Rusty Benson

AFA Journal associate editor

March 2004 – Scott Spalding’s idea of Christian activism has always been a bit off center – even revolutionary – according to friends.

“God has given me a gift of recognizing, then filling unusual ministry needs in a between-the-cracks fashion,” said the 44-year-old Ashland, Oregon, man.

Spalding knows about seeing the world from a different perspective. He suffers from as many as 17 diagnosed medical maladies, the most debilitating being Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism.

Although Asperger’s Syndrome has rendered Spalding severely disabled and, in his own words, “socially impaired,” his love for Christ and desire to share the Gospel is strong and healthy. In fact, in some ways, God has used Spalding’s disabilities to define a local ministry niche and to keep him focused and assertive in fulfilling that call.  

“God has given me a passion to reach lost people,” he says. “When I realized I could not work with people due to problems related to Asperger’s Syndrome, I decided to switch to mainly doing project-driven activities, where I could work primarily with things instead of people.” Spalding said that a psychologist recently described his condition – using computer jargon – as “missing his social chip.” 

Asperger’s Syndrome, officially recognized in 1993, is a high-functioning developmental disorder. Those who suffer from the disability are frequently unable to recognize social cues such as facial expressions, speech inflections and body language. For Spalding, this neurological problem has led to a string of lost jobs and painful rejections. He was declared fully disabled at age 39.

However, in some ways Spalding’s disabilities have proven to be an asset in ministry. His very high energy level – a result of Asperger’s Syndrome – combined with his disabled status has enabled him to devote his full time and great enthusiasm to evangelistic projects. 

Spalding’s record of creating opportunities to share the gospel began shortly after he was saved during his senior year in high school in 1978. “My first big project was to send out over 200 hand-written Christmas cards to witness to everybody I knew,” he recalled. 

Over the years Spalding has used whatever circumstances and resources that God provided to spread the gospel message. His efforts have included a “Cruisin’ for Christ” mini-truck ministry; placing posters and banners on bulletin boards throughout his local community; initiating a Christian music and worship service presentation in a Sociology of Religion class; mounting an LED-driven reader board in the rear window of his 1991 Nissan pickup (the board was programmed with several gospel messages); providing CDs to a nearby Christian-owned  smooth jazz station; and maintaining an aggressive and successful campaign for over four years to convince several cable TV providers to add Christian networks to their channel line-ups.

Today Spalding’s main project is to share Christ in as many ways as possible in his community. He pursues this calling by setting up and maintaining racks of free Christian literature in several high-traffic retail stores and restaurants in the area.

It’s a challenging ministry in a community that boasts more than its share of non-Christian influences, including four Buddhist sects; an Eckankar group; the Community of Mindful Living; the Center of Spiritual Awareness; the Sufi Heart Circle; a Muslim congregation; two Jewish synagogues and numerous wicca covens.

Spalding distributes several hundred pieces of Christian literature each month, including an attractively packaged version of the Gospel of John, which his church supplies. The literature racks require daily maintence, largely due to vandalism. 

He has been especially gratified with his growing friendships with store managers, particular some who are not Christians. “In fact, they have been more receptive to the literature racks than some of the Christians!” he laments.   

Spalding, who says his theme song is Change the World by pop singer Eric Clapton, is committed to spreading the Gospel in his community, using whatever means are available. However, his desire is to find a position in a national Christian ministry.   

To learn more about starting a literature ministry, or to correspond with Spalding, E-mail him at: spa360@mind.net.