Last week we held a Tech-Wise Sunday at MainStreet featuring a message by Andy Crouch based on his book The Tech-Wise Family. You can watch the entire presentation below. The first 60 minutes of the video is Andy’s main talk, and the second half is the panel discussion we enjoyed over lunch. (Thanks to The Village Church for making this forum available to others.)

For those who think “tech talk” sounds incredibly boring, let me urge you to listen to Andy’s message. He goes much deeper into our creative capacities as human beings, and how our current “consumer culture” habits are antithetical to the “formation culture” God created us for.

Below are some follow up resources for you and your family as well. Our closing challenge was: What 2 or 3 action steps are you going to take, and who is going to check in on you and hold you accountable?

10 Tech-Wise Commitments

1. We develop the wisdom and courage to be different together as a family.
2. We want to create more than we consume. So we fill the center of our home with things that reward skill and active engagement.
3. We are designed for a rhythm of work and rest. So one hour a day, one day a week, and one week a year, we turn off our devices and worship, feast, play and rest together.
4. We wake up before our devices do, and they “go to bed” before we do.
5. We aim for “no screens before double digits” at school and at home.
6. We use screens for a purpose, and we use them together, rather than using them aimlessly and alone.
7. Car time is conversation time.
8. Spouses have one another’s passwords, and parents have total access to children’s devices.
9. We learn to sing together, rather than letting recorded and amplified music take over our lives and worship.
10. We show up in person for the big events of life. We learn how to be human by being fully present at our moments of greatest vulnerability. We hope to die in one another’s arms.

Additional Resources 

(Compiled by Dawn Nelson)

Books

Online Resources