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.

On commenting on other blogs

Sometimes when I am a bit bored, or have some spare time up my sleeve, I choke up my browser by opening up people’s blogs and work my way through them commenting on the post at the top of the page. I don’t comment on every blog I open – but most of the comments I make in that vein are pretty vacuous and I don’t tend to return to continue the discussion or see if they’ve been replied to. But I do like you, all the people who write blogs I read. And I appreciate your efforts in distracting me from my sometimes mundane workplace existence. Here’s my blog link list from the left hand column of my page – if you’re a reader and I haven’t listed you – let me know. I have no doubt forgotten somebody…

If you don’t already read some of these people – you should, they’ll no doubt say interesting stuff.

April 27, 2009

Hostile unity

Hillsong has taken over the Garden City Church today. They were voted in by the members – but not cleanly. According to Ten news anyway…

It raises an interesting question about how much ownership a minister should have over their flock – and whether churches should ever be considered a “commodity” – surely Hillsong could simply have purchased their own block of land rather than launching a wholesale takeover.

If I were the current minister I’d be feeling a little ripped off having been turfed out just because a Sydney brand wanted somewhere to expand.

April 26, 2009

Losing the Passion

Seems Mel Gibson’s love for and obedience to God only extends to gorily glorifying the cross. Not to holding faithful to marriage vows.

I wonder whether this will cause negative publicity or a crisis of faith to the Catholic Church – and particularly the Catholic sect he belongs to. It can’t be a good thing.

It brings up a question that I’ve considered in the past – how much should we, as Christians, celebrate the art made by anyone in a “Christian phase” – for example Billy Corgan, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave or Mel Gibson… particularly if form suggests it won’t last, is fleeting, or their lives and doctrine aren’t matching.

April 26, 2009

Primary producers

I’ve been thinking a bit about preaching lately. Mostly in the course of producing my own sermons – but also as I listen to others.

One of the principles of journalism is trying to get as close to the primary source on a story as possible – a story is much more convincing if you’re dealing with someone with authority.

I think preachers need to be more careful to be pursuing the primary source – and not necessarily acknowledging sources for anything else. I guess I’m particularly referring to quoting other ministers, preachers, commentaries or texts that aren’t written with scriptural authority. For example, John Piper might have some important things to say about an issue – and it’s fine to use his thoughts and understandings of a passage to shape your message – but attributing quotes to him will only carry weight if everybody in your audience knows who he is. And ultimately your best bet is to just say what the person has said without mentioning it. At least from a communication and persuasion standpoint. If you’re really keen to give the author of the quote appropriate attribution and credit then introduce them properly as someone noteworthy to give their statement the appropriate gravitas. Fleeting name drops don’t serve anybody adequately.

April 26, 2009

Planely speaking

This is one of those inventions that has been waiting in the wings for years. The inventor must be a rocket scientist… ok, enough, you’ve got to know when to hold them, and when to fold them.

And thanks goes to the consistently cool bookofjoe.com for tracking it down.
Buy it here.

April 26, 2009

Textbook geek

Nice to know I’m not actually a geek according to this scientifically proven anatomical diagram.

April 26, 2009

Melting moment

If you’re going to holiday in the tropics in the summer you can look the part with these melting sunglasses. Found here.

April 26, 2009

My old old man

We’re in Brisbane this weekend to celebrate dad’s 50th (which was a couple of weeks ago). I made this video. It’s now on YouTube.

Happy belated birthday dad.

April 26, 2009

A bunch of links – April 26, 2009

April 26, 2009

Self Help Books for Dummies – Getting published

Getting a self-help book published is also fairly easy. Because of the size of the self-help market selling your book to publishers is like shooting fish in a barrel. The smaller the niche your book fits into is the smaller the barrel, or conversely the larger the fish. It’s important to pick the right publisher for your book. If you’re an aspiring novelist it may be worth holding on to your manuscript till one of the larger publishing companies shows interest. When this happens try to structure your deal to include a guarantee that the company will also publish your novel. Don’t be afraid to strike a hard bargain with the publisher, all they see when they’re dealing with you is the dollar signs. They can often be blinded by their greed.

A publishing company executive signing a multiple book deal with a self help book writer

April 26, 2009

The plane truth

We were on a plane this morning. In an exit row. I am constantly astounded by their ready availability. Don’t people ask for them? Other than me? That’s all you have to do… ask when checking in.

I’m also struck by a couple of other things about the airline industry that I’m going to record for posterity’s sake. The new $10 fee for luggage (because that’s what it is – it’s not a $10 discount for not having luggage) is surely an incentive for people to fill up the previously under used overhead storage areas. They are chockers now. They’re full of baggage from people avoiding the penalty by stuffing everything into slightly oversized backpacks and sneaking them past the check in people. It does nothing for the net weight of the plane – all it does is reduce the need for baggage handling at the other end, and makes check in less labour intensive.

Secondly, or perhaps thirdly, planes are yet to catch up with the obesity epidemic. This may not be a new thing – particularly when applied to the size of the seats and charging fat people proportionately, or on some sort of pro-fata rate. But there are some serious design and safety flaws with the emergency exits. I hadn’t noticed before Robyn pointed it out – but there’s no way a fat person is squeezing through one of those holes without a large degree of lubrication unless their flesh is particularly malleable.

So there you have it. Reflections born of a 5am awakening and a 6am departure.

April 25, 2009

Self Help Books for Dummies – The Cover

The old saying holds true, you can judge a book by its cover, especially a self-help book. When it comes to designing the cover for a self-help book it’s helpful to throw any artistic taste out the window. Bright colours and lots of lines at different angles are important when it comes to making your book stand out on the shelves of the bookshop. You don’t want your book to be buried in a sea of boring book covers, you want it to stand out like a pink neon sign in a black and white movie. Self-help book covers are one place where sticking out like a sore thumb or being a sunflower in a field of lavender is a good thing. It’s also important that your name feature prominently on the front cover.
The back cover of a self-help book is just as important. Readers of self-help books like to check who has been helped by either the book or its author in the past. It’s a good idea to have some positive quotes from well-known people or something quotable from a review your book received in the press. This doesn’t have to be the real press as it’s almost unverifiable. You could just send a letter to the editor of a really small newspaper that publishes everything and use your own quote, but only do this if you get really desperate.


An artist’s impression of the ideal book cover…

April 25, 2009

A bunch of links – April 24, 2009

April 24, 2009

Networking: It’s all about meating people

Another day, another business card post. For some people networking is all about exchanging details and adding people to your spam list Rolodex.

We start with 100% beef jerky, and SEAR your contact information into it with a 150 WATT CO2 LASER.

Screw die-cutting. Forget about foil, popups, or UV spot lamination. THESE business cards have two ingredients:
MEAT AND LASERS.

Sound awesome and too good to be true? It probably is. But here’s the site. Here’s where I found it.

April 24, 2009

Proud brother

I’m often very proud of my sisters – all three of them. Today it’s little sister number 3’s turn. If you buy a Courier Mail you’ll find her on page 24 – and if you head to the dawn service at the Gaythorne RSL tomorrow morning you’ll hear her bugling. She’s playing my great grandfather’s bugle. The story is not online – but here’s a copy of the photo.

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April 24, 2009