By Chaplain Mike
UPDATE: Coffee Cup Apologetics podcast #15 is available here. Thank you to those who sent it to Chaplain Mike!
It has been good to hear Michael Spencer’s voice again in recent days. No, I was not caught up into the third heaven, nor was I granted a dream or vision. I’m talking about the fact that we can still access the iMonk’s teaching, insight, passion, and humor through listening to his podcasts.
Specifically, there is an entire series of Coffee Cup Apologetics recordings that are available for our continuing edification and to help us in conversations we might have with our neighbors when questions about the Christian faith are raised.
The concept of “Coffee Cup Apologetics” is simple. These are not scholarly defenses of the faith, but rather the kinds of insights that can help us when we are having informal discussions with friends. They are “apologetic” insights—not designed to persuade someone to believe (that’s evangelism), but rather to demonstrate to an inquirer that our faith is reasonable, based on adequate evidence and rational thinking. A person need not check his or her brains at the door to become a Christian.
You can access and download the Coffee Cup Apologetics podcasts through iTunes, or by going to the CCApologetics website, where you can see a brief explanation of each of the fifty episodes.
NOTE: One of the Coffee Cup Apologetics podcasts (#15) is inaccessible. If someone out there has a copy of this, I would love to have it and make it available. Please contact Chaplain Mike using the email link at the top of the page.
Of course, you can also download and listen to many of the Internet Monk Radio podcasts. Unfortunately, these are not all available, but you can still access some of the original episodes.
A few of the final podcasts are still available on iTunes. You can get podcasts #100-167 individually by clicking the Podcast link (under ARCHIVES) at the top of the IM page. Clark Bunch, at his blog, The Master’s Table, has a tab where you can access podcasts 48-81.
Once again, if you have additional podcasts that you have saved, we would love to retrieve as many of them as possible. Please contact Chaplain Mike.
Michael Spencer Still Speaks
These podcasts complement the Internet Monk blog and go beyond what is written here. They reveal the heart and mind of a friend who reveled in the grace of God through Christ, and who shared that generously with all of us. We are thankful to live in a day when technology is available so that Michael’s voice can still speak.
The Internet Monk Archives 
Thanks for this, Chaplain Mike. I’ve just downloaded CCA # 15 and looking forward to listening to it. I do hope someone out there has the Radio Podcasts # 1-47 and # 82-99 and will make them available, soon. I’d be willing to throw in a few dollars to help pay for the bandwidth.
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It may just be a matter of semantics, but I’ve never thought of apologetics and evangelism as different methods. Being new to this site I still look forward to listening to Michael’s podcasts and suspect I will find confirmation in them …confirmation that the apologist is able to reach people for Christ in places no evangelist (by your definition) could.
To my mind, apologetics form the most useful tool in the evangelist’s bag …the putter in the golf bag of life, where accuracy counts more than distance and the subtleties come into play. There is no cause for intellectual embarrassment in Christianity, though there is in some who attempt to force conversions either by dogmas or by inquisitions. Modeling discipleship while knowing how to explain your commitment rationally is the highest road of evangelism. When you want to communicate something important …whisper.
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I think my old phone has a couple dozen episodes of CCA on it. I loved to listen to it on the treadmill at the gym.
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I was listening to Michael’s final podcasts the week he died on the plane home from a business trip. It was so bitter sweet as Michael was talking about how he loved a restaurant he could through peanuts on the floor because he was just a “messy guy” and he loved making messes.
I teared up on the plane as I heard that; as I too remember trowing peanuts on the floor with my kids ages ago. He also loved it because we were naturally messy. Again, Michael found a touchstone with his audience (probably with ease).
I again cried that God takes such people so soon.
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