Andy Crouch
@ahc
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Partner @praxislabs // Author, The Life We’re Looking For | The Tech-Wise Family | Strong & Weak | Playing God | Culture Making // Twitter minimalist
19081 USA
Joined April 2007
You will have "the right to die" for approximately 15 minutes before you start to feel "the obligation to die," which will be approximately 15 minutes before you are informed that (for the greater good, to be sure) you are "required to die.".
People should have the right to choose the manner of their death. Britain’s Parliament must not squander a rare chance to enrich fundamental liberties by voting against a law allowing assisted dying
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Whenever I am with students I want to say, and often do say: The statistics tell us you are experiencing extraordinary levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. That is not because you are unhealthy people in a normal world. You are normal people in an unhealthy world.
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Very proud that my daughter came up with this title for her last paper of high school (assessing Robert Putnam's 2000 book on social capital 18 years later): . "Scrolling Alone".
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If you're someone growing in celebrity, your first priority should be to build systems of unimpeachable independence and credibility that can hold you accountable. The problem is that almost no one who tastes celebrity makes this a priority.
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A therapist friend said to me today that—to a first approximation—all mental/emotional health is about learning to mourn. I'm going to be thinking about that for a long time.
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Fellow Christians, it is only the ninth day of Christmas. There are three more to go. I realize your resolve to feast and make merry may be flagging. We are not accustomed to prolonged joy. Stay strong! (And if you think this is hard, remember there are fifty days of Easter. :) ).
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I have to say "no" to requests many, many times a day. Almost always people are understanding. They often say, "I know you are very busy.". The truth is I am NOT very busy. I try not to be busy at all. But in order for that to be true, I have to say "no" many, many times a day.
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I have no Covid crystal ball (I had one briefly in March 2020, but I dropped it :) ) but I suspect this virus is not going to go away until almost literally every nation, every institution, and every political faction has been humbled by a foolish and misdirected response to it.
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New discipline I'm publicly committing to today (have been mulling this for a while):. Use short, quick media like Twitter for praise, gratitude, and affirmation. Use longer, in-depth media like articles and books for critique and criticism.
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"I am quite glad that, if I had to live through a major natural disaster, I got to live through it alongside Texans." — my son (Rice '19).
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I’ve been playing with OpenAI for a couple weeks and with ChatGPT for (an embarrassing amount of) the past 24 hours, and I think it’s pretty clear—pending how these technologies get commercialized—that the era of homework, up through at least the second year of college, is over.
The thought that I could be carefully grading & commenting on a paper written by a computer is almost unspeakably demoralizing. It goes beyond the idea that it’s merely an utterly futile waste of time to something much deeper that I can’t yet put in words.
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This is clear thinking from a leader in one of the critical and pivotal institutions in American Christianity right now.
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The older I get the more evidence I have that there are many, many ways to lose your life, but only one way to save it.
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This morning I got up, made my tea, went outside, listened to the birdsong, came in, prayed morning prayer. This is what I do first thing every day, no matter where I am. I don't look at a screen until I've done these things. "We either contemplate or we exploit." (Leanne Payne).
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Fame is not the opposite of faithfulness. (St. Teresa of Calcutta was the real deal.) But almost everyone I have met in person who I would *really* want others to meet, admire, follow, and emulate . you've barely heard of at best. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.
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This past weekend I read Jayber Crow after hearing about it from friends for years. You know, this Wendell Berry guy is a pretty good writer.
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If I were a pastor of the modal US congregation (granted the huge diversity within that set) I would be planning for . 50% decline in giving over the next 12 months.no gatherings of >100 allowed for at least a year.gatherings of 10-50 allowed this summer in most localities.
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The only way to change culture is to create culture and then also have it appear on church signs across the land
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I am thinking a lot about how the desire to *predict* is rooted in the desire to have *control* (authority without vulnerability). And how different it is to *predict* than to *promise* or to *hope,* which always entail vulnerability.
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We think of emotional openness as "vulnerability." But for the powerful, emotional openness is often a source of authority. The most important form of vulnerability for the powerful is *accountability.*.
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I've spent a fair amount of time the last few years talking with parents, teachers, etc., about technology. While I always insist that the issue starts and ends with "us," not "kids these days," people always want to talk about kids.
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It's here . at my house. Always so fun when the real thing arrives. Available at fine booksellers everywhere 19 April.
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I truly wonder whether there is any more important sentence than this for our times. “What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.”. ― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man.
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Make me cry in 15 lines.
In case you missed it last week, bedtime liturgies and dinner prayers for children up for download on @TheRabbitRoom @ahc @QuothDouglas @sallylloydjones @Tish_H_Warren @timkellernyc
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The distance of power has been multiplied by the power of celebrity, and we're all at risk. My attempt to reckon with events of the past week (and many weeks past and future) and suggest a way forward. #if6tweetsweregood4000wordsarebetter?
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Justin (AD 100-165) saw the four key challenges to discipleship as sexual immorality, magic, wealth, and ethnic hatred. (Apol. XIV).
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One of the hardest things to believe: the only healthy growth is organic growth. Hard to believe when you're going viral. Hard to believe when you watch others go viral. Hard to believe when you hit the jackpot. Hard to believe when you missed the jackpot. Still true.
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What is happening? What should we communicate? What decisions should we make? What can we hope for? An essay on COVID-19 for Christian leaders.
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"The board (whose names are not publicly available)". In almost every case I can think of, certainly in the case of any Western public charity, this is a very, very bad idea. I am sorry that US law allows it. Christian donors should not tolerate it.
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One of the hardest, must humbling things about being part of an institution, especially a leader: taking responsibility for sins and failures you had nothing to do with (often literally before you were born). Not just criticizing or denouncing — *taking responsibility for* them.
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May God have mercy on us all, and give us the grace to "live quietly, mind our own affairs, and work with our hands" today (1 Thess 4:11) — trusting him to bless us, the work of our hands, and the generations to come.
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It is possible—probable? certain?—that Dylann Roof was extended more mercy and love in ten minutes Friday than in his entire previous life.
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I believe in the Holy Spirit.the holy catholic Church.the communion of saints.the forgiveness of sins.the resurrection of the body.and the life everlasting.
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Over the years I might have talked with half a dozen people whose parents’ insistence on continuing piano lessons caused lasting distress. But I’m quite sure I’ve talked with over a hundred who wistfully said, “I wish my parents hadn’t let me quit.”.
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So, today, two awesome things are happening, plus one terrifying thing. 1/ MY TECH-WISE LIFE is now available wherever fine books by daughters and fathers are sold. 2/ I turned in the manuscript for my own next book to my editor. Coming in 2021. 3/ I am back on Twitter.
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Publishing a book is like sending a child off to college. You've poured years of love and care into them—they've been shaped by you and bear an unmistakable resemblance to you. But from now on they will make their own way in the world. Today's the day. Off you go, little book!
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"It is no part of the Christian vocation, then, to be able to explain what’s happening and why. In fact, it _is_ part of the Christian vocation _not to be able_ to explain—and to lament instead."—N.T. Wright
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I've come to think of "winning at high school" as a kind of metonymy for all the games you are urged to play, but shouldn't care to play. Don't win at high school. Don't win at Harvard. Don't win at Twitter. Don't settle for anything but the life that really is life.
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Look at all these silly people sharing graphics of a word game OH WAIT YOU GUYS CHECK THIS OUT . Wordle 216 2/6. ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜.🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩.
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No small amount of damage is done in the world by reasonably smart people who think that something is complicated, when it is actually complex. Complicated matters require intelligence. Complex matters require wisdom.
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We regret to inform you that Jesus was not born in a stable. In fact, he was almost certainly surrounded by extended family (and, yes, animals!):
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Great evening with new friends in Berlin. Key idea: what if overcoming the sacred–secular divide is not just about recovering a sense of God’s presence in our daily work, but also recognizing the sacredness of our neighbor in the midst of dehumanizing aspects of our work?.
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Solitude / silence / fasting .Community / conversation / feasting. Six indispensable practices of the spiritual life.
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Very proud to be married to Professor Catherine Crouch. Not assistant or associate professor—full professor. Promoted today. :).
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The Book Jacket We're Looking For. I can't tell you how excited I am about this, and amazed that this work is almost at the finish line—or, looking at it another way, the start line.
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This is the great tragedy of two generations' worth of impatience with institutions (which reached a peak with my GenX cohort). We neglected real institution-building and settled for celebrity power. But that is a house built on sand, and when it falls, how great is its fall.
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There are two things I forget when I'm between book-writing projects:. 1/ How incredibly hard it is. 2/ How incredibly good it feels when you and your editor agree: it's done.
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Real change is institutional change—and that requires local, specific, sustained, patient action, very often activated and energized by nonviolent protest. Grateful for this leadership from President Obama.
I wrote out some thoughts on how to make this moment a real turning point to bring about real change––and pulled together some resources to help young activists sustain the momentum by channeling their energy into concrete action.
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This is my last day at @CTmagazine—so grateful for our team & work together. Excited to join the John Templeton Foundation on 1 February.
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@thomaschattwill A bit rich for the CEO of a platform defined by its 280-English-character limit to insist on “context.”.
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Having observed the rising use of the phrase “deep dive,” I think I’ve figured out what it means: spending more than 10 minutes on a topic, but far less time than is required to develop actual expertise. :).
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I ran across a word today in a report for pastors and it struck me that it's something church leaders think about a lot — and that Jesus seems *never* to have thought about, indeed a word that's hard to imagine even showing up in the NT:. "Attendance.".
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I read some things online today—many of them quite well thought through (though not all) :)—that were awfully depressing. And I spent hours today with actual people (also online) whose life, creativity, faithfulness, compassion are utterly encouraging. Pick your data points.
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"But who is Aslan? Do you know him?". "Well—he knows me," said Edmund.
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Other people using "your" ideas without giving you credit—or even knowing they were originally your ideas—is both frustrating and also perhaps the clearest indicator of actual influence in the world.
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Preparing a talk for investors and thinking about the correlation between safety and anxiety. Pursue safety, you become more anxious. Pursue meaningful risk, you become more resilient. Because on the other side of meaningful risk, even when the worst happens, you find rescue.
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Just did a podcast interview for moms about The Tech-Wise Family and it reminded me that while the dominant discourse about tech and kids is about fear / anxiety, there is *so much joy* in choosing different and better tech practices. Parent by your hopes, not your fears.
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Three metaphors from Jesus for his disciples' presence, and therefore influence, in the world: yeast, salt, light. Yeast = invisible, tasteless.Salt = invisible but taste-able.Light = visible and inescapable. We need all three, in every cultural context.
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Whether that is a good or bad thing, I honestly do not know. Mostly bad, I would think, but maybe in his mercy God can use it for good. The one thing I'm sure is that there will be no heroes standing after this, except those who cared for others at great personal cost.
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Perfect love casts out fear. But fear travels far and fast, while love is local and slow.
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I am *this* close, this close I tell you!, to making @AmSolidarity the second account I follow publicly on Twitter. They are so refreshingly and cheerfully committed to policies that advance the common good, in joyful defiance of the current partisan options in the US.
If an 11-year old can’t walk a few blocks to school without the cops or CPS looking into it, that diminishes childhood and weakens local communities. It also disproportionately imposes costs on parents with fewer economic and social resources.
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This is such an essential, careful, thorough, powerful book. Our team at @praxislabs had the great privilege of reading it with @dukekwondc before publication. I highly recommend it and am so glad it is now in the world. As always, ordering from @byronborger is highly encouraged!
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Any action by leaders to impose drastic measures against Covid-19 that doesn't seem "too early" to most people will in fact be too late. (Correspondingly, Spanish Flu reminds us any action to lift mitigation measures that doesn't seem "too late" will in fact be too early.).
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I try to write books that will be read for ten years or more; I try to read books that will be (or have been) read for a hundred years or more. The newly published book I read in 2021 that I’m most confident is in the latter category: . PIRANESI, by Susanna Clarke.
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The kids [who make intentional and radically different choices from their peers, animated by a transcendent encounter with love, mercy, and hope and sustained by a durable, multicultural, inter-generational community of witness and practice] are alright.
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My admiration for the work these two gentlemen have done together, for many years now, as intellectual leaders and as Christian brothers, cannot be overstated.
Two years ago @CornelWest and I prayed in the rain at the grave of Frederick Douglass in Rochester, recalling with gratitude the work and witness of the great abolitionist. Today we read that in that city a statue of him was torn down and thrown into a gorge. God help us.
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Prayer—and lament—is the proper first response to tragedy. Not the only proper response, but the first.
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This is so simple and so crucial — no phones in the bedroom, especially at night. Not for kids, not for adults. Seriously. Let's fix this.
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I am quite sure that banning phones in schools is not the most important thing that could be done for human flourishing at a nationwide level. But I do think it's about the lowest-hanging fruit we are ever going to get.
STRAIGHTFORWARD toolkit: How to get your school to ban phones during the day. From @fairplayforkids & @JonHaidt & the Phone-Free Schools Movement:.
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I am inclined to exit the endorsements game (there are great books being written by people I deeply admire, but the game itself is so sad and broken). So, entirely unsolicited (I bought the book, no comp copy): 3 chapters in, Andrew Wilson's Remaking the World is just fantastic.
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Of course, I'm exaggerating for rhetorical effect. It will be 30 minutes.
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Today is a good day — I'm joining @praxislabs full time as partner for theology and culture.
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Today I was with a team I love. We dropped one more small piece of creative work into the world. We planned for more. I sat with friends going through painful transitions. The world is still broken. Evil still stalks. But creation and new creation have the first and last word.
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And culture basically dies if it isn't transmitted over two generations (think language). Where do emerging adults go to see healthy models of institutions that both increase creative power and limit the capacity for destructive power? It's very hard for them to imagine.
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Quite encouraging to hear via email from executives at two prominent tech companies in the last 24 hours that my latest book—especially its idea of redesigning our tech toward "instruments" rather than "devices"—is shaping how they are working with their teams.
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Very excited to introduce A Rule of Life for Redemptive Entrepreneurs, launched today by @praxislabs
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2019 is the 400-year anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans in America. If you observe Lent (or if you want to start), this would be a good year to join us for An American Lent:
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If we wait until 16 to give a person access to a two-ton assemblage of metal and glass that can cause grave damage, I think it's quite reasonable to wait until 16 to give a person access to a six-ounce assemblage of metal and glass that can cause grave damage.
.@JonHaidt asks Congress to give academic researchers access to social media data, & to raise "child online privacy" standards from age 13 to 16. Those years are esp. vulnerable for teen girls, & tech companies should enforce that rule. @ahc @jean_twenge .
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This is so good, and actually applies to many, many other situations besides questions about church teaching. Leah Libresco Sargeant at
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Meanwhile we have to endure the rise and fall of one celebrity after another, who suck all the oxygen out of the room both on the way up and on the way down.
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There are countless glorious exceptions — individuals and institutions. But almost by definition, they don't partake in the culture of celebrity, and thus they are culturally invisible, or far less visible than they ought to be given their integrity and trustworthiness.
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Replace "magic" with "technology" (cf. Arthur C. Clarke) and it's spot on for discipleship two millennia later.
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The only worthwhile growth (and almost always the only real growth) is organic growth—the result of slow, patient, long obedience in the same direction. Ignore the viral exhilaration and keep pursuing your vocation.
The whole sad story of audience capture in a paper. Someone who unexpectedly has a post go viral:.1. Starts to post more.2. Makes their future posts more like the post that went viral, in an attempt to recapture the glory.3. Attention usually fades rapidly
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All of which suggests why God in the OT seems to think a people can survive just fine without a king (if they walk in the ways of YHWH) . but never even hints that they could survive without prophets.
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And when credible allegations of misconduct come — as has happened in two cases in my circles this week — you are stuck. Even credible allegations can be false. But if you haven't built a system others can trust to fairly assess those allegations, how can we believe your denials?.
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Like me for example. I wouldn't change a word that I wrote about Trump as a candidate, and the Christians who supported him, in Oct 2016 (nor do I have much to add). But I've never paid the price that Russell has paid and is paying for his leadership. I admire him tremendously.
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Also, there is no such thing as a digital native. No one was born looking for a screen. Everyone was born looking for a face.
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Three exceedingly encouraging developments today (in the order that I learned about them):. 1/ @ThePelicanProj goes public. 2/ @AndCampaign launches 3/ started reading @thecommonrule’s forthcoming book and it is just exceptional. Aslan is on the move.
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This is not just a blizzard, and it's not just winter. Every organization is now a startup. What we at @praxislabs believe every leader can and must do today—from our CEO, our board chair, and me.
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Okay. You are my followers on Twitter. You know I NEVER share stuff like this, right? And yet, here we are.
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Tonight I listened again to my friend Sara Groves (@grovesroad)’s astonishing 2015 album FLOODPLAIN. Artists are our prophets—I cannot imagine an artistic work more connected to, or comforting in, what all of us are experiencing. Thank you Sara.
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TL;DR proximity to power often limits your ability to speak truth quickly, decisively, and publicly. It's the price of admission.
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Fascinated by the rise of "That's a bad look" in contexts where people a generation ago would just have said "That's wrong." More evidence for our ongoing shift in the West to honor-shame (or fame-shame) orientation.
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It's happening.
Virginia has developed a brilliant model for getting to phone-free schools. First, Gov. Youngkin issued a well-researched executive order laying out the destination and the justification:.. Next, the VA DOE and the governor's wife, Suzanne Youngkin, set.
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Just finished Andrew Wilson's Remaking the World—it more than lived up to the promise of the early chapters. Elegantly structured. Not a word wasted. Theologically subtle and sharp at the same time. Humble and ambitious. Gosh it's good.
I am inclined to exit the endorsements game (there are great books being written by people I deeply admire, but the game itself is so sad and broken). So, entirely unsolicited (I bought the book, no comp copy): 3 chapters in, Andrew Wilson's Remaking the World is just fantastic.
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