Holidays are almost over. We’re back in civilisation today. We had lunch with Andrew and Simone.
Which reminds me of the news of some import that is worthy of note.
Last Monday we had our interview regarding candidacy with the Presbyterian Church of Queensland – we passed. We’ll, if all goes according to plan, be studying at QTC and working at Clayfield (with Andrew and Simone) next year.
Were still on holidays, but Ive got a blogging itch, which Im scratching using my iPhone while I sit in a church waiting for a wedding to start.
Were early because Robyn is an usher.
Ill return to normal posting over the weekend.
Someone wise (I cant remember who) once told me that you can tell what a church’s priority or point of difference is by what they have literally occupying centre stage. For some it’s the drum kit, for others a baptismal pool, and for others the pulpit.
Ive started paying attention when visiting churches, its quite telling.
In the spirit of my “let me google that for you” post recently, let me share with you another little piece of online etiquette that is bound to make you less annoying to friends, family, and coworkers.
It’s called Snopes.com. And it’s the place to go before sending on any forwarded warning/sob story/wealth generating chain letter.
If you send me a stupid forward about a missing child who needs prayer, or a sick kitten, and I find it on snopes, I am going to mercilessly call you out on your stupidity in the hope that you’ll learn your lesson. These letters are designed to clog up the Internet.
You don’t even have to go to snopes – a quick google will normally kill any stupid internet rumour.
Remember those really exciting little videos about technology these days? You know, the ones that boggle your mind with the sheer size and amount of information floating around. Figures like the ones in this picture (found here):
Here are a bunch of the videos, including a couple I hadn’t seen before, in one easy post. Watch them before your next dinner party.
I saw this watermelon art a couple of days ago – and it’s been floating around waiting to be posted (and possibly haunting me in my dreams since… seriously). There are more of these here. It makes my head hurt.
A while back I was trying to figure out the difference between nerds and geeks. My hypothesis is that the terms are not interchangeable. I think the matter is settled once and for all by this Venn Diagram…
Play Doh is one of those play things that has no doubt suffered because of the sheer awesomeness of modern toys. Have you seen the new Transformers toys?
Play Doh’s marketer obviously has – because this new campaign they launched in Singapore is pretty awesome. And edgy. Here are some of the print ads.
I deal with journalists frequently. They are often a cause of professional frustration. But it can be a tough job. Especially when your screw ups are very public, and live. Like these.
So you’re producing a movie. You want it to win an Oscar. Where should you set it? It’s one of life’s great questions.
A question finally answered by this infographic.
If you were writing a movie about the sugar industry you could set it in North Queensland, in Lucinda, and this title would then make sense.
These aren’t real (well, nobody sells them), but if they were they’d be deadly and awesome.
Found here.
The Jesus All About Life campaign is on in earnest – though it’s unlikely it’ll get much attention as far north as Townsville. Steve Kryger from Communicate Jesus had some insightful critiques of the campaign’s methodology. He copped a bit of flack for daring to stick his head up and say what anybody who thinks a bit about marketing (or works in the field) was already thinking.
My problem isn’t so much with the style of the campaign – I’ve got a problem with the substance.
I think we’re creating a generation of apathetic nominal Christians whose only knowledge of the Bible is John 3:16, and whose only knowledge of God is that he is loving. And all they have to do is “believe”.
I believe in lots of things that I don’t really care about, and if I use that understanding of the word and apply it to God, without reading the rest of the Bible then I can comfortably, and apathetically, rest assured that God and me are mates. And God is loving. So he’ll do right by me…
I don’t think there are many people stopping to think about what this loving God wants them to do with him past belief. And I don’t think “thank you Jesus for birds that look like they’re wearing pants” is the way to move people past that nominal point and into active Christian “belief” – that where thought is outworked, and where Jesus’ righteous place as Lord of our lives is realised.
Yes, God is loving. Yes, we do need to believe in him (as he actually is, not just that he is). But we need to move past that in our marketing campaigns – every marketing campaign needs a call to action. The call shouldn’t be “be thankful for…(whatever makes a nice postcard)” it should be something that enhances the understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
In our marketing at work part of what we’re aiming to do is “sell the sizzle, not the sausage” – which is what you do in a crowded marketplace like tourism where every customer already knows they’re looking for a holiday but haven’t necessarily chosen where. You can’t do this with Christianity. People need to better understand what goes in our sausage before we even try selling it.
UPDATE: Steve Kryger has posted some research that led the campaign in the direction it went in. It makes for interesting reading – basically the people behind the campaign found that people have negative thoughts about Christianity (particularly secular humanists) and they wanted to move away from “traditional” advertising…
“At a more fundamental level, non-Christians tend to reject the idea of ‘one truth’ as a divisive concept that is to blame for much of the conflict in the world today, and that clashes with the secular humanist ideal of taking personal responsibility for lifestyle choices and interpersonal values.”
I don’t get it. The gospel is no good because we can’t sell it?
I maintain my hypothesis that the gospel is less effective because we’ve spent so long selling it so badly. And pulling out the important bits in a bid to not be offensive (I guess reacting against the “turn or burn” fire and brimstone preachers of the previous generation) doesn’t seem to be a greatly effective strategy.
Never let it be said that any content is beneath me…
Everybody needs prank poo in a can right? This must be the biggest untapped market ever. And now it’s filled. You can buy it here. It’s even scented.
I don’t think this is going to be featured on Cool Tools any time soon.
Everyone loves a good burger. For the record you can buy the best hamburger in Townsville at the Cactus Jack’s Saloon Bar on Flinders Street. BP Cluden’s burgers are good. But they pale in comparison to the Cactus burger. Which pales in comparison to this world record winning effort (from this is why you’re fat).
That’s a Guinness World Record Book winner.
In honour of that effort here’s a burger bed you can’t buy…
And a burger cushion set that you can…
Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.
When I have children this is going to be part of the daily dining ritual. This is an apparently famous little social experiment. The kids get two marshmallows if they can not eat the first one for a few minutes.
I reckon the game would be more fun if you didn’t let the kid have the first marshmallow after they waited. That would be a life lesson.
I also want to teach my children that red is blue – like one of my friends did to her little brother (I can’t remember the colours she used).
