Comments on: iMonk Bio

By: John Blackman

John Blackman — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:23:29 +0000

Dear IMonk : I keep spreading your name around up here in Canada. I’m a 47 year old Pastor (recovering Youth Pastor) who was also a massive Solid Rock Records fan back in the day. Got my reformation leanings from a Dad who worked in tire factories, grew up Small County Pentecostal , switched to Reformed Baptist and read things on the night shift where he worked in a tire plant boiler room like the Sword and Trowel and A.W.Pink while avoiding contracting Pink eye!

I have to continue to push you toward converting to the love of mr bill mallonee to satisfy your hunger for depth of lyrics and good honest music from the heart!
Keep up the good podcasting… I get behind on my listening them on a long road trip I get all monked up and feel once again less like a lost soul!

By: jackie

jackie — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:48:14 +0000

You mean, you’re just … a regular guy? I do think the lack of sod like hair will create a credibility issue. Therefore, may your ministry be blessed with growth in the absence of follicular abundance!

By: Bob Smietana

Bob Smietana — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:21:51 +0000

Michael

I’m the religion writer at the Tennessean in Nashville, just saw your Change or Die piece online, wondered if you’d have a couple minutes to talk about SBC. my email is bsmietana@tennessean.com, cell is 615-477-8814

By: Der große Lobpreis-Schlamassel « theolobias.de

Der große Lobpreis-Schlamassel « theolobias.de — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:28:39 +0000

[...] Michael Spencer hat mir die freundliche Erlaubnis erteilt, einen seiner letzten Blogartikel ins Deutsche zu übersetzen und hier zu veröffentlichen. Die Übersetzung ist so Pi mal Daumen und noch deutlich vom Südstaaten-Lokalkolorit gekennzeichnet, aber ich denke, die Intention wird klar und paßt wunderbar auf hiesige Verhältnisse. [...]

By: Michael The Haggard

Michael The Haggard — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:25:56 +0000

Hello Michael,
I am a 45ish self-supporting missionary in Taiwan. I am currently finishing up my LONG overdue Masters in Theology & Philosophy (distance). I was an Independent Christian Church pastor and then a Southern Baptist pastor… mainly because those groups would take me (until I bent some big donner’s nose with the truth). I am probably closer to Gene Scott than I am Johnny M. Hunt… well… that aint so true either. Perhaps Drew Marshall is closer to my style. Then again…

THANK YOU… thank you for having a blog that speaks to me and reaches me. It says things I have been saying for years. It reminds me there ARE thinking Christians out there and not just toe-the-line club members. Being on the mission field can get lonely and hungry for like minded Christians… many missionaries tend to get on my nerves. Not all of them… but we are far away from each other and busy and don’t nearly get to fellowship as we should. After months of seminary and enduring some club-member-christians on the field… You Feed me Good Food.

In His Grip
Michael The Haggard

By: Robin

Robin — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:38:37 +0000

Hello, Just found you, and so glad I did. God has been leading my heart in this direction as you talk about on your blog. I am hoping to go to seminary this fall, and look forward to visiting and gleamng from your blog. I just started reading Christless Christianity by Michael Horton and did a blog post on it. Would love if you could stop by and share your thoughts. God bless, Robin

By: barbara rew

barbara rew — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:49:23 +0000

I have a coup;e of booklets that I would like to send to Mike for his review and opinion. This discussion may be done on this internet site after he reads and reviews them. Does he have a P.O. Box or church address that I can send them to?
Thanks & God bless

By: Joel

Joel — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:59:10 +0000

Dear Mike,

I’m writing to tell you that I have been blessed by listening to your podcasts and reading your essays. Thanks, and keep up the good work! I am an American missionary working in Russia (My wife is Russian, and I have been in Russia for 14 years). It’s sad that the pitfalls and weaknesses of the American evangelical church are also influencing the Protestant churches of Russia (the prosperity gospel, church growth methodology, etc.). The bestselling books from the Christian bookstores in the U.S. are translated into Russian and sold here. Some of the Russian believers in our church even watch TBN via streaming on the internet! So the concerns you express on your programs about the evangelical church resonate in my own heart with the concerns I increasingly have for the church here in Russia. May the Lord help us to fight the good fight with love and wisdom!

By the way, I have also been helped by listening to your Coffee Cup Apologetics. Let me raise a question that I am sometimes asked as I share the gospel here in Russia. Maybe you can address it on one of your future programs. Non-believers will sometimes raise the objection that, “Everyone interprets (or understands) the Bible in their own way.” The implication is that we can’t really rely on the Bible, because it can be understood 100 different ways by 100 different people. Have you ever encountered this objection, and how would you respond?

Thanks again for your ministry. Keep up the good work!
In Christ,
Brother Joel

By: pinoy_crc

pinoy_crc — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:45:53 +0000

dear michael
i’m alvin and i come from the philippines. i’m very new to this blogging thing and would like to say that you site is indeed refreshing. when i find the time, i dig into the archives. i like your reflections. it is very thought provoking. i still don’t fully understand your Jesus-Shaped Spirituality but it is very interesting and refreshing. like you, i grew up in the Baptist tradition and my father became a pastor for the Christian Reformed Church in the Phils. an affiliate of CRCNA. so i grew up a Calvinist…don’t hate me yet pls… but seriously, your blog has really helped affirm many of my suspicions…like that the body of Christ, the Church is much bigger and deeper and richer than what i’ve been exposed to. i believe that what we need today is to revisit our history as christians, an area of great interest to me, and try to learn from the mistakes of the past. we also need to engage christians from different traditions and celebrate what we hold dearly that is common and work out in love our differences. and then firmly root ourselves in God’s Word and try to mine the depths of riches that the Lord wishes to convey to us through the Scriptures. i believe what you have here at internet monk is a step towards this.

sorry for the long letter. i’ve just really been blest by you site. keep it up!

have a blessed day!

alvin

By: Richard Olsen

Richard Olsen — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:15:58 +0000

Dear Michael. I like you. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s the questioning spirit, the rapidly growing distaste for evangelical/lite theology, silly “praise and worship” songs or God knows what. Like you I’ve read the Roman Catholic literature all the way back to the beginning. Love ‘em a lot, but can’t cross the Tiber for some of the same reasons you mention in some of your blogs. Actually, contrary to what they say, reading the apostolic fathers hasn’t led me to Catholicism, but has unveiled some of the beauty of the Orthodox faith. Love them “smells and bells.” But…it’s that “infusion” stuff again I can’t swallow.
And then the new movement..or so called new movement you seem to have a following in that bothers me a bit too. I read The Shack by one of your admirers and loved it. Then I read more and more of his stuff and keep thinking, “where have I heard this before.” Then I remember…back in the dark ages of the late ’60’s and early ’70’s I remember a small group movement that seemed to follow the teachings of T. Austin-Sparks. Ahhh, yes…the old Plymouth Brethern and their offshoots. I attended their Bible studies, marveled at the brazenness of the mothers who openly nursed their babies while marking up their Bibles with their drafting pens while the local house elder expounded on the scriptures. Good teaching…to a point. But then, after a while, it went goofy too.
But what didn’t go goofy in the early ’70’s? Calvary Chapel and the Jesus People, the burgeoning Charismatic movement and Dennis Bennett. I remember the charismatic Bible study where a liberated nun was proclaiming that God was going to heal all the decayed teeth of the people in the room and even replace their fillings with new teeth. I stood up, said “Good grief..”, dusted the heals of my shoes never to return. I’ve seen it all in my 64 years and keep coming back to “there’s nothing new under the sun.”
Old heresies the early church fought to defeat in the early church councils keep popping up. It’s kinda like the old game “Whapping the Gopher.” Every time you knock down the gopher he pops up out of another hole somewhere else.
I don’t know you well enough Michael yet to know if you’re another gopher…boy your “prophecy” regarding the end of the evangelical church sure p….d off a bunch of folks. But…dang it, I have this nagging thought you’re right.
So…in the end…I think I like you, whatever that means. I’ll keep reading. Maybe I’ll have a manifestation from God or Mary that will straighten me out.
Richard