Author: Nathan Campbell

Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.

Commenting Rules

Commenting rules on blogs are generally pretty passe.

Mine can be summed up as:

  1. Please do, unless you’re a spammer.
  2. If you disagree with me prepare for me to argue my case. For a long time. Making sure I have the last word. Unless your name is Andrew.*

There are times when I wonder how Christians should be governing their behaviour online. Justin Taylor had some good guidelines. He took the high road and used the Bible.

  1. I hope this can be a place where we “seek understanding” before critiquing, where we are quick to listen and slow to speak, where we judge others charitably not critically, where we encourage and build up each other rather than tearing down and destroying each other.
  2. I would encourage commenters to consider carefully the following commands and principles regarding our speech:
  3. “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6).
  4. “By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:37).
  5. “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10).
  6. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29).
  7. Speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15, 25).
  8. “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless” (James 1:26).

Those are great if your commenters are Christians… I like these ones (via Gordo) from Triablog (they expand on each point in this list on the post).

These are the first five, of ten.

  1. You can say pretty much anything you please about the team. Attack us with impunity. We don’t care. We can take it.
  2. It is not, however, equally acceptable to turn the combox into a free-fire zone whereby one outsider can heap personal abuse on another outsider.
  3. Dialogue is a two-way street. If someone comments on what we say, we reserve the right to respond.
  4. By the same token, we reserve the right not to respond. You don’t pay the bills around here. We choose where to put our time.
  5. Expletives, abbreviated or not, will not be tolerated. Ad hominem invective, as a substitute for reasoned argument, is unacceptable.

*He sometimes gets the last word.

June 5, 2010

Want to speak TED style?

TEDtalks are inspirational. Revolutionary. Amazing. And now you can create your own TEDTalk thanks to this bloke who conducted a careful analysis of the transcripts of every available TED Talk and counted up the most common words. Coffee was one of the results. These words are connected by the top ten four word phrases, and the final pieces of the puzzle are computer generated. I did have one combination of keyword options that started “It’s not nose picking” – I can’t get it back.

Here’s my speech.

When you look at the student’s, they rely on coffee that is quite nuanced in the same way that our neurons are. Efficient trimming causes the brain to recognize the exact way it’s supposed to think et cetera, et cetera. It is like French products becoming a very ecological choice. You don’t have to like it, but it is a choice that I often discuss in my seminars. When you look at the student’s, they rely on coffee which makes you both happy and excited. How many of you would prefer that to tea? I think it’s just like when the middle of it all, you could see the situation running the same way that a downward spiral would. It makes you yearn for coffee making you jittery et cetera, et cetera. So I thought maybe a mirror does not always reveal pleasant surprises. How many of you would rather consider coffee sponsored for by the administration of the United States. Who wouldn’t agree that happiness can only be achieved by connecting with the world.

June 4, 2010

Rallying the troop(er)s

Stormtroopers365 is a Flickr set that features photos of two stormtrooper toys doing stormtroopery things. It’s quite brilliant. I can’t remember if I’ve posted it before (which is happening a lot lately). But it’s worth checking out.

June 4, 2010

The land of the generous

Australians are generous people, and we’re always prepared to give from our own pockets to others, even if the others are multimillionaire actors in costume as a homeless person. This is what happened to Lord of the Rings (amongst other things) star Sir Ian McKellen, while sitting in Sydney a few weeks ago:

June 4, 2010

What your email address says about you

Via The Oatmeal… where else. But what he’s missing is what the stuff before the @ says about you. Which is probably more telling. If you thought sk8erboi45 was cool (like the 44 people before you), or anything similarly asinine, then you were wrong. If I were the type of person who hired people I’d look no further than the email address on most resumes before dismissing 85% of the candidates.

June 4, 2010

Pull up a stool

I know what keeps my customers satisfied. Poo jokes. Have you heard of the Bristol Stool Scale? This is a public health announcement – but I don’t want you sharing in the comments. Here’s a nicely rendered chart for your bathroom wall – it’s better than the wikipedia image.

From the never more aptly named “Flowing Data.”

June 4, 2010

Theatre of Crushed Dreams

Ahh. Sport. Home to such brilliant examples of myopic legalism…

Did you hear the one about the guy who pitched a perfect game on Wednesday (US time) – except that an umpire missed a pretty obvious out on his final play, calling the batter safe and crushing the dreams of the young pitcher? No. Well, the Major League Baseball administrators had to consider whether or not to overturn the decision giving this kid an achievement as rare as hen’s teeth (there have been 21 in history – but three in the last month), and they decided not to. Check out the story.

But better than that… The World Cup comes around once every four years. It’s the biggest event in sport (despite what the Olympic PR machine might say). North Korea (who probably should have known better), decided that the arbitrary three goalkeepers in a squad of twenty-three was excessive. So they named two, and picked a young striker to double as a goalkeeper, in the unlikely event that his presence between the sticks was required.

The catch is, that this player must play in goals. I didn’t know that was a rule. I thought goalkeepers could swap upon notifying the referee… but a 27 year old from a nation that isn’t a guaranteed qualifier for any future World Cup, ever, has had his dreams have been crushed by sporting administrators applying the letter, not the spirit, of the law. Brilliant. Here’s hoping the other two keepers get injured forcing him to make a stirring, Hollywood style debut between the sticks, only to win the World Cup for Korea. Then, in the celebrations, Kim Jong Il will adopt him as his heir. It could happen…

June 4, 2010

Diff’rent strokes for different folks

How does one appropriately remember Gary Coleman, the start of Diff’rent Strokes… one gets a live Christian prayer TV show to read its theme. Reminiscent of similar efforts with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air (that I’ve posted somewhere before).

June 4, 2010

Is eye contact really that important?

I am never, I guarantee it, never, going to preach like this guy (though I think he actually might have Tourettes)…

Why on earth is this on YouTube?

“You can’t stick your finger in a live power point and not have something happen.”

June 4, 2010

YouTube Friday: Synch on this

Muse are consummate performers, so forcing them to lipsynch on national television isn’t a great move. An Italian television network made that demand, so the trio switched instruments, roles and places.

This wasn’t the first time they’d made fun of lip synching demands…


I’m hoping to get tickets to their Brisbane show when they go on sale on Monday.

June 4, 2010

XKCD on two pet topics

So I take a couple of days off blogging to write essays and XKCD produce strips on two of my favourite topics from yesteryear – disaster reporting, and the Nerd V Geek debate (as a Venn Diagram).


June 2, 2010

A signature dish

Unlike Ben, I’m sticking with MasterChef through thick and thin. Yes, the plate dropping incident was shark jumpingly contrived. Yes, George reminds me of the type of sports fan who throws “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” in to any pause in conversation, and yes, the product placement can be a little over the top, and yes, the contestants are all prima donnas who spout mangled sporting cliches about how this experience is life changing and elimination is but a small hurdle on the path to dream fulfillment… but it’s about food. So it’s compelling viewing.

Have you got a signature dish? What is it?

I like cooking curries. Some people have told me they like my Butter Chicken recipe, my wife has told me that the Beef Massaman I made this week is “my best curry ever”… so here’s my attempt to recreate the recipe for posterity’s sake… it’s designed to have leftovers – because curry is always better two days later.

Ingredients

  • Approx 400g of Rump Steak
  • A large onion
  • Crushed garlic (1 dessert spoon)
  • Two potatoes
  • One large tin of tomato soup, or a small tin of concentrate (plus an equal volume of water).
  • One standard sized tin of Coconut Cream
  • 100gm of butter
  • Curry Powder (to taste)
  • Turmeric (a pinch)
  • Cinnamon (a pinch)
  • Hungarian Sweet Paprika (two pinches)
  • Fish Oil (two teaspoons)
  • Brown sugar (a tablespoon)
  • Massaman curry paste (the type that comes in a jar)

Steps

  1. Slice the onion. Fry it on a low heat with the garlic, some olive oil and curry powder.
  2. Dice the potatoes, boil them till they’re soft.
  3. Mix the tomato soup, coconut cream, curry powder, paprika, cinnamon, and butter in a large pot. Keep it on a relatively high heat and stir until the ingredients are a nice smooth sauce.
  4. Add the onion and potato to the sauce.
  5. Add the brown sugar and fish oil.
  6. Mix the massaman paste in a frypan with a dash of olive oil. The jar probably says to fry it until you can smell it. Do that.
  7. Dice the steak. Add it to the frypan – coat the pieces liberally with the fried paste. Cook until the pieces are medium rare.
  8. Add the steak to the sauce.
  9. Simmer on low heat for 45 minutes.
  10. Serve with rice.

I’ll try following these steps again in a week or so to make sure I haven’t missed a step. But I think it’s all there. Tomato soup is a terrific base for cooking. I also use it in my Butter Chicken and Spaghetti Bolognese.

June 2, 2010

Bling for Jesus

Technically I should be writing this mammoth essay – but my friend Mika sent me this – and I can’t resist a rant.

Once upon a time I preached a sermon on Jesus sending the disciples out in pairs after his “harvest is plentiful, workers are few” sermon. He basically gave them authority to cast out demons and heal the sick in his name. I said that the instruction to evangelise was normative for Christians but that this gifting was specific to the apostles.

A dear sister from the congregation came up afterwards to correct me. On the basis of a bit of the Bible that pretty clearly is dubious. Mark 16:9ff. It’s a bit that comes with a note – in every version – that the earliest manuscripts don’t contain it, which should ring alarm bells. I’m ok with these passages being there – what I’m not ok with is people using them to create a point of difference with all other churches. Seriously, if you hold a minority position, at some point you’ve got to ask questions about the basis of that distinction. This well meaning lady pointed out that right there, in Mark 16:17, there’s what appears to be a promise that all who believe will have the ability to drive out demons, and in verse 18b there’s a promise that we’ll be able to heal the sick:

“17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;”

What she didn’t mention, and what I was incredibly tempted to point out, was that in between driving out demons and healing people there’s the idea that we should also be playing with snakes and drinking poison:

“18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

If these verses are authentic then it’s much more likely they describe Paul at the end of Acts (he gets bitten by a snake, and he heals people). They’re not the sort of verses I’d be turning into theme verses for my life. There are actually snake handling churches out there (mostly, I think, in the US). The way I’d want to use them, if I was inclined, would be to argue with the anti-alcohol lobby that this is in fact an exhortation to drink poison, and that such drinking is a sign of faith…

Here’s a video (that I haven’t watched)…

Which, tangentially, very tangentially, leads to my actual point about this jewelery service “Bling for Jesus“…

Bling for Jesus have taken Deuteronomy 6:5-6 and 6:8 and turned them into some sort of business model.

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts…
Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads”

This clearly means turn bible verses into bracelets and tiaras. Right? Leaving the theological problems aside, these things are just ugly:



June 2, 2010

Written in stone

The essay I’m working on currently requires the use of “primary sources” from Rome. This means reading a bunch of inscriptions which were either sycophantic pandering to the emperor or imperial bragging.

But this is cool. Next time somebody you’re talking to about what possible explanation there might be for Jesus body not being in the tomb on Easter Sunday here’s a piece of relevant Roman legislation.

Imperial edict – Date disputed (either Augustus, Tiberius or Claudius)
White marble stele – possibly form Nazareth

Edict of Caesar. It pleases me, in regard to graves and tombs, whoever has made them for the cult of ancestors, or children, or kinsmen, that these things remain undisturbed forever; and if someone reports that anyone has either destroyed or in any other way removed the buried dead or has moved them to other locations with evil intentions to the injustice of the buried dead or if the tombstones or stones have been moved, against a person of this sort I order that a trial be started, just as in the case of gods, just so for the cults of mortals. There will be much greater need to honour the buried dead. In general, nobody will have permission to move them; otherwise such a person will be liable to capital punishment on a charge of violation of sepulchre. This is my wish.

June 2, 2010

Can’t blog now, writing essays…

I will no doubt be caught up in moments of procrastination in the next two days… but it’s study week, and before I study for my exams I need to finish an essay.

I am intending to include the words milieu, and hegemony, in every essay I write this year. From this point on. Just because I like them.

Got any more words to throw into the pile?

May 31, 2010