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.

A bunch of links – June 10, 2009

June 10, 2009

Polar expedition


Last weekend Hilton and Justina (Robyn’s sister and her husband) came up to visit. It was a surprise (for Robyn).

We went to Magnetic Island for a day.

Stopping at the region’s best restaurant – the Barefoot Art Food Wine, and getting all tropical with a coconut… Here are some photos – and here is a photo summary of the day.

How to eat a coconut

Step 1. Find a coconut

Step 2. Find a big stick and whack the coconut to remove the outer shell

Step 3. Remove the husk – this is a three person job

Step 4. Retrieve your big stick and split the coconut. 

Step 5. Eat the coconut

June 10, 2009

OCC Episode 2

I was asked in the last post whether I was aware the audio was so out of sync – no, I wasn’t. But I don’t think it makes much difference given the production values are what they are…

Also, I make no apologies for the terrible voice overs – we were on a budget.

June 10, 2009

WWJS

Some churches just don’t get it. Particularly American churches – or at least in the case of the American churches I’m about to write about…

Just over a week ago a prominent late term abortionist was shot while attending his church. Those who are anti-abortion will no doubt not be grieving this loss as much as others – but most churches have been quick to condemn the killing (or at least to distance themselves from it).

Not these two…

The first, a church in Kentucky, is having an “open carry celebration day” – they want parishioners to bring their guns to church. Here’s what their “pastor” Ken Pagano has to say:

“As a Christian pastor I believe that without a deep-seeded belief in God and firearms that this country would not be here.”

Speaking about those objecting to his planned celebration he said:

“I understand their concerns and I applaud them for their expression because the whole point of this is to promote the First and Second Amendments.”

While he may not have made the link to the shooting directly – the journalist did – a link from the story’s intro takes you to the story about the killing.

Then there are those that have glorified in the killing…

I’m sure this is not the sort of commentary the church should be making about current events… nor the kind of mission Jesus gave us in the great commission.

But I propose, in order to take money out of the hands of these dangerous people, that we launch a range of Christian merchandise in the WWJS line – who/what would Jesus shoot… the money raised can be redirected to appropriate organisations like the Red Cross.

June 10, 2009

Where there’s fire, there’s smoke

One of my old QUT lecturers reckons the Gordon Ramsay v Tracy Grimshaw feud is either a set up or being exploited by Channel Nine. I’m not so sure – but it could just be a smoke and mirrors ratings grab… he makes an interesting case.

Dr Jason Sternberg, a media lecturer at QUT, said with A Current Affair and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares both being Channel Nine programs, it was possible the whole controversy had been set up in advance.

“A cynic would suggest it was contrived, that there are some pretty clever PR people out there,” Dr Sternberg said.

“And you’re dealing with A Current Affair, so it’s safe to be cynical. They are the masters of underhanded and dirty tactics.

“I would not be surprised (if it was), but there’s no evidence to suggest that.”

June 10, 2009

Church sharing financial misery

There’s been a bit of online chatter about the impact that the financial crisis is going to have on churches – the Sydney Anglican Diocese is perhaps going to wear the consequences more than anywhere else – which is sad, given that they train and resource most evangelical ministries in Australia in some capacity.*

“THE world’s richest and largest Anglican diocese has lost more than $100 million on the sharemarket and is investigating ways to cut programs and ministries across Sydney.”

According to the SMH the losses have been compounded by the fact they borrowed to invest.

“The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, has written to clergy warning that the global financial crisis has caused significant losses. He said the diocese had borrowed money to invest and used the profits to build churches in 2007.”

In hindsight it’s easy to throw stones at that strategy – but is this ever “good stewardship” – the SMH headline makes accusations of “gambling” – which would seem inconsistent with their approach to investment in the business section.

*Though in my opinion too much stays in Sydney (this is purely to preempt accusations of backflipping following the discussion with Izaac a few weeks back…

June 10, 2009

YouTube Toosday: Wiilax

Perhaps inspired by the “bed goes up, bed goes down” hospital bed – this beanbag is controlled by the whimsical waving of a wiimote. Here’s the original concept drawing…

Beautiful. Applied science. The laziest piece of furniture evolution ever. Amazing.

And you can make your own – thanks to Make Magazine.

The designers called it “the Beancat”…

“The Beancat is an all-wheel drive, battery powered bean bag chair, controlled by a Wii nunchuk. Getting a drink from the fridge has never been so much fun. The low profile drive, frame and controlling hardware are completely concealed so at first glance it’s just a simple bean bag.”

Here’s how you can make your own – complete with detailed diagrams.

June 9, 2009

Lights, camera, action

Police should spend more time providing deterrents to people who speed and less time pulling them over for “allegedly” running stop signs.

They should install these billboards everywhere…

Found here.

June 9, 2009

Shirt of the Day: Under Construction

Tetris+T-Shirt=blog synergy.

You should buy this. Most definitely.

June 9, 2009

Good yarn

What is it with Etsy users and macabre toys? I can’t complain too much – they’re great blog fodder… sadly this particular item is sold out, but there are other similar products available.

Found here.

June 9, 2009

Bacon breath

It’s probably the wrong time to be posting this with swine flu hysteria floating in the breeze… but how good would it be to always have bacon breath. Everybody loves the smell and taste of freshly cooked bacon – so why not grab these two bacon accessories and share the love…

Bacon Lip Balm

Bacon Chewing Gum

June 9, 2009

YouTube Twosday: Turtle power

Little sister number 2 is 21 today. It’s her actual birthday. She is contemplating a pet turtle as a present from the parentals – here’s a little bit of persuasive multimedia propaganda… featuring our crazy ninja turtle Frankie.

June 9, 2009

A bunch of links – June 9, 2009

June 9, 2009

YouTube Tuesday: The OCC Episode 1

A few years ago two jaded young Christian males (myself included) sat down to write a highly cynical depiction of Christian dating in the context of Christian camps. It was called “The OCC” – the Obligatory Camp Crush. It’s now on YouTube. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in a sick day. I’ll be putting them up in a serial fashion – probably daily. But if you’re the impatient type feel free to head on over to YouTube and check them all out.

I don’t know about you – but I reckon it stands the test of time. Despite the obvious Queensland in jokes. It is set at an Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) Mid Year Camp (MYC) – camps famous for bringing students from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the University of Queensland (UQ) together.

There was an epilogue of sorts that I’ll need to track down, and a trailer produced using Lego that I similarly don’t have on hand.

This was an “Everybody’s Second Favourite Segment” production by Phil Enchelmaier and myself. Stay tuned for more such awesomeness from our past…

June 9, 2009

Stable mates

Gordon Ramsay made a bit of a splash by insulting his Channel Nine compatriot Tracy Grimshaw. This can go one of two ways – the “all publicity is good publicity” way will keep him in the public eye and generate some buzz for his new restaurant – he can appear to be bravely raging against the network machine, or, he gets hammered by the press, loses his slots on Channel Nine, his restaurant fails and his star fades. So far it’s looking like heading down the latter path.

It was either a gross tactical error or the start of a Symondesque piece of career sabotage.

What he said wasn’t nice. It was a purile bid for some “sensational” media coverage. He’s gone the way of the Chaser, and thus been “unfanned” on my Facebook profile.

Picking on your colleagues at a television network is an odd move. But, and I’m not in anyway condoning the treatment Grimshaw received, she’d be hypocritical to make that point after her editorialising the Matthew Johns saga the way she did. There are no doubt some Matthew Johns fans feeling pretty smug today.

I saw Ramsay on the Today Show on Friday morning and he was pretty rude there too, perhaps he’s sick of the constant cross promotion he’s been forced to do on his tour.

June 9, 2009