In this episode, Andy Crouch, author of The Tech-Wise Family shares wise tips, essential choices and new habits that can help us to make good use of technology while protecting the things that matter even more.
In this episode, we'll explore:
- How our tech habits can affect the health of our souls
- Ways that technology without boundaries disrupts human connections, conversations, and relationships
- Practical advice and choices to help us harness the best of technology without letting it overrun our lives
- How technology subtly shapes the way we view and interact with the world
Key Quotes
“Technology is so good at promising to make life easier… that we start to think that a better life is an easier life.”
“The decisions we make – or fail to make – about our technology use often have more impact than any other on the health of our marriage, our family, our friendships and the vitality of our souls.”
“As tools, technology is great, but as a paradigm of life, it can be dangerous.”
“If we are to be the boss of our technology, rather than vice-versa, it’s not enough to want it to be different. We must make plans regarding technology’s proper place.”
“You don’t have to throw away the device, or completely ‘quit’ necessarily. To have a very profound change can happen when you just decide that you are not going to let the default settings determine how I use this.”
Resources and Guests
For more than ten years, Andy Crouch served as an editor and producer at Christianity Today, including serving as executive editor from 2012 to 2016. He joined the John Templeton Foundation in 2017 as senior strategist for communication. He also serves on the governing boards of Fuller Theological Seminary and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. His work and writing have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and several editions of Best Christian Writing and Best Spiritual Writing—and, most importantly, received a shout-out in Lecrae’s 2014 single “Non-Fiction.”
Andy Crouch is shaping the way our generation sees culture, creativity, and the gospel. His two most recent books—2017’s The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place and 2016’s Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing—build on the compelling vision of faith, culture, and the image of God laid out in his previous books Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power and Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling.
From 1998 to 2003, Andy was the editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly, a magazine for an emerging generation of culturally creative Christians. For ten years he was a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University. He studied classics at Cornell University and received an M.Div. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology. A classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz, and gospel, he has led musical worship for congregations of 5 to 20,000. He lives with his family in Pennsylvania.
Jedd has seen (and experienced!) that lives are turned upside-down when Christians begin to reflect God’s heart through adoption, foster care and service to orphans worldwide. This kind of love transforms not only vulnerable children, but also those who open hearts and homes to them. Churches begin to look different, too, as the entire community pulls together for children who’ve known great hurt. Finally, the change touches even onlookers, who encounter the Gospel not only in words, but made visible before their eyes.
Desiring to spur this kind of transformation through the Church, Jedd serves as President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans.
Through CAFO, more than 225 respected organizations unite in shared initiatives, along with a wide network of churches. CAFO’s membership works in tandem to inspire and equip families, churches and organizations for effective service to vulnerable children and families — from adoption and US foster care, to aid and empowerment programs worldwide.
Prior to his this role, Jedd served in the White House as a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, leading the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. In this post, he oversaw reform efforts across the government to make community- and faith-based groups central partners in all Federal efforts to aid the needy, from prisoner reentry to global AIDS. As described by the Harvard Political Review, these reforms “fundamentally changed the government’s strategy for improving the lives of the downtrodden…”
Previously, Jedd held a range of posts in the California State Legislature. He also helped establish the California Community Renewal Project, which strengthens nonprofits in some of the state’s most challenged communities. He has worked, studied and served in more than thirty countries, with organizations ranging from Price-Waterhouse in Moscow to Christian Life Bangladesh.
Books written by Jedd include Upended and Four Souls. He also writes articles and op-eds for publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post to Comment Magazine, and engages radio interviews with both faith-based and mainstream outlets, from NPR and Al Jazeera to Moody Radio. Jedd’s most recent book, Becoming Home, offers a brief-yet-rich exploration of how families and communities can embrace vulnerable children with wisdom and love through adoption, foster care, mentoring and more.
