Rockford Campus // March 16, 2025

PARENT CONNECT: TECHNOLOGY

DISCUSSION GUIDE

Your phone, your family, and your heart. Join us for a two week conversation on the significant role technology plays in shaping our lives and our call to be active disciples of it in our families.

For Part 1 of the PC on Technology, Brynn Arendt (Children’s Ministry Director) and Steve High (Student Ministries Pastor) hosted a panel of special guests to talk through views on technology, how it shapes families, and what we can do to actively think about how it shapes us.

Panelists:

• John and Kim O’Neill – Magnify Church members and core volunteers, parents of 5 kids
• Don Pearson – Magnify Church: Northview Campus Pastor, author, father and grandfather
• Eric Brunner –  father of 3 boys, Lieutenant, Kent County Sheriff’s Office, Human Trafficking Task Force and Crime Intelligence and Technology Division.

See the video for the Part 1 Message:

See this video for the full speech by Andy Crouch:

https://thinqmedia.com/videos/managing-technology

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What do you see as some of the main ways technology has changed life over the last 10 years?

What do you think about what Andy Crouch said about technology not being neutral, but rather wants to go somewhere and that somewhere is “easy everywhere”?

How do you think technology has shaped boys? Girls?

How does “easy everywhere” connect with our sin nature? How do you feel uniquely tempted by this?

How do you wrestle with the tension of tech’s influence on our ability to be productive and how that can actually make us more busy, not less?

Andy Crouch makes the claim that we have more leisure available to us, and yet are the least restful and most restless time period history has ever known.  What do you think about this? Have you personally experienced this?

How can you intentionally pursue the prescribed rest that God offers us versus constantly chasing leisure?

What “red flags” or “warning lights” do you have in your life that help you know when you aren’t finding rest or that you are overbooked?

Andy Crouch says…

“A family has formative power to form us into persons who have wisdom and courage and character and skill and capacity for love… we stumbled into a few commitments…”

• SPACE: we want to create more than we consume. So we will fill the center of our home with things that reward skill and active engagement.
• TIME: 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 we worship, feast, play, and rest together.
• FORMATION: we develop wisdom and courage together as a family.

What do you think of these commitments?

What commitments do you already make as a family? Take a look at your past week/month. What did you prioritize in your time? What did you prioritize with your money? What did you prioritize with your leisure and rest? These things will reveal what your commitments already are, whether you intentionally choose them or not.

What kinds of things do you hope for your family? What would you like to see change?

TOGETHER IN ACTION

As a group or family, discuss what are some commitments you’d like to make regarding your Spaces, Time, and Formation.

Consider what boundaries would be healthy to put around your use of technology in your home.

Think about what other things you could be doing with the space created by holding those boundaries.

Make a list and bring them to your group and/or family and discuss.

 

TOGETHER IN PRAYER

Pray that God would guide and lead you in the area of technology with your family. Submit to His voice of authority to you. Pray that He would lead you with wisdom and clarity on what is needed most and what you can do next to take steps in that direction.

 

INFO ON PART 2

Who: Parents, Grandparents, and Guardians for kids and students
When: March 23, 6-7pm

• Tech Expo: On March 23 from 5-5:45pm, check out our tech expo and grab a walking taco in the Auditorium. It’s a time for the whole family to visit different stations and get answers, ideas, tips, and fun facts regarding technology use in the family and home.

Where: Rockford Auditorium

• *for those unable to attend in person, check back to this page during the event to watch the livestream feed

Cost: None
Contact: Kristin Fankhauser

Do you have questions that you would like answered on March 23? Submit your question here.