Our first guest on the show today is author and speaker, Andy Crouch. He discusses his book,
The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place.
In the second hour we welcome back, celebrated author, Max Lucado. Max tells us more about his soon to be released book, Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World.
Drawing on in-depth original research from the Barna Group, Andy Crouch shows readers that the choices we make about technology have consequences we may never have considered. He takes readers beyond the typical questions of what, where, and when and instead challenges them to answer provocative questions like, Who do we want to be as a family? and How does our use of a particular technology move us closer or farther away from that goal? Anyone who has felt their family relationships suffer or their time slip away amid technology's distractions will find in this book a path forward to reclaiming their real life in a world of devices.
Max’s sermons begin at home with the congregation at Oak Hills Church, which he has led for more than 25 years. It is in this setting that his stories are first told, from a pastor’s heart. Eventually some of these sermons and stories are refined and fashioned into books that are shared far beyond the walls of Oak Hills and the city limits of San Antonio, Texas. Max’s words have traveled around the world in more than 54 languages via more than 120 million individual products. Most of these products are books (92 million), which have now occupied spots on every major national bestseller list. Over the years Max Lucado has been featured in countless national media outlets, dubbed “America’s Pastor” by Reader’s Digest, and even named one of the most influential leaders in social media by The New York Times.
Max was born in a small town in West Texas, the youngest son of an oil field mechanic and a nurse. He grew up in church but as a teen took a different road, walking away from his parent’s faith. One starry summer night, after downing a six-pack of beer, Max began to wonder if there wasn’t more to life than parties and chasing pretty girls. Not long afterward, a Bible class at nearby Abilene Christian University stirred his heart again, drawing the young student into the unconditional love of God.
Max left West Texas with a master’s degree in Biblical Studies and a deep desire to share God’s love and mercy with others. When he landed in a small church near Miami, Florida, one of his duties as an associate pastor was to write the weekly church newsletter. It was then he discovered a powerful synergy between his passion for people, pastoral ministry, and writing.
Max and his wife Denalyn have three grown daughters. They live in Houston, Texas.
Does the uncertainty and chaos of life keep you up at night?
Is irrational worry your constant companion?
Could you use some calm?
If the answer is yes, you are not alone. According to one research program, anxiety-related issues are the number one mental health problem among women and are second only to alcohol and drug abuse among men. Stress-related ailments cost the nation $300 billion every year in medical bills and lost productivity. And use of sedative drugs like Xanax and Valium have skyrocketed in the last 15 years. Even students are feeling it. One psychologist reports that the average high school kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s. Chances are, you or someone you know seriously struggles with anxiety.
Honestly, even for a person who’s been hardened by decades of campus ideological and legal battles, it’s hard to believe how thoroughly unhinged, how intellectually bankrupt is the argument against protecting due process on campus. Yesterday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that the Trump administration would shortly begin a regulatory rulemaking process designed to protect college students from sexual assault while also protecting the fundamental constitutional rights of the accused.
Now in theaters, the new film All Saints engages big questions against the small backdrop of a dying Episcopal church in rural Tennessee.
All Saints reflects a six-year investment by Sony Pictures, also behind the summer blockbuster Spider-Man: Homecoming. Sony’s Affirm Films label got its start a decade ago with Facing the Giants. Sony agreed to distribute the film, produced for only $100,000 by a local church.
As film-craft, the football drama wasn’t ground-breaking. By the end, the team is winning every game, a couple’s struggle with infertility miraculously ends, and the coach even gets a shiny new red pickup truck.