Michael Spencer in memoriam

I cried yesterday morning. Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, has passed away.

I've been reading Michael's blog for several years, on and off. Like many, many have said now that he's gone, I never met the guy, but I felt a close connection with him. He was honest, often brutally so, about his faith and his struggles with it. His writing really resonated. He articulated much of what I both loved and hated about the Evangelical church, and he formed my loves and hates too. I felt I was with him in the post-Evangelical wilderness. And it made me hopeful.

The wilderness has just become a much quieter and lonelier place.

One thing that always impressed me about Michael was his love of the Gospel. It must be my sinful nature, but I tend to forget just how sinful I am and the world is. Michael's insights in this regard hit home on a regular basis. He roused a love for Luther in me that none of my theology classes have managed. Today, on internetmonk.com, his friend Michael Bell, Chaplain Mike, writes of his love for the Gospel,

But first and foremost, Michael was about the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ. This was what was closest to his heart, and what drew me to him. His concern was that in all the many things that the church was doing, the gospel was being obscured. This was his greatest concern, and to what he paid the most attention in his writting.

I think his deep insight and understanding of the dialectic of sin and grace is what gave me hope about the Evangelical church. I agreed with his posts about the collapse: Things will change dramatically in the future for the church. They have to, because there are things just desperately wrong with it. But for all that sin there is so much more grace. I want to thank Michael for reminding me of that.

I will miss Michael Spencer's voice in the wilderness sorely. I will miss telling my wife, my dad or my friends about some new thing I learnt about or old thought that was clarified after reading his blog. It makes me especially sad that he never saw his book published. Lord knows, he deserved it. I hope some publishers will mine the archives for material for future books. And I hope his books will sell in droves. He needs to be heard widely.

I'm praying for his family and his friends.