Adrian Warnock's Book Review: "Mere Churchianity "

Adrian Warnock, a well-known blogger from Great Britain, has published at his blog a great three part review of the book Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality by the late Michael Spencer. Spencer was known on-line as "the Internet Monk" or the "I-Monk".  His website remains very popular and influential.

The review can be read at the following links:

Mere Churchianity Part 1: What’s wrong with the church:

Mere Churchianity Part 2: Where I disagree with Michael Spencer

Mere Churchianity Part 3: Bringing Jesus Back to the Center

Adrian begins his review by saying:

Michael Spencer was known to Christian blog pioneers as the Internet Monk.  Although he described himself as in the post-evangelical wilderness, and often locked horns with the likes of the pyromaniacs, he never lost the respect of most evangelical and reformed bloggers.  His message was bold. I would often strongly agree with around half of it and strongly disagree with the other half! We were both going to have our debut books published in 2010. Sadly, Spencer didn’t live to see the fruits of his labors as he died before his book was published. Under the care of his successors, his blog continues to be one of the most popular Christian blogs.

I feel that enough time has passed since his death for me to critically engage with his book without feeling embarrassed. I trust that if his wife and others who loved him read this they will hear my deep respect and love for the giant that Michael Spencer was and appreciate that despite my differences with him, I genuinely view him as something of a prophetic voice to the Western church. You see, I emphatically agree with him that there is much cause for concern. We cannot simply be complacent and continue fiddling while Rome burns I generally agree with most of Spencer’s diagnosis of what’s wrong with the Church. Where I disagree quite profoundly is how to fix it.

It has been almost a year now since I read the book, and I quoted from it several times last summer on this blog. With time for reflection, I think I can agree with just about all Adrian says about it.

It is still a very sad thing to me that the "I-Monk" died before his first and only book was published. However, God knows what He is doing. Spencer and his provocative writing on his blog and in his book has been, and will continue to be, greatly missed.