“See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding...
My son had spent most of his life in small towns. We had a wooded area in a backyard that he would explore, and when we took evening walks, he would run ahead of my wife and I till he got to the next corner. But in 2012, my family and I moved to the city of Chicago. The differences between small-town and big-city life became evident when my son and I were walking on Michigan Avenue. On the relatively empty sidewalks of rural Illinois, my son didn’t have to stay by my side. Michigan Avenue, however, presented different challenges.
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Originally published April 22, 2024.
James Spencer, PhD, is a biblical scholar and author whose work concerns Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He earned his PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and an MA in Biblical Exegesis from Wheaton College. He serves as president of the D. L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology, and as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College's MA in Leadership program. James has published multiple works, including Serpents and Doves: Christians, Politics, and the Art of Bearing Witness, Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ, and Useful to God: Eight Lessons from the Life of D. L. Moody. His forthcoming book, Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press, 2026), offers a theological account of information and formation in a digital age. His work challenges Christians to remember that God sets the agenda for his people. James is an elder at Skyline Church in O'Fallon, Illinois, where he lives with his wife, Kim, and their four children. Listen to the Thinking Christian podcast and read more of his work at thinkingchristian.org/james.
