Podcast
Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland
Hosted by Purposely · EN
Gospel Tech is a resource for parents who are feeling outpaced and overwhelmed as they raise children in a tech world.
Our goal: Equip parents with the tools, resources, and confidence they need to raise kids who love God and use tech.
Gospel Tech’s mission is to equip families to love God and use tech. We want to empower parents to:
Introduction to Gospel Tech
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.
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.
Gospel Tech Resources Beyond The Podcast
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.
That's the goal of Gospel Tech. Thanks for letting me be on this journey of parenting with you.
-Nathan Sutherland
Our goal: Equip parents with the tools, resources, and confidence they need to raise kids who love God and use tech.
Gospel Tech’s mission is to equip families to love God and use tech. We want to empower parents to:
- Talk about healthy tech
- Communicate the Gospel
- Connect the hope of the Gospel to their everyday tech lives
Introduction to Gospel Tech
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.
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.
Gospel Tech Resources Beyond The Podcast
- The Parent Tech Workshops: A two-part series addressing:
- How should we handle Tech’s Big 3 (smartphones, gaming, pornography)?
- How do we make tech safe at home? (two types of tech, tech health, and building tech trust)
- Youth Talks:
- The Tech Talk: Use the best tech on purpose, not for purpose.
- The Hope Talk: A conversation about our goals, purpose, and how making a mistake doesn’t make us a mistake.
- The Family Tech Framework: 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.
- Part 1: Talk It Out: Parents learn key points of discussing healthful tech.
- Part 2: Walk It Out: Families work together to create a Family Tech Framework customized to their needs, goals, and season of life.
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.
That's the goal of Gospel Tech. Thanks for letting me be on this journey of parenting with you.
-Nathan Sutherland
26episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Our Students Are More Capable Than They Think
1w ago00:24:59Tap to summarizeThe last six months of consistent classroom teaching has reminded me of an important lesson: Students are more capable than they think. In reading, writing, and math, many times what our students need aren't intensive lessons covering specific steps for success, but rather repeated opportunities to achieve, to practice doing important skills even if they do it poorly early on, and a chance to see their own growth over time.It is a beautiful thing to see a student learn a new skill, and it is a satisfying moment for everyone when that student realizes he or she is capable of learning beyond what they expected for themselves.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4aRIEzw
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The Pope, AI, and the Discipline of Boredom
2w ago00:19:09Tap to summarizeMany of us feel the tension between wanting to use technology well and wondering if it’s quietly shaping us in ways we didn’t choose. This episode digs into that tension, from Pope Francis’s vision for Christian humanism in the age of AI to the surprisingly spiritual discipline of embracing boredom, and why both matter for families trying to follow Jesus in a noisy world. If you’ve ever caught yourself doom‑scrolling, multitasking your quiet time, or avoiding stillness, this conversation will feel uncomfortably familiar in the best way.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4vF2iH3
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Stop the Summer Slip
3w ago00:27:56Tap to summarizeStudents risk losing up to 40% of their learning over summer break (Atteberry and McEachin). In 2020 two researched looked at 200 million test scores from 18 million students across all 50 states over an 8 year period (2008-2016).The take away: The Summer Slip is real, and it can be neutralized with just 15 minutes of reading and math each day. Parents, we don't have to run a boot camp, but we have the opportunity to keep learning engagement high. Let's make school as fun and accessible as possible for our children. Let's do it 15 minutes a day this summer and stop the Summer Slip.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/49wWoiF
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AI, the Supreme Court, and Peter's Rebuke (Part 2)
May 2600:26:09Tap to summarizeToday we cover how Anthropic's Claude Mythos was trained, the sheer enormity of the processing power we're putting into making these AI resources, and what this might look like for us to use this tech well and not as a Tower of Babel to reach heaven whether God likes it or not.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/49jyqrb
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AI, the Supreme Court, and Peter's Rebuke (Part 1)
May 1900:24:15Tap to summarizeThis past week Neal Katyal, one of the leading Supreme Court Advocates in the US, indulged in a little self-adulation via a TED Talk and X tweet, where he revealed his custom AI named Harvey, is credited with helping achieve victory in a Supreme Court Case. While a lesson on humility could certainly be poignant from this episode, we are going to focus on AI, how we have learned to use it over the last nine years, and what we need to do to use this tech well.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4dmhlhi
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Meta, Adding Boredom, and Protecting our Hearts
May 1200:26:23Tap to summarizeMeta, a trillion dollar company, is convinced you need more Virtual Reality in your life, but they also like making money, so they're moving to mobile gaming. That might be great for revenue, but it's going to be bad for focus and downtime. Make some time this week to take a brain break and experience some boredom. I dare you.While you're working on being bored, check out Mark 7:14-23 where Jesus reminds us that our hearts are our real problem. Yes, tech can feed the worst in us, and we should remove tech that causes us to sin, but it doesn't cause us to be bad. We are plenty bad on our own. We need to give our hearts to Jesus, do what he says, and use the tech that helps us look more like him.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4u04UyL
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AI Boundaries, Phone Free Rooms, and Tech at Sporting Events
May 500:27:00Tap to summarizeAfter a recent talk at a local church I was approached by someone who works for a major tech company and regularly works with AI. He stressed three points heavily:Our children need to be intentionally prepared for AI. It makes up info, it lies to cover its tracks, and even the best AI trainers don't know what they're going to get out of this resource.Our children use AI more than adults do, so they will be the first native-use employees entering the workforce with AI in hand. It's our opportunity to equip, and warn, them.Don't use AI for anything you can't vet.Today we'll address this as well as the problem of heat pollution, how tech companies plan to handle the incredible energy draw of AI farms on the grid, how to handle tech at sporting events, and what we should do about phones in the bedroom.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3PbdX0I
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Of Mice & Owls, Ed Tech, and Tech Time Limits
Apr 2900:26:37Tap to summarizeNick Bostrom once compared our pursuit of superintelligence to mice trying to domesticate an owl. The most recent news concerning Anthropic's Mythos strikes a little too close to home. Yet not all tech news is so grim: Is Apple's Neo laptop the ed tech solution we've been waiting for? We also dive into a parent question concerning how much time is too much on tech in a day.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4ukazzv
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Child Safety Online
Apr 2100:26:39Tap to summarizeWARNING: The subject matter, and the content itself, can be triggering. I include this so you can be informed, but use prayerful discretion when it comes to how much you really need to know to be loving and helpful for your family, children, and community. Did you know it takes 17 strikes for a child predator to be banned on Meta's platforms? After five, eight, fourteen reported violations the perpetrator will still be active, and only after the seventeenth will the account be taken down. Wild. The good news is, there are a lot of ways to have fun at the pace of real life. I'm currently on a kick about seeing students get a chance for 6th grade camp again.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4sJM25T
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Justice, Phone Free Friends, And What To Do If They Google Something Naughty
Apr 1400:26:31Tap to summarizeThis week we saw the first prosecution of AI-based abuse under the Take It Down Act, discuss how to have friends if we're phone free, and answer a parent question about what to do if our children look up something naughty online.Show Notes: https://bit.ly/480pLZV
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