The Internet Monk: Michael Spencer

I've quoted The Internet Monk previously on Conversations@Intersections.

While the internet can be a cesspool of thoughtless mumblings and dangerous recipes idiots use to harm themselves or others, it is also a meeting place for like-minded people in far away places. The Internet Monk provided such a place for many of us to meet, think, comment and reflect.

Chaplain Mike writes of The Internet Monk who passed away on Monday.

I had been wandering in the post-evangelical wilderness for a long time. But I never knew what to call it until I began reading Michael Spencer. And I never knew a genuinely safe place to talk about it until I entered the discussions on Internet Monk. Then I knew I had found a guide, and a group of fellow-wanderers.

The site’s popularity testifies to an undeniable fact: I am not alone. There are multitudes of us out here in exile, weary and dry-mouthed, panting for streams from which to slake our thirst.

• Longing for grace.
• Longing for some thoughtfulness and common sense instead of the gnostic fanaticism that tries to pass itself off as vibrant faith.
• Longing for a faith that is not simply another attempt to avoid, escape, or transform our humanity into something else.
• Longing for real good news of a real Savior for real people.
• Longing for a Jesus-shaped spirituality.

Spencer was known in evangelical Christian circles for his web site,
“Internet Monk: Dispatches From the Post Evangelical Wilderness” (www.internetmonk.com).

His book, Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality,
will be published in September by WaterBrook Multnomah.