Jeremy L. Berg

The past week I’ve been mourning the loss of a good friend — though we never met in person.  If you never knew the Internet Monk, Michael Spencer, it is never too late to get to know him.  He has left us a treasure trove of writings and podcasts that will continue to reach many with his gospel-centered, Jesus-shaped ministry. But allow Jeff Dunn and David Head to introduce you to the man of God I am going to miss so dearly.

(Original post at Internet Monk).

Yesterday in Oneida (pronounced o-NEED-a), Kentucky, a crowded chapel on the ground of Oneida Baptist Institute celebrated the life of the iMonk. There were friends and relatives and OBI students. Then there were those who had never met Michael in person, but who felt as if they had known him all their lives. There were those who had made peace with Michael’s death, and those (like I) who were still angry.

I think we all were helped through this time of grief by the words of David Head, pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Shelbyville, Kentucky. David and Michael were lifelong friends and related in some convoluted way that only occurs in Kentucky. I wanted to share some of David’s words–for those who are still working through their grief, and for those who are just now discovering this community and this man who is known as the iMonk.

“For 53 years and four decades of ministry, God’s grace in Jesus flowed through a vessel named Michael Spencer in a variety of places. Michael’s ministry began at home, with Denise, Noel and Ryan, Clay and Taylor. How he loved them, longed for their best and blessing, and stayed through all the seasons of family life: the struggles and pain, the joys and laughter. Home was his strong and safe place. Even there, he clung desperately to Jesus for help in being the husband and father he longed to be.

“Michael’s public ministry had five phases, beginning with his preaching in churches and youth groups within months of discovering his calling at age 15. Phase 2 was local church youth ministry in several churches throughout Kentucky. He always found a way to connect with kids and move them beyond the easy, safe church life. Phase 3 was serving as pastor at Bullitt Lick Baptist Church in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, a mixture of pastoral pain and joys that shaped the rest of his life. Phase 4 was the nearly 18 years he served at Oneida Baptist Institute as campus minister, English teacher and Bible teacher. Overlapping that was Phase 5 as the Internet Monk and proprietor of the Boar’s Head Tavern, where from this corner of Clay County, Kentucky, Michael literally had a global impact through writing, podcasts, thousands of conversations and too many friends to count.

“Always, there was teaching and preaching the Bible. Michael loved and was deeply saturated in God’s Word. He delighted in it as an expression of God’s mind and heart for life and all that matters. he believed it deeply. He studied it faithfully, worked hard at understanding it for himself. But the fruit of that study came in the overflow–in the thousands of lessons, sermons or essays where he helped God’s Word become clear for teenagers, adults, small groups, or three guys with open Bibles and a cup of coffee.

“Michael was a speaker, teacher, preacher, writer. He summed that up by simply calling himself a communicator. That’s a good word because of its root: communion. Michael delighted to share deep connections with God in Christ and with people. Wherever he was, he formed community. It has been astonishing to the depth of that connection online. Michael simply loved people. Family and strangers, men and women, rural and urban, young teenagers and retirees, gay and straight, intellectuals and the simplest thinkers. He loved Christians of all brands and atheists, church people and church dropouts, cutting edge and traditionalists, contemporary worshippers and hymns-only worshippers, people he knew personally and those he knew only as a screen name on the web. Michael’s ministry of grace was about Jesus and about people–opening his arms to extend to them the welcome of Jesus. One person wrote: ‘I’ve been amazed by some of the people Michael was willing to invited to hang out with him.’ Sounds like a certain carpenter.

“Gospel, gospel and more gospel. Jesus, Jesus and more Jesus. But we still have yet to touch the core of Michael’s ministry. Michael lived an honest life for Jesus. Or maybe better–and honest life with Jesus. Michael’s life was his ministry. He let us in on the dynamic of what it means to live with Jesus at the center. I call it honesty. You might call it being confessional or transparent or open or real. If you encountered Michael, you got to see exactly where he was on the journey with Jesus.

“There are others who do that as well. But what made Michael’s ministry so powerful was his willingness to share his brokenness, flaws and struggles. He never tried to convince us that he had his act together. He refused to take the easy road of cultivating an online image that he was heroically certain. he went to the boundaries of safe and predictable faith and stepped over. He was Jacob wrestling with the angel of the Lord through the dark nights of his soul. He expressed his fears and laments, questions and screams at God, fears and failures, doubts and ambiguity that left you wondering how faith cold possibly survive that moment.

“A first encounter with that depth of honesty was scary. It left you feeling like a voyeur, with access to something intimate you weren’t supposed to have. But then something happened. Michael’s outrageous honesty about the beautiful messes of his own journey with Jesus gave permission for thousands of us to own our mess with Jesus. To realize that brokenness, flaws, struggles, fears, and doubts are a part of the normal Christian journey. Because they are a part of life and you do it–all of it–with Jesus. One said, ‘Michael put into words my own struggles in ways I wish I could but couldn’t. I know I’m not alone in this. His was putting himself out there so that we can read and shout, Yes! Exactly! Someone understands!’

“How could he do that–and why was it so powerful? The grace of Jesus had set Michael free. He knew he was the undeserving recipient of extravagant mercy. He would say, ‘Real grace is simply inexplicable, inappropriate, out of the box, out of bounds, offensive, excessive, too much, given to the wrong people and all those things.’ By grace, Michael knew that Jesus accepted him and loved him no matter what. There really is no condemnation for those in Jesus and when you’re free, darkness loses its bite. When you’re accepted and free, you don’t worry about pleasing people or currying favor or protecting yourself. You simply live, desperately clinging to Jesus. Grace, the centerpoint of Jesus’ gospel, is the thing Michael came to value as most precious of all, the defining center of everything he was and did. Grace in Jesus was his north star and the theme of his story in ways he knew and in ways was still discovering.

“His ministry is not over. Michael gave his life away in serving Jesus during 53 years of life on earth. He followed Jesus and stayed  near Jesus with every breath. Though he has died, his life and ministry will bear fruit in lives and in the church for generations and for eternity. The Father honors him. So do we. We thank God for the honest life and Jesus-shaped ministry of Michael Spencer.”