A team of us are currently working on a forthcoming book entitled, Reconsider Jesus: A Fresh Look at Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. It’s pulling together the myriad of written and audio teachings of the Internet Monk, Michael Spencer. Unfortunately, Michael passed away in April 2010 due to cancer. His passing came right before the release of his first book, Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality. For a taster, you can check out my review.
As a shepherd-teacher, one of Michael Spencer’s passions and life-projects consisted of in-depth teaching on the life of Jesus as seen through the Gospel of Mark.
And, so, this current team – Mike Bell, Denise Spencer (wife of Michael), Jeff Dunn (part of the team now heading up Internet Monk), the Internet Monk community, and myself – have pulled together Michael’s Bible studies, sermons, teachings, and blog posts (and maybe even little scribbles on napkins) to produce a devotional commentary on the Gospel of Mark. We’ve got about 1000 pages of material to work through.
Over at the Internet Monk blog, we will be giving a weekly ‘sneak peak’ of some excerpts from the book. The first of such went live today – check it out the full post here.
But here is a short taster:
Out of all the books in the world, why read this one? With a hundred other activities and interests to pursue, why devote your mind to some religious text out of the Bible? How is it going to help you?
Obviously the reasons to study Mark are many, but let me suggest what persuades me. Hopefully it will persuade you as well.
The most influential person in history is also the most misunderstood and misrepresented. Two thousand years later, Jesus of Nazareth is still a mystery to most people. When your name is common enough to be both a curse-word and a word of worship, then it’s safe to say many people who talk about you are missing what you were all about. Whether you admire Jesus, worship Jesus, despise him or simply don’t know about him, you can’t deny that no single person has more continuing influence on our world than Jesus. But is there any way to get beyond the misunderstanding to a true understanding?
For more, visit the Internet Monk blog. If you would like to be contacted when Michael Spencer’s book is available for purchase, drop us a note at michaelspencersnewbook@gmail.com.
The Prodigal Thought 
Trying to find a way to contact Jeff Dunn re: some Bibles he had for sale.
Mark – I’d contact him through the InternetMonk blog – http://www.internetmonk.com.