFollow on AppleFollow on SpotifyFollow on YouTubeFollow on Amazon/AudibleFollow on iHeart

12-04
11:50

New Creations with Tech

We are new creations in Christ, and that means we will use tech differently. The question is, which tech needs to be redeemed, and which needs to be removed?Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3LSF1Qk

12-02
27:31

How the Gospel Overcomes Neglect

We fail a lot as parents. God doesn't call us to be perfect, but to be faithful. Through intentional repentance, confession, and prayer God can overcome the mistakes we make and even use our brokenness to bring his kingdom.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/43DdLvo

11-25
27:31

Parenting as New Creations

In Christ we are new creations (2 Cor. 5:17), and that must change the way we parent our children. We must speak gently, act rightly, be generous with our time, energy, and resources, and think of our children the way God thinks of us. This is an act of the will, for sure, but it's only truly possible through the active working of God's Holy Spirit giving us the heart and will to love as he calls us.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/49fQFyl

11-18
27:52

An Anlalog Adventure Christmas (Part 2)

As we look towards Christmas and the greatest gift God gave us in his Son, we need to think intentionally about how we can give our children the best gifts. Namely, we want to give the egg, not the scorpion (Luke 11:11). Today we continue our conversation about Analog Adventures this Christmas, and get into how these this Christmas can be a time to focus on fun at the pace of real life. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3WO7A3O

11-11
20:23

An Analog Adventure Christmas (Part 1)

Giving good gifts is a gift and responsibility as a parent (Just see Luke 11:11). This Christmas we can give our children amazing gifts that inspire, encourage, and equip them to have fun at the pace of real life. That's right, we're talking Analog Adventures! Over the next two weeks we'll discuss Board Games, Art, Competitive Fun, Books, and STEM.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3X7gpFN

11-04
28:00

Where Nerds Struggle

While nerds are great at lots of things, we can struggle being present, knowing our limits with tech use, and generally submitting to God's kingdom and not our own. It is easy, in Tolkien's words, to move from Escaping to a better Reality towards Deserting the call God has put on our lives. The problem, at the end of the day, isn't that we haven't made a good enough reality yet, but that our world is broken and needs the great Restorer.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/47BNX4U

10-28
20:24

Where Nerds Thrive

Nerds are amazing at experiencing wonder, seeing past the mundane into the Reality God has made, and avoiding the typical traps that come with pursuing purpose in the daily grind. Today we'll celebrate how God has made nerds, and how you as a parents can celebrate your child, your own nerdiness, or maybe even grow in the area of faithful imagination.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4h99rJE

10-21
26:17

Too Much Screen Time

Sometimes the hardest part of healthy screen time is knowing what to do instead. So how do we know if our child has too much screen time, and what can we do instead? There are three questions we need to ask, and then four activities we can use to quickly point our children back to analog adventures.  1. Are screens babysitting?  2. Does my child content with screen time?  3. Is tech a consistent battle for our family?The average school-aged child has six "blocks" of discretionary time a day. We will look at four possible analog adventures: books, board games, art, and baking.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4nNUQWC

10-14
28:00

Don't Stop Praying

Have you quit praying? Think about the last week: What happened when you saw that last horrible news article, or video on SM, or had someone at work tell you about another heart-rending tragedy. What did you do? If you're anything like me, you didn't pray. You might've shrugged, or cried a little, or made a snarky remark (also more like me than the other two)--but if you're like me, you didn't pray. Our lack of prayer shows we are forgetting just who it is we serve. We serve a God who is:A good fatherCreator God of everythingCalling us to kingdom workWe pray to see His will be done and His kingdom come. Let us not give up in doing what is good, but instead to pray without ceasing, even if it means we pray about our lack of desire to pray.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4pS7m8R

10-07
27:49

The Problem of AI and Social Media

There are three unique struggles on social media thanks to the advent of AI:Bots and the Dead InternetSo much p*rnProblems with Reality RetentionThere are three steps we can take today:Step 1: Get internet out of the bedroom.Step 2: Get your family hedges setup — start talking about this!Ask your child: Have they seen AI generated content? How can they tell what is real and what is fake?For younger children: Let’s play a game called “real” v. “story”. .Elsa and Frozen, Vacation we went on as a familyStep 3: Get off the internet. If you’re under the age of 16 you don’t need SM. If you’re under 15, you don’t need a smartphone.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4pCrZWn

09-30
28:35

Mean People Online Part 2

There are mean people online. Three steps to take to help ensure we handle mean people well are:Assume others are intelligentAttack ideas, not peopleRemember the Gospel: We were all once sinners (Ephesians 2:4) — now we’re saints, by grace.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3JZr8ie

09-23
22:09

Mean People Online Part 1

Few people go online looking to change their minds. Most want validation or escape. With this in mind, we must be intentional with our social media interactions. Today we'll discuss three ground rules for dealing with mean people online, and give practical examples we can look to for how to do online conversations and ministry well. Three ministries who use social media well as an outlet for gospel hope are:Tim Barnett, Red Pen LogicBrady Cone, Calibrate MinistriesThe Bible ProjectShow Notes: https://bit.ly/3VcSYtT

09-16
21:27

Being a Good Friend Online

It's hard to make good friends. Today we'll discuss three questions we can discuss with our children to help them build healthy, and helpful, friends online and in real life.Are we of equal value?2. Does this person make me a priority?3. Is the person the point (or is it a shared activity)?Show Notes: https://bit.ly/45XlupG

09-09
27:47

Using Social Media for Ministry

Can we use social media well, or is the fact it's designed to take our time, focus, and money make it more harmful than helpful? We'll cover there dangers, three blessings, and how we can remember to not gain the world but lose our soul.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4neMQxh

09-02
27:56

Biblical Boundaries for Social Media

God gives us clear statements of what is expected of our behavior both online and offline. Today we'll look at what God requires of our words, minds, focus, and content.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/45uelwM

08-26
28:53

Is My Child Ready for Social Media?

In America we have rules for helmets on a bike, licenses for a car, and permits for a gun, but we don't have any real standards about children and social media. We need a clear way to know when our children are ready, what to say when they're not ready, and a simple way to assess if social media is going well once they've started to use it.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4mEKUxx

08-19
26:53

Social Media Safety

Social media is inherently unsafe: It is designed for maximal engagement, with feeds drawn from live users on a global network, with a viewing rate far beyond what children will experience in nature (the average TikTok video is viewed for 5 seconds).Today we'll look at the age, limits, and boundaries we can lovingly put around our children to get the best chance of healthy results when using social media.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3Jwa8ji

08-12
28:45

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