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.

Anonenmity

Anonymous comments aren’t much fun for anyone. Unless they’re loaded with unintentionally funny vitriol. I can almost imagine how much fun this comment on Simone’s blog would have been to write. It’s from an old post of hers critiquing a Christian rewrite of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (which for those of you who are culturally arrogant is the same as Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah and the one on the Shrek Soundtrack). You can hear the Christian rewrite here. You can read the comment in its original context here. And you can indulge in a little bit of voyeurism by checking out Simone’s husband Andrew’s public but thoughtful disagreement with his wife on whether lacking cultural sophistication is sinful here.

Here’s the anonymous comment. Beautiful.

Ok, first of all, you do not know the first thing of what ‘christian’ means if you ever put it in quotes. so dont do it again.
second of all, if someone says “i just want,” you have no idea if that is true or not; just because you are selfish does not mean that everyone is.
lastly, there is no right or wrong in how you listen to music. i mean, that is the stupidest thing ive ever heard! why would there be music if poems would do? i am a recording artist and song composer, so i should know.

More Driscoll

I’ve just about had enough talking about Mark Driscoll for a while – so I’m sure you have too. But his latest post on his own blog is all about Mars Hill’s first interstate church plant – that will be a video campus and prompt changes to the Mars Hill video strategy. Only one campus will be getting his talks live – everyone else will get them a week later.

Here’s what Driscoll says about the video campuses – which is interesting. There’s no doubt his intentions for the expansion are for many people to be reached – but I still feel like that would be best achieved using real people.

In conclusion, I doubt our people will care much. The evidence shows that every one of our video campuses has higher membership, higher Community Group participation, and higher financial giving than the Ballard Campus where I preach live. Those people who comprise our video campuses tend to be most devoted to living sacrificially on mission as the church. Those who come to hear me preach in Ballard are a mix of lost people, committed servants, and Christian consumers who need to get on mission.

Since our video campuses are excelling at living missionally by bringing the gospel to neighborhoods around and now beyond Seattle, we are excited to be changing the sermon delivery method in order to allow more campuses to exist as quickly, cheaply, and effectively as possible.

Dear today show

It’s nice that you choose to promote a Channel 10 program in your morning breakfast program, but please note, in future, that there is no hereditary transition from father to daughter-in-law.

So Bob’s weightloss success does not “run in the family” just because his daughter-in-law Tiffany was runner up.

That is all.

Oh wait, no it’s not. This is probably an appropriate post to point out that the chef judge in MasterChef Australia is the king of the non sequitous segue. I’m going to keep a running count in the next episode I watch.

A bunch of links – April 29, 2009

Comic relief

There hasn’t been enough frivolity here today so I thought I’d share with you (if you haven’t already found it) the comic genius that is the Perry Bible Fellowship webcomic. Here’s a sample.

Coffee breath

If you drink as much coffee as I do you know there’s nothing more appealing than that stale coffee smell on your breath as you arrive at work. Well, now, thanks to this dental floss, you can carry that scent around with you all day… because that’s what we all want.

Moka Bot

Ever wanted a robot army? Me too. You can start building one (or purchasing one) by buying some from this guy – heaps of them use bits and pieces of coffee paraphernalia.

Lame segway

Why buy a pedal powered scooter when you can build a pedal powered segway?

Green debate humming along

The Green Debate continues. This fail blog post seemed too serendipitous to ignore. Join in. If you dare. I’d be particularly interested if anybody has time to actually read all the Bible verses Amy’s friend the pastor has submitted for consideration.

You know the drill

This makita ad went the hole way. The picture is made using more than 20,000 holes.

Gloomy mug

Here’s a mug for those of you struggling with overbearing optimism. Just $US9.95.

Poll lol

Turns out the Time Magazine poll was “pwned” by the 4Chan.org people. That’s as funny as Colbert getting his name on a Nasa spaceship…

K-Ruddy rating

K-Rudd has scored 114th place in an online Time Magazine “World’s Most Influential Person” survey. The guy who won was “Moot” – the founder of 4chan.org (the creators of LolCats).

For the ladies…

Well, mostly just for Stuss… She might like to see an article in the SMH that made the same case as her letter to the government.

Women, and in particular mothers, are harshly treated by Australia’s system. They are damned if they return to work after childbirth, and damned if they don’t.

Those who do, face high tax rates because of income tax incurred and welfare benefits withdrawn. Working just a few hours a week and earning $11,000 a year can mean mothers lose 56.5 cents in every dollar in tax and benefits.

But the longer women do not work, the longer they miss out on employer contributions to superannuation. Women’s super balances are woefully inadequate. Those aged 60 to 65 have saved a tiny average of $45,000, compared with men of the same age who have $130,000 stashed away. While mothers face punitive tax penalties for working, rich men receive generous tax concessions on their super payouts.

It’s a good article looking at one issue facing stay at home mums.

Most fantastic resignation letter ever.

I did post a picture of a guy who resigned via cake. But this guy’s efforts take the cake from that one. He’s a game developer who programmed a Mario level to end with his resignation note.

You can play it here.