Tim Challies - The Next Story: Faith, Friends, Family, and the Digital World

PRAISE

The digital revolution is one of the most important developments of our times. Christians need good, solid, and insightful guidance as to how to engage the digital world without surrendering to the digital mind. Tim Challies is uniquely qualified to write this book, and I greet its arrival with enthusiasm.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

There are many books evaluating the nature and impact of new media. There are many books on Christian discipleship. However, this book brings these issues together, with profound simplicity and well-informed analysis. This is an important book not only for church leaders but for all who seek to understand how we are used by our technology as well as use it.

Michael Horton, professor at Westminster Seminary and cohost of The White Horse Inn

Tim Challies knows technology, and he knows the faith. So when he writes on the intersection of technology and faith, it is a must-read. The Next Story gives solid counsel to living out the gospel in the context of todays rapid progression of technology.

Ed Stetzer, www.edstetzer.com

All of us todaywhether digital immigrants or digital nativesare living in the aftershock of the digital explosion. Though our world has radically changed, the fundamental question remains the same: Will we be found faithful? Tim Challies proves to be a faithful navigator, though humble enough to admit that he identifies with the rest of us as a fellow struggler. The result of his labors is an accessible guide full of wise reflection and practical counsel. What hath technology to do with the biblical worldview? Come and see.

Justin Taylor, blogger (Between Two Worlds) and managing editor of the ESV Study Bible

No one I know is more thoughtfully connected to and wisely critical of the digital universe that envelops us than Tim Challies. In The Next Story, he helps us navigate the rapidly expanding digital explosion. The beauty of the book is not simply its wow factor (I had no idea all of that was happening on the web...), but more importantly its heart concern (How do I stay virtuous in a virtual world?). Challiess work is cutting-edge in the best sense, helping Christians to sever themselves from the sin that so easily (and subtly) entangles in order to run the race that glorifies Christ.

Bryan Chapell, president of Covenant Theological Seminary

We all marvel at the rapid technological advances that have taken place in our lifetime. But few of us stop to reflect on the profound way these changes are shaping what it means to be human. The Next Story is a great place to start. It moves beyond warnings simply to be careful about what we see (important though this is) to calls to explore how new technology affects how we know God, relate to other people, and even think. Instead of giving simplistic rules or proof texts, it offers a penetrating analysis of the modern world in light of the biblical story, along with practical principles about how technology can be your tool and not your master.

Tim Chester, leader in The Crowded House, an international family of church plants

As the coauthor of thirteen words in Tims new book, Im happy that he, with his skill as a writer, his experience as a web designer, and his deeply informed, discerning faith, wrote the other 75,000. Tims new book helps believers better understand and live faithfully in the electronic age. Rather than blindly embracing or fearfully rejecting new media and technology, Tim skillfully weaves together biblical wisdom, historical background, and critical insight, giving readers practical application they can use today.

John Dyer, director of web development at Dallas Theological Seminary

As someone who has spent almost two decades helping couples and families grow stronger and thrive, I have seen how the digital explosion is sending shock waves through homeseverything from Facebook-threatened marriages to couples who cant have a conversation that goes deeper than a tweet. It is time we think seriously about the subtle ways in which technology is reordering our lives. In The Next Story, Tim Challies helps us do that.

Bob Lepine, cohost of FamilyLife Today

If I outsource memory, is it an advance or a loss? Where is wisdom in the immediacy of the information explosion? Can we really affirm biblical authority when Wikipedia is truth? Tim Challies uses theoretical, experiential, and theological lenses to give a prophetic assessment of our digital age. He unpacks the opportunities of increased connection as well as the new Gnosticism of the dis-incarnations of the virtual society. He calls us to extricate ourselves from the ADHD world of information overload to live as whole persons who give ourselves to wisdom and worship of God alone.

Gerry Breshears, PhD, professor of systematic theology at Western Seminary

When we think about technology, most of us are content to focus naively on features and price. Thankfully, Tim Challies calls us to something deeper. The Next Story is a compelling call for Gods people to consider technologys implications, effects, and tendencies. Challies demonstrates thoughtful examination of what technology can do to us rather than just what it can do for us.

Scott McClellan, Echo Conference, exploring the intersection of media, technology, and the church

ZONDERVAN

The Next Story

Copyright 2011, 2015 by Tim Challies

This softcover edition contains the same content as the hardcover edition, but includes one new chapter.

ePub Edition January 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-52083-2

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Challies, Tim, 1976

The next story : faith, friends, family, and the digital world / Tim Challies.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-310-51505-0 (softcover)

1. Technology Religious aspects Christianity. 2. Christianity 21st century. 3. Christian life. I. Title.

BR115.T42C43 2015

261.56 dc23

2014047483

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.

Cover design: Micah Kandros

Interior design: Denise Froehlich

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 /DCI/ 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my brothers Pat, Andrew, Rick, and Justin
one by birth, three by marriage, all four in the Lord.

CONTENTS

On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the most powerful weapon ever created. Nicknamed Tsar Bomba, the king of bombs, it was a multistage thermonuclear warhead with explosive power in the range of 50 megatons equivalent to detonating 50 million tons of TNT. This made it fourteen hundred times more powerful than the