Relationships and Community on Technology

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The Uniqueness of Conversation (And why Technology Can’t Replace In-Person Communication)

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Scripture

Genesis 1:31, Psalm 19:1, Proverbs 18:4, Isaiah 55:11, John 1:3, Romans 1:20

In an interview with MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle, Megan Garber asks what makes in-person conversation unique, compared to all the other ways we communicate these days: Conversations, as they tend...

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How Strangers Become Friends

Author

John M. Perkins

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Scripture

Romans 12:10, John 15:13, Proverbs 18:24, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Proverbs 27:17

There’s been a lot of talk about friendship because of Facebook and the internet. You can collect friends and “likes” and begin to feel pretty good about yourself, depending on how many you accumulate...

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We have been created by God, to be

Author

Jacob Traeger

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We have been created by God, to be loved by God, and to receive our identity from God. But in our everyday lives, as we go about our work, school, interacting with our family and friends, we don’t alw...

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Author

Sherry Turkle

Keywords

Digital connections . . . may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. Our networked life allows us to hide from each other, even as we are tethered to each other.

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Technology's impact on our Minds

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 20:8-11, 1 Kings 19:11-13, Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 , Luke 10:38-42 , Romans 12:2 , Psalm 46:10

As we become more intentional about living according to our deepest desires, it becomes increasingly important to notice the effects of technology on our mind, our soul and our relationships. The ...

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Innovation or Heresy

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ecclesiastes 7:10, Colossians 2:8, Matthew 9:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Romans 12:2, Mark 7:8-9, Isaiah 43:19

It’s funny how sometimes members of the church can associate anything new with “heresy.” We often make the mistake of confusing technological innovations or scientific discoveries for changes to the g...

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Author

Judith Shulevitz

Keywords

People began to learn, first from the telegraph, then from radio, newsreels, television, and the Internet, that what was happening now, all over the globe, mattered more than what was happening here.

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The Great Scourge of Modern Communication

Author

Dan Allender

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Scripture

Psalm 19:14, Matthew 12:36, Proverbs 15:28, Proverbs 12:18, Colossians 4:6

E-mail is the great scourge of modem communication. It facilitates the passing on of simple information, yet it forces complex matters to be presented In a fashion that makes what is difficult appear ...

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Guessing Your Age

Author

Max Lucado

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Max Lucado shares a funny story about a phone app that was supposed to be able to guess your age. It worked by taking a picture of a person’s face and then spitting out a supposedly accurate result. L...

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The Progress Paradox

Author

Andrew M. Davis

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Yet despite all of these advancements, we are more discontent than ever. Gregg Easterbrook wrote a book on this very topic entitled The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse. ...

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What Hath God Wrought?

Author

Mark Batterson

Keywords

Scripture

Numbers 23:23, 1 Peter 4:10, Romans 1:20, Habakkuk 2:2, Proverbs 8:12, Genesis 1:1

In the crypt of the Capitol, there hangs a bronze plaque commemorating the inventor of telegraphy, Samuel Morse…In 1825, Morse returned to Washington to paint a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, t...

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Nearly Amish

Author

Andy Crouch

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Scripture

Ecclesiastes 3:1, Deuteronomy 6:6-7, Proverbs 25:16 , 1 Corinthians 6:12 , Psalm 101:3, Philippians 4:8

Our family is radical, but we are definitely not Amish—although we love to eat the fruit, vegetables, meat, and cheese produced by our Amish neighbors forty miles away in Lancaster County, Pennsylvani...

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The Single Biggest Problem in Communication

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Communication is something we usually take for granted, it seems simple enough, after all. But one thing I’ve noticed (Stu) over time is that, especially in complex organizations, communication often ...

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People are the Key to Organizational Change

Author

Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone

Keywords

Scripture

Hebrews 12:1, James 1:5, Philippians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Romans 12:2, Isaiah 55:8-9

Here is the uncomfortable truth: Humans run to a much slower evolutionary clock than our inventions. To use an engineering term, we are the “gating factor” that keeps a process from running faster. It...

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Death in the Cul-de-Sac

Author

Gary A. Haugen

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 11:1-9, Isaiah 30:1-5 , Proverbs 14:12, Matthew 7:24-27, James 4:13-17, Psalm 127:1-2

Take the cul-de-sac, for example, which is my metaphor for the world of suburban monotony and triviality that so many Western Christians find themselves trapped in. The literal cul-de-sac (i.e., a dea...

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The Utopian Dream

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The myth of progress has deep roots in contemporary Western culture, and some of those roots are Christian…This utopian dream is in fact a parody of the Christian vision. The kingdom of God and the ki...

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Recovering the Heart of Humanity

Author

Adam S. McHugh

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:26-27 , Exodus 33:11-23 , Isaiah 43:1-4, John 10:1-15 , Luke 7:36-50, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-16

I am convinced that the scourge of our scientific and technological age is depersonalization. There is a heartbeat pulsating at the center of the universe, giving life and meaning to everything, but o...

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A Short History of Alcohol

Author

Cynthia Kuhn

Keywords

The use of chemicals to alter thinking and feeling is as old as humanity itself, and alcohol was probably one of the first substances used. Even the earliest historical writings make note of alcohol d...

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Four Years Later: Reflecting on Pandemic Ministry

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Lessons Learned in Quarantine and Beyond Do you remember that first Sunday when you stayed cloistered in your home with the immediate family, when you exchanged your dapper church clothes for a pair ...

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Envy in The Disney/Pixar Film The Incredibles

Author

Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung

Keywords

Scripture

1 Samuel 18:10-16, Proverbs 14:30, Genesis 4:1-16

Syndrome (formerly called Incrediboy) in the film The lncredibles is one example of envy’s futility and the envier’s inferiority, which together secure the inevitable lack of success in besting one’s ...

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Arguments are Everywhere

Author

Buster Benson

Keywords

We argue with our alarm clock, which insists we wake up. We argue with our clothes that wear out or stop fitting. We argue with our bodies, we argue with our pets, we argue with bumps in the sidewalk ...

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A Shaming for Taking Selfies

Author

Craig Detweiler

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Did you follow the shaming of sorority girls that were caught on camera taking selfies during an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game? The male television announcers bemoaned “every girl locked into the...

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Shame is an Emotional Weapon

Author

Curt Thompson

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Shame is not just a consequence of something our first parents did in the Garden of Eden. It is the emotional weapon that evil uses to (1) corrupt our relationships with God and each other, and (2) di...

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Helicopter Parents and College Admissions

Author

Gary L. Thomas

Keywords

Marilee Jones is dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the most prestigious schools in the nation. She received a letter from the father of a son who didn’t mak...

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Teams with Vision

Author

Matt Perman

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Teams with a vision also perform better. Abraham Maslow is well known as one of the most significant psychologists of the last century. His research into high-performing teams found that the most stri...

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Follow the Bubbles

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Romans 8:26, John 14:26, Psalm 139:9-10, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Isaiah 42:16, Psalm 119:105

When I graduated from college I was given one of the greatest opportunities of my young life. A group of my friends were told that if we were able to purchase a flight to the Cayman Islands, we would ...

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Author

Will and Ariel Durant

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 22:20-21 , Ecclesiastes 7:23-24, Job 38:1-4 , 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, Psalm 119:98-100

Intellect is therefore a vital force in history, but it can also be a dissolvent and destructive power. Out of every hundred new ideas ninety-nine or more will probably be inferior to the traditional ...

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Author

Brené Brown

Keywords

It's in our biology to trust what we see with our eyes. This makes living in a carefully edited, overproduced and photoshopped world very dangerous.

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Alone Together

Author

Jay Y. Kim

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 18:24, Romans 12:9-12, Hebrews 10:24-25, Galatians 3:2, John 13:34-35, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Proverbs 27:17, Proverbs 18:1

In this excerpt from Jay Y. Kim’s book, Analog Church , the author shares about an experience at a local restaurant after being convicted of his own smartphone use at home, keeping him from being p...

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Author

George Washington Carver

Keywords

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. Quoted in John Hudson Tiner, Exploring the World of Biology: From Mus...

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