I’m grieving the loss of a friend today… a man I never met face to face nor spoke with. Michael Spencer, the internet monk, or the imonk, passed away April 5, 2010 after a four month struggle with cancer. Mike and I corresponded now and then when he started using some of my cartoons on his site. He interviewed me back in November of 2008. This interview and the cartoons he used on his site helped to promote this one, nakedpastor. He was also involved with the site, boarsheadtavern, which also used my cartoons, as well as some of my t-shirt designs. I always found him very friendly, generous and helpful. I am very grateful to him for all he did to help me as a blogger. His energetic output was incredible and inspirational. He’ll be missed.
Sometimes I hear people saying that internet relationships aren’t real, but virtual and superficial. I would argue against that. I’ve made some very good friends online. And the passing of this one, with all the sense of loss and grief, are just as real as if I knew him in person. The loss of Michael is keenly felt.
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Condolences, David. He’ll be in my prayers.
Thanks Jordan.
Sharing your sorrow over Michael Spencer’s passing.
I know how you feel- I knew him even less well than you did, but he was such a guiding force in my relationship with Jesus and the church that it felt like I’d lost a kindred spirit at least. I know he’s with Jesus, though, and I know he was so incredibly fruitful while he was here, and I’m thankful for both of those things even as I grieve his passing for my own selfish reasons.
I’ve been following Michael’s blog since junior year of high school, I’m now a junior at university. I found your blog through his website.
He was a spokesman for the spiritually tired and outcast. He was a mentor to me in many ways and led me down paths of thought I never would have considered myself exploring.
I will greatly miss his much needed voice.
I am sorry for the loss of your friend. Recently, other blogging friends of mine have been devastated over the loss to cancer of a woman they all refer to as their angel. Her name was Renee, and I lament that our paths didn’t cross in the blogosphere – especially with common blogging friends. I mean this is a huge group of people in mourning. There were candles at numerous blogs in the days preceding Renee’s death, and now the group is compiling favorite messages/gifts/memories they received from Renee and one member is compiling them into a book for Renee’s family. There is nothing trite about virtual friendships…..
And in June I will meet my “virtual” son, a young man in the Philippines whose mother left the family when he was a boy. There was something about my responses to his posts that nourished him and we began emailing in late 2008. In one message he addressed me with: Mom?. And I replied most certainly! Anyway, during the course of our relationship he has graduated law school, passed the difficult Philippine bar on his first try, is in his first job at a law firm in Manila and saving money so he can put his younger brother through college. I am SO proud of him because he applied for a Bill and Melinda Gates scholarship for a two-week seminar on reproductive rights at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and he was accepted! His scholarship even covers his flight from Baltimore to Portland, OR, after the seminar and my husband and I will pick him up at the airport, probably on June 12th. Dex is hoping that I can take the train with him from our area to Los Angeles, where he will fly home to Manila. I am not sure that can work out, but I’m trying. In any case, he will be right here in our home with us for at least three nights. Isn’t it exciting? (I did not have children, making this all the more special.)
Michael Spencer was the first person who validated my inability to fit into the church box in which I was raised. I found his blog while I was doing a search on “post-evangelical,” and it was an oasis in the desert for me. He ministered to the disenfranchised “sheep” and encouraged us. I found NakedPastor through Michael. Michael had a heart for the hurting, and my thoughts and prayers are with his family in this devastating time. May they find peace and comfort.
Thank you for this post, David. I never met Michael either, but he guided me and touched my heart over the years. I wept when I learned of his passing. Michael’s honesty, transparency, and sharing of his own struggles was such a refreshment for my soul. Michael made me realize that thereis is a lot of gray area…and that is ok. Michael showed me, not doctrine, but what faith looks like in real life…even when all of life is teetering.
You were loved and will be missed IM..
“Sometimes I hear people saying that internet relationships aren’t real, but virtual and superficial. I would argue against that. I’ve made some very good friends online” (NP)
I agree. I only started blogging with Imonk about a month back – and I was turned onto him by another fellow blogger’s site I also frequent (Steve Scott). He told me about Michael not taking the cancer treatment anymore and how he was going to support him on his site…I liked the idea so I joined in.
When he passed I was shocked (in a way)…I had just started to get to know him – but many people loved this person…and I really liked his writings.
It’s kind of amazing how real these interactions are.