Latest / Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland / Celebrating 10 Years of God Providing

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Celebrating 10 Years of God Providing · Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

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Speaker 1: Purposely your life, God's Purpose. Listen it purposely dot Com.
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Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Gospel Tech Podcast. My
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Speaker 2: name is Nathan Sutherland and this podcast is dedicated to
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Speaker 2: helping families love God and use tech. We just cross
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Speaker 2: ten years of Gospel Tech being a ministry that is wild.
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Speaker 2: So we're going to take a moment and just I
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Speaker 2: want to walk through what the Lord has done. And
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Speaker 2: if you're new to this ministry, I want to just
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Speaker 2: help you catch the vision of where we've come from,
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Speaker 2: like how we got to be this we are right
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Speaker 2: now and where we believe the Lord is taking us
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Speaker 2: Gospel Tech. We want to love God with all our heart, soul, mind,
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Speaker 2: and strength. And from our love of God, then that's
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Speaker 2: going to affect the tech we use, both what tech
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Speaker 2: and how we use it. So we are going to
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Speaker 2: use all the tech that produces good fruit. If I
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Speaker 2: can use tech and it helps me look more like Jesus,
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna use it and I'm going to offer it
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Speaker 2: to my kids. And if there's tech that doesn't, I'm
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Speaker 2: going to faithfully hold that with open hands say Okay,
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Speaker 2: maybe this is just a tech. I need to put
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Speaker 2: better boundaries around or manage a little better. Or maybe
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Speaker 2: this tech is inherently unhealthy and unsafe for me. Maybe
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Speaker 2: I have bad habits that have to trust the Lord
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Speaker 2: to be better than and I'm going to cut it
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Speaker 2: off and goadget out. This is the journey we've been
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Speaker 2: on with Gospel Tech, but it didn't start there. So
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Speaker 2: it's ten years. We're going to talk about three things today. First,
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Speaker 2: we're going to celebrate what the Lord has done. Then
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Speaker 2: I'm going to kind of set this vision for where
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Speaker 2: we believe we're headed, and I'll explain a little why
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Speaker 2: it has to be we believe we're headed. And third,
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Speaker 2: invite you to continue to be on this journey with
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Speaker 2: us because you are. You're watching this, you're listening to
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Speaker 2: this like that's a big deal. So first, a little celebration.
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Speaker 2: Twenty sixteen, this nonprofit started. It was called Flint and Iron.
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Speaker 2: Flint and Iron started from my time in the public
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Speaker 2: school classroom here in Washington State and my passion to
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Speaker 2: see young people reach their full potential. So Flint and
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Speaker 2: Iron the idea was sparking positive purpose in youth. I
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Speaker 2: was doing school assemblies and I was giving basically the
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Speaker 2: talks I gave in my own classroom. I just really
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Speaker 2: had a passion for reaching more kids than my thirty
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Speaker 2: three kids I had every day. It's a beautiful thing
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Speaker 2: to be in a classroom. And this conversation was beginning
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Speaker 2: to distract what I had signed on a contract that
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Speaker 2: I would teach eighth grade language arts, and I was
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Speaker 2: kind of getting through that too quickly, And so I
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Speaker 2: could talk to them about life, character and choices and
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Speaker 2: really three things. First, that little choices matter. Second, that
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Speaker 2: everyone's got potential doesn't mean everyone's going to get straight
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Speaker 2: a is, by the way, but it means you have potential,
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Speaker 2: as God's designed that for you. Sometimes I didn't get
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Speaker 2: to say that part out loud, But you have potential.
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Speaker 2: God's made you on purpose, So I want you to
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Speaker 2: achieve everything God has designed you to achieve. And then,
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Speaker 2: third and finally, that making a mistake doesn't make you
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Speaker 2: a mistake. That everyone's got potential, and it's never too
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Speaker 2: late to be great because we all do the thing
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Speaker 2: people told us not to do at some point. Biblically,
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Speaker 2: it's called sin. And experientially, you ask any group of
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Speaker 2: children or adults, have you ever done the wrong thing?
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Speaker 2: They'll say yes. If you have done the wrong thing
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Speaker 2: on purpose, They'll all se yes, And if you want
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Speaker 2: to add it, you can ask them, have you ever
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Speaker 2: done wrong thing on purpose? More than once? The room
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Speaker 2: will say yes. Especially I've noticed elementary junior high high school,
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Speaker 2: they just start staring at you and wondering where the
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Speaker 2: nark is in the room. So be careful in your audience.
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Speaker 2: They will think it's a trap, but it's not a trap.
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Speaker 2: It's the beginning of a conversation because we have to
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Speaker 2: assume you've done the wrong thing before. So I'm not
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Speaker 2: just going to say that secret to life is never
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Speaker 2: do anything wrong, because it's already too late for any
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Speaker 2: room you're talking to. Instead, we begin with I'm going
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Speaker 2: to assume you've done the wrong thing, and you may
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Speaker 2: have done it on purpose repeatedly. What do we do now?
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Speaker 2: What does it look like to move forward and not
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Speaker 2: own this idea that I'm damaged goods or I am
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Speaker 2: a mistake. That's this was the goal behind Flint and Iron,
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Speaker 2: and I did that for three years twenty sixteen, seventeen
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Speaker 2: eighteen into nineteen, and in twenty nineteen that was my
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Speaker 2: last year of teaching in the classroom. So Flint and
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Speaker 2: Iron was a nonprofit. We prayerfully chose at that point
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Speaker 2: to follow where the Lord is convicting us. And it
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Speaker 2: was a difficult season at that point, Ann and I.
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Speaker 2: Let's see was that I said, twenty nineteen, So we'd
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Speaker 2: been married something like thirteen going on fourteen years. We
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Speaker 2: had young children. Hadley was just born at this point,
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Speaker 2: and there I think by the time I quit, she
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Speaker 2: was three months old, and we went in full time
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Speaker 2: nonprofit work for about six months. It made a lot
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Speaker 2: of sense. We did a fundraiser in the backyard of
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Speaker 2: my sister's house. People showed up. It was very gracious,
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Speaker 2: very encouraging. People were very prayerful. We had this heart
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Speaker 2: for bringing the gospel into the conversation and a lot
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Speaker 2: of churches and Christian families asking for that. So Flint
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Speaker 2: and Iron was still a thing, and Gospel Tech became
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Speaker 2: a ministry of Flint and Iron for how can we
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Speaker 2: specifically communicate this to Christian families and help them apply
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Speaker 2: the gospel, the good news that God saves sinners and
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Speaker 2: calls them as sons and daughters on mission for His kingdom.
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Speaker 2: Work like this was awesome. And then twenty twenty hit
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Speaker 2: and in February, go back and look at this podcast.
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Speaker 2: I still haven't like called the old episodes. Episode one
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Speaker 2: still on. You can still hear our fridge running in
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Speaker 2: the background and and I are talking on opposite sides
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Speaker 2: of the same microphone, because that was the day I
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Speaker 2: realized you can't use two USB microphones on the same
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Speaker 2: computer to record two different people.
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Speaker 1: Oops.
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Speaker 2: It was a very intimate recording process, just faces inches
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Speaker 2: from each other. And we began this podcast with the
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Speaker 2: hope of equipping families to use the best tech. Well,
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Speaker 2: we had no idea where that would lead. COVID hit.
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Speaker 2: Everything collapses. Here in the Northwest, COVID lasted a little
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Speaker 2: longer than in other places.
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Speaker 1: I know.
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Speaker 2: When I, you know, talk to my friends in Texas
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Speaker 2: or whatever, they're like, yeah, COVID it was like three months.
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Speaker 2: Not up here. Up here, it was like a year
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Speaker 2: and a half. And it was three month kind of chunks,
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Speaker 2: and then you'd have like six weeks of going back
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Speaker 2: to church and seeing your friends and maybe school starting,
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Speaker 2: and then months again without anything. And it was for
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Speaker 2: a long time to the point where when we ended COVID,
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Speaker 2: people have heard a lot of questions about what does
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Speaker 2: it look like to use tech well? And that is
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Speaker 2: the background to bring in us here ten years later
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Speaker 2: in Year of Our Lord twenty twenty six. Gospel Tech
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Speaker 2: is a ministry to help equip families, teachers, pastors to
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Speaker 2: use the best tech well and to raise a generation
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Speaker 2: who can love God and from their love of God
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Speaker 2: used tech. So as we celebrate last year, we did
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Speaker 2: a fundraiser again. It was awesome, very encouraging. We raise
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Speaker 2: something like two thirds, almost three quarters of our funding
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Speaker 2: for the annual budget. At the fundraiser. That's ridiculous to
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Speaker 2: say out loud, and such a blessing because then I
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Speaker 2: get to spend my year doing the work, not going
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Speaker 2: around in donor raising and fundraising. So at that fundraiser,
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Speaker 2: it's like, Hey, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna
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Speaker 2: quit families to help their kids use the best tech well.
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Speaker 2: Two days later, I'm going a major tech company here
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Speaker 2: in Washington State. I'm talking with a family's ERG, the
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Speaker 2: Employee Resource Group, and we were talking about how do
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Speaker 2: we use the best tech well? And these parents are saying, yeah,
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Speaker 2: we we design tech that families use, but like, that
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Speaker 2: doesn't mean we know how to parent it, and it
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Speaker 2: was very humbling. There were some incredibly bright people in
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Speaker 2: the room, a lot of brain power, and some very
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Speaker 2: simple things that I could help them with from my
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Speaker 2: teaching time for my own parenting, and then from my
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Speaker 2: experience helping other parents, like, hey, there's two kinds of tech,
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Speaker 2: and reset matters and build some hedges. Make sure the
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Speaker 2: tech you give your kids is safe and that they're
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Speaker 2: ready for them, that the outcome is good. Like these
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Speaker 2: are all things I got to say. We finished that.
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Speaker 2: We're like, man, this is awesome. We love seeing people
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Speaker 2: equipped to do the job they want to do, which
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Speaker 2: is be a good parent. Flash forward a couple months
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Speaker 2: December hits and there's a verse where it talks about
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Speaker 2: the plans belong to man, but God establishes his steps.
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Speaker 2: It's Proverbs sixteen. Turns out, we had a beautiful plan
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Speaker 2: and we were like, we're gonna equip some families, We're
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Speaker 2: gonna help some kids. And we did because in December,
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Speaker 2: my sixth grade son's teacher stepped out of the classroom
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Speaker 2: and I had the opportunity. Wasn't planned, but it did
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Speaker 2: work out to step into the classroom. So I got
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Speaker 2: to begin teaching in January. I taught January through June
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Speaker 2: a sixth grade class at a small Christian school here
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Speaker 2: in the Northwest, and it was amazing. I got to see,
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Speaker 2: hands on every single day the life of a sixth grader. Yes,
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Speaker 2: I get to see my own, but it's always different
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Speaker 2: when you're dealing with other people's kids. This is why
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Speaker 2: I send my child to school, so that other people
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Speaker 2: who love my child can speak into his life and
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Speaker 2: speak to things that they see both that God is
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Speaker 2: doing in his heart and areas of his character and
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Speaker 2: his choices where God is continuing to work and he
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Speaker 2: needs to listen to God faithfully in that I got
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Speaker 2: to do that for other people's kids and really got
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Speaker 2: three things out of this. Probably the most important that
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Speaker 2: I was surprised by is that parenting and teaching are
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Speaker 2: very similar. We're always speaking to whoere a child can be,
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Speaker 2: and as a teacher you get to do the same thing.
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Speaker 2: You get to see a child and be like, here's
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Speaker 2: who you could be. In Christ, I'm not speaking to
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Speaker 2: who you are right now, right Jesus and Zechius, Jesus
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Speaker 2: and Peter, Jesus and any of his disciples. Jesus and
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Speaker 2: you and me right, He's not speaking to the broken
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Speaker 2: individual and condemning the mistakes we're making right now. He
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Speaker 2: does do that, and he speaks to the child he's
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Speaker 2: calling us to be. That is the message from the Cross.
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Speaker 2: I'm taking your death so that you can have life,
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Speaker 2: not purely condemning all the bad people out there. I'm
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Speaker 2: dying to show you how bad it's going to be
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Speaker 2: for you. That's not the message of the gospel. It's
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Speaker 2: their sin is real. Hell is real. Jesus talks about
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Speaker 2: it more than anyone else. And redemption is real. And
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Speaker 2: God's desire is that all would be saved, and we
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Speaker 2: know that not all will be. The called in is
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Speaker 2: for every young person to put their faith in Christ,
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Speaker 2: and we call them to their character, we call them
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Speaker 2: to their choices, and we can call them in their
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Speaker 2: learning process because kids will give up on themselves at
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Speaker 2: the drop of a hat, and we get to call
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Speaker 2: them back to believe in their potential even when they
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Speaker 2: don't believe in it. So parenting teaching very similar. We
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Speaker 2: also can learn and what I learned from the classroom
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Speaker 2: this year is that we can raise kids use the
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Speaker 2: best tech. Well, sometimes that means adding the right tech
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Speaker 2: in my class. You've heard me talk about this for
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Speaker 2: con Academy, free online program that allows you to learn
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Speaker 2: a number of things, but we use it for math,
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Speaker 2: and I saw kids grow leaps and bounds because there
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Speaker 2: were a able to learn in very deliberate little steps
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Speaker 2: the math that they were so afraid of, and they
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Speaker 2: started learning. Yeah, math can be hard, but I can
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Speaker 2: also do it and gain that confidence. We also learned
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Speaker 2: that tech has us limits, and we actually went significantly
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Speaker 2: lower tech, so we would use tablets to do things
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Speaker 2: like con Academy, but by and large, in our day
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Speaker 2: tech would be away. Actually wouldn't even be every day.
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Speaker 2: We went down to like two days a week probably
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Speaker 2: where we use con Academy. Unless they were students who
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Speaker 2: were ahead of their work and had finished their other
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Speaker 2: kind of protocol, you've done your reading, you've done your
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Speaker 2: other stuff. Now you can go and use this tech
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Speaker 2: and not distract your peers with it. But we found
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Speaker 2: that I had to print a lot Like the Social
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Speaker 2: Studies curriculum, I had to print it for a number
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Speaker 2: of reasons. I actually wrote them down here. I love
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Speaker 2: that it's always high resolution. Students would always complain that
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Speaker 2: their screen was too small and if you zoom like
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Speaker 2: it gets all wonky, or that it wasn't bright enough.
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Speaker 2: So we had that high res paper right, just paper
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Speaker 2: and four K all the time, had a long battery life.
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Speaker 2: The number of times students tablets would die because they
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Speaker 2: thought it was plugged in, or someone else ha'd use
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Speaker 2: it the previous day and forgotten to plug it in
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Speaker 2: or whatever, the thing's still dead. They can't participate in
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Speaker 2: learning because we're literally doing the assessments through their tablets.
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Speaker 2: Or I have six kids around the one outlet in
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Speaker 2: the back of the room. They're like plugged in the
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Speaker 2: computer cart and like all trying to reach their tablets.
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Speaker 2: They're locked into a single window that's ad free. There
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Speaker 2: is no tabs on a packet. They have to just
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Speaker 2: do the one task. There's no opening a second window
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Speaker 2: and doing whatever they want. If I introduced a new
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Speaker 2: unit online and a student miss class, I have to
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Speaker 2: generally either assign a student to show that student or
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Speaker 2: show them myself, and that ended up just being brutal.
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Speaker 2: And these students who missed typically missed more than once,
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Speaker 2: and so now they're generally students who are going to
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Speaker 2: struggle with their focus online anyway, this is a broad brush,
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Speaker 2: but this was true with my class and having a
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Speaker 2: packet where they know how to find it, and they
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Speaker 2: show up and they go and check that spot to
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Speaker 2: see if there was anything they missed yesterday, and they
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Speaker 2: just pick up the physical packet and they bring it
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Speaker 2: to their physical desk. And when I go and ask later, hey,
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Speaker 2: did you do that work and they say yes, I
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Speaker 2: can say show me and they don't have to take
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Speaker 2: out a tablet and power it on and go find
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Speaker 2: the share folder and find the thing like, oh no,
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Speaker 2: so you know what it was that other thing and
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Speaker 2: now it's been six minutes and oh, by the way,
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Speaker 2: it's low battery. Now the thing's going to die. Like,
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Speaker 2: the packets solved so many problems, so hear me. We
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Speaker 2: added tech in some places because it was super beneficial
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Speaker 2: for this particular group in this learned environment, and we
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Speaker 2: removed it. I would say it was a twenty eighty.
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Speaker 2: We went really intense on kon Academy and we drew
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Speaker 2: down almost all the other tech that these kids were using.
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Speaker 2: Because we can raise them to use the best tech, well,
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Speaker 2: we don't have to be scared of it. And the
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Speaker 2: third lesson I had was that healthy tech begins at home.
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Speaker 2: I mentioned those kids that were gone a lot. Those
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Speaker 2: kids typically had the worst health habits when it or
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Speaker 2: tech hygiene, if you will, when it came to just
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Speaker 2: the way they were used to using it. The school
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Speaker 2: did a nice job of putting parental controls on these devices.
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Speaker 2: These devices were safe. We never had a situation with
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Speaker 2: looking up something unkind or someone being mean through their technology.
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Speaker 2: But it was a small group of kids who had
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Speaker 2: bad habits, and they use those bad habits when they're
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Speaker 2: supposed to be doing something else. Some of them would
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Speaker 2: just open new tabs and just constantly be looking at
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Speaker 2: distracting content. It It all got through the school filters,
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Speaker 2: but like it was distracting, they used to distract themselves
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Speaker 2: and the kids that could see their screen were also
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Speaker 2: distract parents. As we strive to raise kids who love
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Speaker 2: God and use tech, it's intimidated to look at this
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Speaker 2: next stage of life and think about what academics may
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Speaker 2: look like for them. When you're thinking about college, considered
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Speaker 2: George Fox University for your children because of three things. First,
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Speaker 2: it's going to give you a more intimate, known environment
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Speaker 2: where they have a focus on being known personally, academically
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Speaker 2: and spiritually, your child will grow in their faith. Ninety
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Speaker 2: three percent of undergrad students at George Fox last year
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Speaker 2: through the twenty twenty five academic year said that being
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Speaker 2: at George Fox has helped them grow in their relationship
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Speaker 2: with Jesus. We also want them to grow academically, which
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Speaker 2: means being a part of the university with rigorous academic
13:42
Speaker 2: standards and opportunities to be engaged. They have a nationally
13:46
Speaker 2: recognized engineering, nursing, and education programs, as well as chances
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Speaker 2: to study abroad here within the US and then internationally,
13:53
Speaker 2: and finally personally, to be part of a vibrant campus
13:56
Speaker 2: atmosphere where you can play intramural sports or part of
13:59
Speaker 2: their NCAA Division three athletic programs with twenty three sports available.
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Speaker 2: The goal here is to go to a place that's
14:08
Speaker 2: going to support your goals, not try to make you
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Speaker 2: support theirs. To have that goal be to raise you
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Speaker 2: up to be all God's called you to be, and
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Speaker 2: to truly equip your young person with my in my case,
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Speaker 2: my sons or my daughter to love God and then
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Speaker 2: from their love of God to go wherever God has
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Speaker 2: called them, and that includes being equipped with a degree
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Speaker 2: that will help them do that, to be missionally equipped
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Speaker 2: to love and serve others, to lead where God has planned, demand,
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Speaker 2: to know the Gospel for themselves and be able to
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Speaker 2: share it with others. So George Fox University is an
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Speaker 2: amazing resource for our kids, for our community here in
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Speaker 2: the Northwest, and for anyone who's looking to raise up
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Speaker 2: a young person who can love God and from that
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Speaker 2: love others. Good tech hygiene starts at home. It starts
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Speaker 2: with modeling it for our children to show this is
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Speaker 2: the time and place and way we use technology, To
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Speaker 2: put hedges around technology that helps build healthy habits, and
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Speaker 2: to put boundaries around our children's technology so that the
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Speaker 2: bad habits they form are generally behavioral and they're not
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Speaker 2: actually they're not trained and they're not hormonal. There is
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Speaker 2: content that our children are wired to be interested in
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Speaker 2: and that is incredibly toxic and damaging and can build
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Speaker 2: lifelong struggles for them if they're able to repeat this behavior.
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Speaker 2: So we want to be deliberate with starting healthy tech
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Speaker 2: at home. Go listen to those episodes where we talk
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Speaker 2: about building hedges around our devices, network and family, or
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Speaker 2: how to know if there's a healthy reset in those things.
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Speaker 2: But that was when I thought about school this year.
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Speaker 2: I'll just end with this, this idea that there's great
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Speaker 2: hope for this generation. I know we can be hard
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Speaker 2: on them, and I know it's scary to raise kids
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Speaker 2: in the age of the Internet, when video games can
15:42
Speaker 2: be unsafe with the adults thinking of Rowblock, specifically, when
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Speaker 2: AI is at front and center of the learning environment
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Speaker 2: and of the workforce of what the future of our
15:52
Speaker 2: world might look like. But the gospel doesn't change, and
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Speaker 2: God isn't scared of their technology, and there's no amount
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Speaker 2: of damage we can do to our children that puts
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Speaker 2: them beyond the reach of the good news of the Gospel.
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Speaker 2: So I'm not forgiving big tech. And by big tech,
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Speaker 2: I mean if you're a trillion dollar company that can
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Speaker 2: ignore what the market wants simply by sheer force and
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Speaker 2: volume of your production. No one has asked for your product,
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Speaker 2: and yet you will make it anyway and it will
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Speaker 2: turn a profit whether we like it or not. Like
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Speaker 2: that's wild, you're big tech in that category. Big tech
16:24
Speaker 2: will continue to produce things that are harmful for kids
16:26
Speaker 2: because it turns a profit. With that in mind, though
16:30
Speaker 2: we can see this young generation turning their hearts to
16:35
Speaker 2: the Lord, and the Lord is not scared of this technology.
16:39
Speaker 2: We remember that He who is in us as greater
16:42
Speaker 2: than he who is in the world, and that we
16:44
Speaker 2: want to then remember that the Gospel messages we were
16:47
Speaker 2: sinners but God Ephesians two four. So remember that, but
16:51
Speaker 2: God for our kids in this tech, Remember that our
16:54
Speaker 2: kids have great potential in Christ, and that we do
16:56
Speaker 2: not have to be afraid of the tech that's out there.
16:58
Speaker 2: That doesn't mean we don't concern. Video games have themes
17:02
Speaker 2: and have messaging that can lie to our kids about
17:04
Speaker 2: their identity. Social media actively lies by design, specifically Instagram, TikTok,
17:10
Speaker 2: and parts of YouTube lies to our children about what
17:13
Speaker 2: gives them value, what success looks like, what beauty looks like,
17:16
Speaker 2: but also the shows and the music we listen. You
17:18
Speaker 2: can lie about what is true, what it's reality, what
17:20
Speaker 2: is good and pure and worthy of praise. Like these
17:24
Speaker 2: are lies. We do need to call them out because
17:27
Speaker 2: they're lies. They do not line up with the greater
17:29
Speaker 2: reality of God's kingdom and of the world God has
17:31
Speaker 2: made in his calonists too, and we don't have to
17:35
Speaker 2: be afraid of it. Okay, so then what's our vision
17:37
Speaker 2: If we're celebrating that God used the classroom this past
17:40
Speaker 2: year to help me see what parents go through on
17:44
Speaker 2: the daily, and then also to encourage all of us
17:46
Speaker 2: that there is great hope for these young people. What's
17:48
Speaker 2: our vision for this year? It's reaching families with even
17:53
Speaker 2: tighter I would call it resources more applicable to their
17:55
Speaker 2: daily lives. This podcast is one of the resources we've
17:58
Speaker 2: done now for years. We're going on year seven. This
17:59
Speaker 2: is EPSOD so three one hundred and forty something and
18:02
Speaker 2: if you're doing one a week, like there you are,
18:04
Speaker 2: that's seven years. So we're gonna keep doing the podcast.
18:08
Speaker 2: We've partnered with Christian ministries here in Washington State. They
18:11
Speaker 2: run Spirit one O five three kis. They're helping us
18:14
Speaker 2: continue to reach families both through radio and through podcast
18:17
Speaker 2: lands and helping us build our digital resources to the
18:22
Speaker 2: point where you're gonna see us more on things like YouTube,
18:26
Speaker 2: And if you want to support us with that, you
18:27
Speaker 2: can go to Gospel Tech dot net slash donate and
18:30
Speaker 2: help us fund the marketing. Basically that has to go
18:34
Speaker 2: into reaching people in digital spaces. The way I think
18:37
Speaker 2: of it as we are trying to pre digest both
18:39
Speaker 2: the gospel and healthy tech choices so that when families
18:42
Speaker 2: get it and they're pinned on their stress levels because
18:45
Speaker 2: real life is happening all around them and they're worried
18:47
Speaker 2: about their tech, they generally go to Google before they
18:49
Speaker 2: go to God. They don't know the Bible verse, but
18:51
Speaker 2: they do know their kids, and they know that something's wrong.
18:53
Speaker 2: They're going to Google that problem and they're going to
18:55
Speaker 2: look for a solution. And I have thirty to ninety
18:58
Speaker 2: seconds to win their hearts and minds and tell them
19:01
Speaker 2: not only that there is hope, that there's something they
19:03
Speaker 2: can do today that's not glib, that's not explain it away,
19:05
Speaker 2: that's not blaming technology, and that isn't overwhelming them with
19:09
Speaker 2: two do steps again this podcast, I love it and
19:12
Speaker 2: I hope it's helping you. And there are people that
19:14
Speaker 2: simply can't sit down or walk for twenty seven minutes
19:17
Speaker 2: and take this out. So we want to get messaging
19:22
Speaker 2: to people where they can use it on platforms we
19:24
Speaker 2: believe in. I just right now I'm not going to
19:28
Speaker 2: be on TikTok because I just I dislike it that much.
19:31
Speaker 2: Other people are doing good work there I just don't
19:34
Speaker 2: believe the juice is worth the squeeze for this particular message.
19:36
Speaker 2: But we will be on other platforms, and if the
19:38
Speaker 2: Lord convicts me and I have to get over my
19:40
Speaker 2: pride or something and just be on TikTok to help people,
19:43
Speaker 2: we will do that. But it's going to be prayerful
19:44
Speaker 2: and I'm not there right now. We are going to
19:48
Speaker 2: continue to have that vision to fight for our children,
19:51
Speaker 2: not with them. When it comes to tech. We want
19:53
Speaker 2: to fight for them, even if it's on their behalf
19:55
Speaker 2: and they don't want us to fight for them. We're
19:57
Speaker 2: going to continue to say no to things that would
19:59
Speaker 2: hurt them when they ask us. We're going to make
20:00
Speaker 2: sure it's an egg not a scorpion, and not give
20:02
Speaker 2: them bad gifts when they're asking for good ones. So
20:06
Speaker 2: we're gonna keep making these resources. Digital marketing is going
20:09
Speaker 2: to be one of those. But probably our biggest project
20:12
Speaker 2: right now is Anna's working. I don't love the t's
20:14
Speaker 2: things that aren't out yet, but this is like it's
20:16
Speaker 2: in third edits right now. Anna is making a workbook
20:20
Speaker 2: for Gospel Centertech. The book that I wrote two years ago.
20:23
Speaker 2: It's a small group study book. You can do it
20:25
Speaker 2: on your own, you can do it with your family,
20:26
Speaker 2: you can do it with the church small group. But
20:28
Speaker 2: the idea is we want to fit into the rhythms
20:31
Speaker 2: people have. And every single church that I have visited
20:33
Speaker 2: across the nation does six to eight week studies. This
20:35
Speaker 2: is an eight week study. I love the eight week
20:37
Speaker 2: study because while I am passionate about our ninety minute
20:40
Speaker 2: live workshops, it's ninety minutes once and I can't come
20:44
Speaker 2: back to Florida four weeks later. For everyone I speak to, like,
20:47
Speaker 2: that just doesn't work, Like not at this phase of life.
20:50
Speaker 2: It's just untenable. It's too expensive. But we can make
20:53
Speaker 2: an online workshop that you can watch on your own time,
20:56
Speaker 2: that you can walk with, watch with your peers, that
20:58
Speaker 2: has a workbook that will walk you through eight parts
21:01
Speaker 2: of this conversation. We're going to cover all the basics
21:03
Speaker 2: of the gospel, the two types of tech, how don't
21:05
Speaker 2: know if it's healthy, how to build hedges, social media,
21:07
Speaker 2: video games, pornography. Like We're going to be addressing all
21:11
Speaker 2: the things that we need to talk about in little
21:13
Speaker 2: bite sized chunks five to eight minute videos, along with
21:18
Speaker 2: a workbook that will help people process it. So The
21:20
Speaker 2: Gospel Center Tech online workshop is coming. We are actively
21:24
Speaker 2: working on it. I've got transcripts for four out of
21:26
Speaker 2: the eight videos done, like it's coming down the pipe.
21:29
Speaker 2: So that's why I mentioned that, because that vision of
21:32
Speaker 2: making that resource is to support the vision of making
21:35
Speaker 2: sure every family has access to this, of making it smaller, tighter,
21:38
Speaker 2: pre digest it. We've done a lot of the leg
21:41
Speaker 2: work and the question asking based on what other parents
21:43
Speaker 2: have asked, and now we just want to deliver the goods.
21:46
Speaker 2: We want to deliver the things you need in order
21:48
Speaker 2: to parent your kids. Well, so we're excited about that.
21:52
Speaker 2: Live talks are still happening. That's all great, and then
21:55
Speaker 2: the digital outreach on top of the workbook and the
21:58
Speaker 2: online workshop. That's our vision for twenty twenty six. Now,
22:02
Speaker 2: our vision for twenty twenty seven didn't involve six months
22:05
Speaker 2: of classroom teaching. Who knows where the Lord will lead us,
22:08
Speaker 2: but we do know that wherever he takes us, he
22:10
Speaker 2: is faithful. When we talk about this ministry, I do
22:14
Speaker 2: need to be very clear. I mentioned briefly this started
22:17
Speaker 2: with a fundraiser back in twenty nineteen when I quit
22:21
Speaker 2: teaching that we did in my sister's backyard, and it
22:23
Speaker 2: has continued to be a donor supported ministry. Yes, we
22:27
Speaker 2: charge for talks. That's that other kind of quarter of
22:29
Speaker 2: the budget that we bring in is what we make
22:31
Speaker 2: from talks. When we sell books, the books go back
22:36
Speaker 2: to buying more books and making this available to people
22:38
Speaker 2: like This is a ministry run by the people that
22:42
Speaker 2: it supports and by a lot of people saying I
22:44
Speaker 2: believe in this, I want this to go forward to
22:46
Speaker 2: more people and helping us do that. That's where we
22:48
Speaker 2: get our funding. For example, for digital marketing, it's people
22:51
Speaker 2: saying we believe in this, we want other people to
22:53
Speaker 2: hear about it and giving us the opportunity because guess what,
22:56
Speaker 2: word of mouth is awesome, and on YouTube, you don't
22:59
Speaker 2: get very far without paying YouTube for the opportunity to
23:03
Speaker 2: reach other people. That's wild. I don't like it, but
23:06
Speaker 2: that is the way it goes. The same on any
23:08
Speaker 2: of Meta's platform and basically any social media that's out
23:11
Speaker 2: there right now. So that's how this ministry is currently working.
23:15
Speaker 2: We are so so grateful for the opportunity to do
23:18
Speaker 2: this work, and there's three ways you can join us. First, pray,
23:21
Speaker 2: pray that the Lord opens hearts and doors. Pray that
23:24
Speaker 2: God gives us the wisdom, the discernment and the patience
23:29
Speaker 2: to follow his steps and not get impatient and try
23:31
Speaker 2: to just quote unquote make a difference. I've tried that before.
23:35
Speaker 2: It's a terrible idea. It leaves me very burned out
23:37
Speaker 2: and cynical and staid. We wait on the Lord and
23:39
Speaker 2: he does wild stuff like get us to teach for
23:42
Speaker 2: six months. He does wild stuff like open relational doors.
23:45
Speaker 2: Because that's the second one. The first is pray for us,
23:48
Speaker 2: Pray that we have wisdom, discernment, patience, and provision. The
23:52
Speaker 2: second is connect us. This Christian Ministry's connection came because
23:57
Speaker 2: one of our friends was like, Hey, you know what
23:59
Speaker 2: I know someone up there. Could I put you in contact.
24:01
Speaker 2: We had a phone call and that was four years ago.
24:03
Speaker 2: They're an amazing team of people who love the Lord
24:06
Speaker 2: and want to see His kingdom work come in this
24:07
Speaker 2: greater Seattle area and Lord knows we need that. If
24:11
Speaker 2: you want to support someone, support Krista Ministries. They're doing
24:14
Speaker 2: great work both through they have a school, they've got
24:16
Speaker 2: the radio ministry of the podcast ministry. They do awesome stuff.
24:21
Speaker 2: You can connect us with people at organizations. It's how
24:24
Speaker 2: I got in at Microsoft. Someone put my name into
24:26
Speaker 2: a hat and the flint and iron side of the
24:28
Speaker 2: conversation is what I had there. It's still equipping people.
24:32
Speaker 2: It's what Charles Spurgeon would call tip of the sphere
24:34
Speaker 2: of evangelism. You're bringing light into dark places because you're
24:37
Speaker 2: acknowledging that kids matter, that there is good and bad.
24:40
Speaker 2: I have yet to meet an atheist who's indifferent about
24:42
Speaker 2: the health of their child because we're all accidents and
24:44
Speaker 2: nothing really matters. Like at a spiritual intrinsic level, they
24:48
Speaker 2: know my kid is valuable and this is wrong because
24:51
Speaker 2: it hurts them. Like great, let's talk about let's start there.
24:55
Speaker 2: I will start with that amount of truth and have
24:57
Speaker 2: the conversation with you. So connect us with your corporate
25:00
Speaker 2: with your workplace, with your school, with your church. And
25:02
Speaker 2: then third and finally, donate, fund fund this work and
25:06
Speaker 2: help us get in front of others. We love working
25:08
Speaker 2: with mom cos formerly mops because those moms are hungry
25:12
Speaker 2: for help and hope, and so we get to give
25:15
Speaker 2: those conversations and those are entirely funded by the work
25:18
Speaker 2: that people or the support that people give us. Mom
25:22
Speaker 2: cos can't pay us. I mean they do. They pay
25:24
Speaker 2: us with like super gracious Applebee's gift cards, but not
25:28
Speaker 2: payment like that. I can feed my kids on for
25:30
Speaker 2: a regular amount of time, so that instead is allowed.
25:35
Speaker 2: I get to get paid on a monthly basis and
25:38
Speaker 2: give these free talks to mom code groups either over
25:41
Speaker 2: zoom or in person. I can pre record them and
25:43
Speaker 2: send them like. It's a huge blessing to have donor
25:46
Speaker 2: support that lets us do that. So it's been ten
25:49
Speaker 2: years of this ministry. That is wild to say I
25:52
Speaker 2: have done this work as long as I taught in
25:54
Speaker 2: the classroom. That's actually especially true because then I got
25:58
Speaker 2: six months of teaching while doing this job. Oh, I
26:00
Speaker 2: was still like traveling stuff. I didn't even mention that
26:02
Speaker 2: I still did travel that I had signed up for originally,
26:04
Speaker 2: which was hectic. That was unfortunate. Every time I left,
26:08
Speaker 2: like we lost momentum on the like we're going place,
26:11
Speaker 2: this is going great, and you come back like, oh,
26:13
Speaker 2: all right, let's go people with my classroom, not with
26:17
Speaker 2: gospel Tech. But I distracted myself again. This work works
26:24
Speaker 2: because of support from donors like you or five oh
26:26
Speaker 2: one C three nonprofit Flint and iron this ministry to
26:29
Speaker 2: spark purpose in youth, and the ministry of gospel tech.
26:31
Speaker 2: It's an extension of that to help young people and
26:34
Speaker 2: families use the best tech well. So I just want
26:36
Speaker 2: to say thank you on behalf of Anna and myself
26:38
Speaker 2: and our board. Thank you for your support for your donations.
26:41
Speaker 2: If you do want to support us financially, Gospeltech dot
26:44
Speaker 2: net slash donate as a spot you can do that
26:46
Speaker 2: being a five oh one C three. Those are tax
26:48
Speaker 2: deductible for the current time until whatever happens with those laws.
26:52
Speaker 2: But it's still a thing and we are so grateful
26:55
Speaker 2: to be able to do this work. Thank you for listening,
26:57
Speaker 2: thank you for sharing this, Thank you for applying the
27:00
Speaker 2: tools God has given us in terms of the two
27:03
Speaker 2: types of tech and reset safe ready good, building hedges
27:06
Speaker 2: into your own family and into your own community so
27:08
Speaker 2: that we can raise kids who love God, who use
27:10
Speaker 2: the best tech well, and then who help their communities
27:13
Speaker 2: do the same. So if you have any questions, you
27:15
Speaker 2: can reach out to me Nathan a gospeltech dot net.
27:17
Speaker 2: You can find us at Love Good Use Tech on Instagram, Facebook,
27:20
Speaker 2: and YouTube, and you can join us next week as
27:22
Speaker 2: we continue this conversation about how we can love God
27:25
Speaker 2: in use tech. Look forward to talking with you then