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.

Giving notice

I was a little bit surprised that so many people spoke out in defense of announcements at church. I want to be clear that I’m talking about things that are generally covered in the “news” section of a church bulletin, and hopefully these days the church’s website and Facebook page*.

Announcements are dead wood. They should be cut. Like a pine forest. They should just be printed on literal dead wood.

I don’t buy into the whole “seeker sensitive” style service where everything is run for visitors and the people who are part of the church family are ignored. But if you’re spending 10 minutes reading out the handout that everybody is holding already** that’s 10 minutes of wasted time. You could, though I wouldn’t, fit three more songs or one long prayer in that time. There are myriad things that can be done in ten minutes that are more beneficial to church life than boring advertisements for things that are no doubt already boringly described in your boring newsletter.

You know what happens when church is boring – people fall out of windows and die. And Paul isn’t going to pop in and resurrect the poor souls that expire during your overly long promo of the church working bee.

* Here are some great tips from Mikey for how churches (and in fact any organisation) should use Facebook. He’s much better equipped than me to comment on this matter… I’ve only got 27 fans on my Facebook fan page after a week of relentless self promotion… you could become one now. It would make me feel special…

Here are some more Facebook friendly resources I found through Church Marketing Sucks… an e-book called “Facebook for Pastors” and a set of general principles on using Facebook for your business.

**And while I’m on that note – what’s with churches (not just ours, though it’s guilty here) being so miserly about the number of handouts they print. One per couple? Per day? Are you serious? My attendance isn’t worth 5 cents to you? You’re expecting me to “give generously” when the offering comes around and yet I have to share the handout…

I also miss handouts with sermon outlines written in them.

October 14, 2009

On simplicity

A nice reminder that perhaps you don’t need to pad your product or service with every feature imaginable.

This is how I think church services should be approached too. Get rid of the clutter and noise (like announcements) and just do the essentials.

From stuffthathappens.

October 13, 2009

A trick of the light…

Look at this picture up close, and then look at it from a few metres away. I’m not sure this is an application Einstein considered when studying light.

From bits and pieces.

This one you can just look at up close…

From Neatorama.

October 13, 2009

Sign language: Friend request

Some church signs – like the famous St Barneys sign (that prompted a tit for tat with a pub) – start discussions amongst people, which I am sure they’re meant to do.

Some are stupid and do the church (locally and universally) a disservice.

I remember around election time in Brisbane a few years ago a church had “give to God what is right not what is left”.

Sadly I can’t tell if I like these or not – what say you readers?

From here.

October 12, 2009

Title fit – I felt it

Palindromes are cool.

Here are 886 of them.

Your homework is to use these to write a palindromic haiku in the comments…

October 12, 2009

Poles apart

Today I didn’t blog much. You’ve noticed right?

Today was one of those days. One of those days that reminds me why it is I love my job.

This week I’m coordinating a photo shoot, so today I took a bunch of friends from church (and my wife, who doesn’t work on Mondays) to Magnetic Island.

We went for a bush walk, to a resort pool, to lunch at the island’s flashest restaurant, and to a backpackers hostel/wildlife park where our eight models were mobbed by rainbow lorikeets. It was pretty scary. For them.

Hilarious for onlookers. I’ll post a photo when we get them…

Tomorrow I’m off to a cattle station for an “outback” experience.

October 12, 2009

Pretty fly art

The internet is abuzz with this cool collection of dead fly art. And why wouldn’t it be. It’s so dazzlingly simple.

October 10, 2009

Pay it forward Japanese style

Kottke.org linked to this guy’s Japanese holiday story about a cool cafe concept.

They guy bought an orange juice – and was given an apple cider and bag of lollies… he was confused, and asked the cafe staff what had happened. The cafe had this rule”

At this cafe, you get what the person before you ordered. The next person gets what you ordered.

Which is pretty bizarre.

Before they left the guys who found this place got into the spirit of things.

“Mike went up to the cafe, slapped down a couple thousand yen (~$25), and ordered a little bit of everything: some ice cream, some snacks, some candy, some drinks, a Japanese horn-of-mysterious-plenty intentionally set up as a shocking surprise for the next lucky customer. (After his order, Mike received single iced coffee.)

As we walked away from the cafe, with just the right amount of delay, we heard an extremely excited “arigato goazimasu!! thank you so much!!” yelled in our direction, from an ecstatic mom and her equally excited young son. They truly appreciated the surprise.”

Here’s a translation of the rules from the cafe…

  1. Let’s treat the next person. What to treat them with? It’s your choice.
  2. Even if it’s a group of friends or a family, please form a single-file line. Also, you can’t buy twice in a row.
  3. Please enjoy what you get, even if you hate it. (If you really, really hate it, let’s quietly give it to another while saying, “It’s my treat…”)
  4. Let’s say “Thank You! (Gochihosama)” if you find the person with your Ogori cafe card.
  5. We can’t issue a receipt.

October 10, 2009

Sing for your supper

Al Dente is the all singing, all dancing, king of the pasta pot. Chuck him in the water with your pasta and he’ll sing when it’s ready.

You can get your own little Al here – he’ll cost you three tenners.

October 9, 2009

A project for the weekend

If you’re not doing anything this weekend you could try to make this rubber band machine gun. Or this machine rubber band gun… either way it’ll be great fun going back to work with this on Monday…

October 9, 2009

Out on a limb

Am I the only person who likes to pick complex words with xs and other uncommon letters when playing hangman?

I thought this picture was funny. But I’m not sure why…

I thought this one from Flickr was pretty good too…

October 9, 2009

Traffic jam

It seems I’m not alone in being inundated with traffic. Over at City on a Hill Jeff asked if Christians should be defending marriage – ie the traditional definition of marriage. I thought it was an interesting question, so I threw in my two cents and left. Unfortunately I left before the fun started.

Jeff was featured on the WordPress.com homepage and he got quite few comments. They make for interesting reading… one American guy suggested doing away with the separation of church and state.

You should read Jeff’s blog – his posts are bite sized, like meals at a fine restaurant.

October 9, 2009

Urgent assistance required

My pet scammer has asked for ten bible verses to include in photographs. Suggestions please…

UPDATE – these are the verses I’m sending…

1. Hosea 11:1 – “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”
2. Jeremiah 13:23 – “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”
3. Acts 8:27 – “So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship.”
4. Job 30:30 – “My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever.”
5. Zechariah 6:6 – “The one with the black horses is going toward the north country, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.”
6. Acts 19:10 – “This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.”
7. Job 36:31 – “This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance.”
8. Psalm 18:49 – “Therefore I will praise you among the nations, O LORD; I will sing praises to your name.”
9. Leviticus 19:11 – “’Do not steal. ” ‘Do not lie. ” ‘Do not deceive one another.”
10. Deuteronomy 14:19 – “All flying insects that swarm are unclean to you; do not eat them.”

October 8, 2009

Darting off

Once upon a time I got quite upset when my housemates played darts inside. In a house where I was the only person on the lease… In memory of that auspicious occasion here are some dart coat hooks.

October 8, 2009

A place to hang your hood

If perchance you purchased the ninja suit I linked to back here and have been looking for an appropriate implement to store it… then look no further than these shuriken coat hooks.

October 8, 2009