Month: April 2010

I found this quote from Eugene Peterson in his book “The way of Jesus” to be encouraging and challenging.

The life of faith does not consist in imposing our will (or God’s will) either on other persons or on the material world around us. Instead of making the world around us or the people around us or our own selves into the image of what we think is good, we enter the lifelong process of no longer arranging the world and the people on our terms. We embrace what is given to us – people, spouse, children, forests. weather, city – just as they are given to us, and sit and stare, look and listen until we begin to see and hear the God-dimensions in each gift, and engage with what God has given, with what he is doing. Every time we set out, leaving our self-defined  or culture-defined state, leaving behind our partial and immature projects, a wider vista opens up before us, a landscape larger with promise.

For the past few years I have been an ardent reader and listener to the Internet Monk (Michael Spencer). Even though I never met him, he has had profound impact on my journey. Sadly, he died of brain cancer on Monday. I will miss him and look forward to some great conversations when we finally meet.

In Memoriam

It is thus, if there is any rule, that we ought to die–neither as victim nor as fanatic, but as the seafarer who can greet with an equal eye the deep that he is entering, and the shore that he must leave.” — E. M. Forster

Dennis Michael Spencer of Oneida, Kentucky died at home on April 5, 2010 after a four-month struggle with cancer. He was 53.

Spencer was born September 16, 1956 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. He graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Kentucky and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. Spencer served as youth minister and pastor in several Kentucky Baptist churches before becoming the Campus Minister at Oneida Baptist Institute in 1992, where he ministered the past 17 years.

Spencer was also widely known in evangelical Christian circles for his web site, “Internet Monk: Dispatches From the Post Evangelical Wilderness” (www.internetmonk.com). The site was also home to his podcast, Internet Monk Radio. His book, Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality, will be published in September by WaterBrook Multnomah.

Spencer was preceded in death by his parents, S.L. and Dorothy Atherton Spencer of Owensboro and a sister, Peggy Spencer Head, also of Owensboro. He is survived by his wife of 31 years, Denise Day Spencer; his children, Noel Spencer Cordle of Oneida and Clay Spencer of Lexington; and a brother, Dr. B.E. Spencer of Louisville.

A memorial service will be held at the Oneida Baptist Institute chapel on Saturday, April 10 at 2:30 p.m. with visitation beginning at 12:30 p.m. the same day. The family asks that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to Oneida Baptist Institute, P.O. Box 67, Oneida, Kentucky 40972, (606) 847-4111.