jamesgsppencer, Author at CRAZY DIFFERENT

Christian Thought

Time for Change

ByjamesgsppencerSeptember 10, 2020

Throughout my professional career, I have consistently found myself in situations where I have needed to help individuals and groups embrace and execute change. Whether I was training clients in the fitness industry, working as a member of a distance learning

Christian Thought

Article on Justice on Worthwhile Theology

ByjamesgsppencerSeptember 1, 2020

I was pleased to contribute an article on Justice to Worthwhile Theology this month. The article discusses the importance of vision for biblical justice, as well as addressing the influence of the media on our conceptions of justice. You can read the full article here.

Teachable Moments

Learn What We Already Know

ByjamesgsppencerAugust 17, 2020

I remember as a little girl getting ready for “the event.” We circled it on our calendars, canceled any other activities, made bowls of popcorn and got our pajamas on early. Every American family basically did these same things. No child balked at eating their

ByjamesgsppencerJuly 8, 2020

My family and I were returning to our home near Chicago after a visit downstate to see our family. As we were driving up I-55, we hit a heavy rainstorm. Visibility went close to zero. The cars that didn’t pull into the shoulder slowed to a

ByjamesgsppencerJune 30, 2020

A few weeks ago, I deleted my social media apps from my phone and decided to minimize my posts on social media. There were a lot of reasons I made that decision, which I’ll likely discuss in a later post, but, as I get ready to take a break from work with my family, I […]

ByjamesgsppencerJune 1, 2020

There is no doubt that we live in a world that is not as it should be…a world searching for solutions to the pain caused by events of the sort we have seen in the past few weeks. Yet, to what extent is the church providing a deeply, theological paradigm that points to a

ByjamesgsppencerMay 26, 2020

By the end of my second graduate degree in 2005, I needed a break. I was exhausted, confused, and less confident that I really wanted to pursue a doctoral degree. But, after earning an MDiv and a second MA in Biblical Exegesis, a PhD seemed like the logical, if not

Christian Thought

Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

ByjamesgsppencerMay 4, 2020

D.L. Moody once said, “I am convinced what this world wants is true men and women, not great men, but true and honest and upright persons that God can use…” While Moody’s world may well have been thirsty for women and men of this sort, I’m afraid our world has become

ByjamesgsppencerApril 28, 2020

A couple of months ago I was asked to speak with a small group of young academic professionals working in the field of distance education. After giving some initial thoughts, we sat and talked about some of the challenges they were facing, how they thought about their career

Christian Thought

Getting Through, Moving Beyond: Some Thoughts on Where We Are and Where We Can Be

ByjamesgsppencerApril 22, 2020

In Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics, Samuel Wells argues that our ability to make ethical choices is seldom a question of having special resolve at the moment of decision. It is a question of preparation, or “moral effort,” through which we develop habits that

Author: jamesgsppencer

Time for Change

Article on Justice on Worthwhile Theology

Learn What We Already Know

The Art of Driving in the Rain: Looking for Signals Amidst the Noise

What I’m Reading After Deleting My Apps

Lord, Give Us New Hearts

Inertia: Confronting Our Tendency to Continue Unchanged

Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

The Capacity Conundrum

Getting Through, Moving Beyond: Some Thoughts on Where We Are and Where We Can Be