Ninjas in the Bible
Image Credit: Flickr
Two of the passages I’ve been preparing for exams this semester have made me ponder a theology of ninjas. Some might say it’s anachronistic to read ninjas back into the pages of the Bible. But Ninjas are everywhere. Check out this passage from Isaiah 49…
“He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
and concealed me in his quiver.”
Ninja. Right. And let us not forget Ehud. The Left Handed Ninja Assassin.
No convinced? How about this… ninjas were also out to get Jesus. Luke 20:20-21.
“Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”
Which doesn’t look like much at face value, but in the Greek it reads:
“So they watched him and sent those hired to lie in wait who acted/pretended to be sincere…”
The word acted/pretended is the word we derive hypocrite from. But these guys were hired to lie in wait, blending into their surroundings, before striking. Ninjas.
Thunderstruck: a timelapse video of storm clouds a brewin’
I like clouds. I like timelapse. So it stands to reason that I’d like a timelapse video of clouds and would spend ten minutes of productive essay writing time watching this video. This gets all heavy and scary at about the eight minute mark.
Hector Thunderstorm Project from Murray Fredericks on Vimeo.
The many faces and emotions of Keanu Reeves
Sad Keanu is sad. But Keanu is an actor capable of such dynamism and range.
Here’s a guide to acting like Keanu.
Via Philip McGann.
Let this not be understood as a criticism of the third or fourth most awesome person in Hollywood.
Magical “cut chair” not just a chip off the old block
I would like six of these please.
Pretty clever. Here’s how it works (sorry to spoil the illusion).
Music to study to: Jinja Safari
So, on Saturday night, despite having been kicked about a thousand times in a game of soccer on Saturday we went to see Boy and Bear play the last show of their sold out Australian tour. They were good. But probably the real highlight was seeing support act Jinja Safari. Who brought so much energy to the stage. It was amazing. Very jungle drumesque. Shades of Vampire Weekend’s global fusion style replete with incredibly fast lyrics. I love a band with a drummer and a percussionist. Actually, I think I described them (to the chagrin of one of the guys there with us who doesn’t believe in comparing bands) as Architecture in Helsinki meets Vampire Weekend.
Fun.
Oh. And they had a sitar.
A plea for the Australian Christian Lobby to get “on message”
In my time as a PR hack for a regional lobby group one of the golden rules I learned for lobbying via the media (or for trying to change opinion via the media) is to stay on message. Over and over again. Make sure you get your point across. Make sure the questions you get asked become opportunities to give the answers you want to give. Done well, this is brilliant. A good message (or platform) is important.
We all hate the way modern politicians seem to simply repackage the same sound bite over and over again in broadcast interviews. When they do it, and get caught out, they look dumb. But most of the time they don’t get caught out. Because journalists, in reality, are after an eight second sound bite. And you’re much better off making sure that eight seconds is going to cover the message you want them to cover, not the message they want to cover. Being mindlessly on message is better than talking about things without being on message.
The best way to be on message is to know how your message, or more correctly, your platform, relates to the issue at hand. For a politician that doesn’t mean banging on about “creating jobs” or “stopping boats” it means giving reasons that the policy decision has been reached in a way that is attractive to a voter. A good way to do this is to involve real people. People like stories about people. But integrating one’s party platform with one’s media statement in a way that is catchy and repeatable is one step towards using the media effectively.
It can be hard being on message in the middle of a broadcast interview, and especially hard if it’s in the form of a debate, which has been the case in many of Wendy Francis’ recent TV appearances. But it is incredibly easy to be on message in a media release, and if a media release isn’t on message it shouldn’t be released, because anything you say that is not on message is a distraction from your real message. Let me repeat that in bold.
If a media release isn’t on message it shouldn’t be released, because anything you say that is not on message is a distraction from your real message.
Unless you have some sort of key performance indicator that involves distributing a certain number of releases per month, or some sort of contractual obligation, you should only put out releases that have a point. If you do have such KPIs or obligations you should seriously consider changing them. Nothing is more damaging than a brand than irrelevant and confusing messaging. Because when you have something valuable to say you’re either less credible, or a story will make reference to your previous position on an unrelated issue, or people just won’t listen to you because you’ve become the proverbial boy crying wolf.
Which brings me to the Australian Christian Lobby. And my big problem with how they do PR and how they’re almost never “on message”. Well, they’re not on “gospel” message anyway. A simple yardstick for being on message for a Christian Lobby would be talking about Jesus, wouldn’t it? Given that Jesus puts the Christ in Christian and is the leader of our political party, and that all our interactions with culture should be framed by the relationship we have with him by grace, and his Lordship over the world… I’d say Jesus is pretty foundational to Christian belief, and thus, Christian lobbying.
But not according to the Australian Christian Lobby. Now. A lot of the releases they put out in the Month of May are about good stuff. Serious issues. Issues where a Christian voice is valuable and necessary. And they get copious media coverage. They are nominally the spokespeople for the Christian cause in Australia. They keep getting wheeled out in front of cameras and recorders and notepads. And they keep straying off message. It’s foundational stuff.
Here’s a wordle of their media releases from May. I’ve removed the names of spokespeople quoted because they were a dominant feature.*
Now. You may think it’s unfair to take a sample of media releases about issues where they are on message about a response to an issue which may over cloud mentions of Jesus, word cloud wise. Which would be fair enough. But none of these releases actually mentioned Jesus. There is no flavouring of the gospel involved. Defenders of the ACL in recent days have mentioned that we’re called to be salt and light. Fair enough. But this isn’t even salty stuff. And, lest you think that just picking the word “Jesus” isn’t fair, I conducted the same exercise with the words gospel, God, and Bible. And got no results. Search results on their website reveal that most mentions of Jesus come in mentions of the Jesus: All About Life campaign, which they support.
A media messaging strategy for a Christian organisation of any flavour, but particularly a public voice of Christianity claiming to speak for all of us (they’re not called the Politically conservative Christians from Australia Lobby are they…), should fundamentally involve the issue that Christians of all flavours agree on. The Lordship of Jesus. Further, they should be motivated to see other people acknowledge that Lordship. While addressing injustice is a fundamental Christian activity, doing it in a manner so removed from our motivation is an off message distraction. This is why I think Christians who are interested in moral issues should form some sort of family/morality lobby (maybe stop the charade that Family First is a political party and turn them into a lobby group) and the Christian Lobby should get on with being a Christian voice (a role they try to claim for themselves on their about us page without actually mentioning Jesus, or the gospel, again). They claim a Christian “worldview” and yet don’t articulate it. A Christian worldview must start at the foot of the cross and work outwards, not start with morality and work inwards. The cross makes morality make sense.
Here’s what I think a Christian media strategy should look like, from 1 Peter 3:
15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
At the moment the ACL is failing on most counts, but still copping the slander. Why not do the first bit well, at least then you’re being slandered for a reason. And you’re not distracting people from the work of the gospel.
Interestingly, one of the few pages on the ACL site that mentions Jesus (that’s not a daily summary of news from around the traps) is an article they’ve posted from Sydney Anglicans where Michael Jensen talks about Jesus and the gospel alongside gay marriage. He integrates his key message with a response to an issue.
Deviations from the message of Jesus are a distraction from the gospel. But the message of Jesus has relevance to all areas and issues of society. The ACL, at this stage, aren’t doing a great job of integrating these two concepts.
*Data Source: Australian Christian Lobby National Media Releases from the Month of May:
- MR: Abusive language and cyberbullying inappropriate in debate about sexualisation of children through outdoor advertising
- MR: People power wins in removing offending ads
- MR: Bi-partisan consensus on marriage threatened by ALP Left’s conference motion
- MR: Euthanasia undermines palliative care, not complements it
- MR: Draft R18+ computer game guidelines fail families
- MR: Apartheid comment inappropriate for marriage debate
- MR: Australia must pressure Egyptian Government to protect Christians
- MR: Budget aid boost welcome, charities’ tax a worry
- MR: ACL welcomes budget funding for school chaplains
- MR: Case for taxing charities in budget not made
- MR: ACL backs Government on asylum seeker swap
- MR: ACL urges Government to implement Gambling Reform Committee’s recommendations
- MR: ACL welcomes bi-partisan recognition of the problem of sexualisation of children
- MR: Labor should not dance to Greens’ tune on back-door bill for same-sex marriage
Campbell’s Law for Christian Debates on the Internet
Naming a law after yourself is probably right up there with giving yourself a nickname ie not cool and it never really sticks… but I’ve been thinking about the conversations I’ve been having with different people from various points in the Christian spectrum on a couple of issues lately and I’d like to propose what I think is the Christian equivalent of Godwin’s Law.
Godwin’s Law states:
“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1 (100%).”
Campbell’s law states:
“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving the Pharisees or legalism approaches 1 (100%).”
Thus, as with Godwin, so with Campbell, such transgressions lead to an automatic loss in any argument.
Lets face it, the law doesn’t need to be named after me, but there’s something similar going on here… “you’re like the guys who killed the king of the Jews” should carry about as much argumentative weight as “you’re like Hitler.” Though, as with Godwin, so with Campbell, there are times when such comparisons are appropriate (with Godwin I’d say these are limited to genocide, with the Pharisees I’d say it can be legitimate when people are acting like pharisees).
That is all (except to say that I’ve already coined a law before).
Funny people talking about being funny
If you ever think of yourself as “funny” and you don’t edit your work constantly (ie you just keep using the same material). Then listen to these funny people on the nature of writing and performing standup (language warning).
A lot of good preachers say stand up comedy is important to preaching. I agree. In a limited sense. Preaching isn’t comedy, but there are very few other careers where people make a living out of standing up and talking.
There are four parts to this. They get progressively cruder, but there’s some gold for preachers there. Know your big idea for everything you say, where you want the audience to get to, and make sure they get the point so it doesn’t bomb. Work hard at having a good package for special occasions because new people might be hearing you for the first time. It’s not your job to say things the audience could come up with by themselves, you’re there to stretch them… know how long to go for. Jerry Seinfeld also has an interesting position on swearing (he doesn’t) as a comic because he says people are only laughing because of the shock – not because of the material – which is a good message for anybody who wants to shock from the pulpit to cover over for preparation or content.
Thoughts on filibusters
The other day in the NSW parliament the Greens played a game that either was an incredible waste of tax payers money and a deliberate attempt to undermine democracy, or a brilliant piece of gamesmanship.
A Green spoke for almost 6 hours. Straight. One speech. He talked about dragons. He was hoping time would run out on a decision, or that the government would have to cut off debate so that they could then accuse the government of being undemocratic.
It’s called a filibuster. Which is a cool word. It’s a bit like a losing football (soccer) team keeping the ball to waste time when the score is 4-0. Trying to minimise damage.
The government put a halt to things. I would too if I had to listen to any politician talk for longer than an hour.
Mad Skillz: How to plant a church in a new(ish) community
Andrew Millsom is a college buddy of mine planting a new church with my old church in Townsville, Willows Presbyterian. His church is called Northside Presbyterian and it is a new church in a new suburb in Townsville, North Queensland. One of Australia’s fastest growing cities. Townsville is an amazing place full of amazing gospel opportunities. This new church is in Townsville’s Northern Beaches area, so if you live nearby, and you’re looking for a family friendly church. Check. it. out. They also have great coffee (supplied by me – you too can buy coffee for your home, business, or church).
These are some of Andrew’s thoughts almost nine months in (though the plant is the product of years of preparation from the Willows perspective, and it launched in January, Andrew moved to Townsville towards the end of last year).
I’m not your hairy-chested, Mark Driscoll type church planter, but still I think I’ve learned some things. Here’s a sample.
1. A hand-picked core group is great.
If you come to Northside you’ll see something that looks a lot like normal church. But it’s what you won’t see that matters – you won’t see people sniping at each other, fighting, forming cliques, or complaining about stuff that isn’t being done their way. And you won’t realise that almost everyone there is in a small group and desires to serve in some way. All this makes the day-to-day work of church planting a lot easier. And Northside is like this because the core group was hand picked.
2. Just because you plant a church doesn’t mean new people will come.
This might sound obvious but sometimes we’re tempted to think this way. Sure the church is good, sure it doesn’t have some of the ‘baggage’ of an established church, sure it really is a church worth coming to. But if people don’t know you’re there, they can’t come. You need to put effort into getting your name out there.
3. The basics remain the basics.
The important things stay the same whether you’re in an established church or a church plant – teaching the Bible, welcoming newcomers, looking after the people who’re already there. If anything, without some of the distractions of a larger church, church planting means you focus on these things even more.
4. Being a part of a team is really helpful.
Church planters are generally one-man-bands. And like any pastor of a small church you need others to encourage and challenge you. I’ve been blessed to be part of a great team at our mother church, Willows, but I also try to catch up with one of the other pastors in the area (the Baptist guy) on a regular basis.
5. A community presence is gold.
We meet in a community hall in a state school. We did a working bee there last Saturday. Gold! You can’t buy that sort of goodwill for
the church or for Jesus Christ for that matter. People in our community no longer automatically have a positive view of Christians; we have to earn that. And church
planting (generally) provides more opportunities for doing that.
6. Best book I’ve read on church planting
Church Planting Is for Wimps
Paranoid Android covered by really cool 90s band
In my alternative reality version of the present Weezer are a really cool band from the 90s who went out on a high after recording Pinkerton. Sadly, in the real world, they’ve recorded four forgettable albums since Pinkerton. Or maybe five. I don’t know.
This cover of Radiohead’s Paranoid Android from the cool 90s band Weezer is pretty awesome.
Here’s some vintage Weezer.
Flight path: fancy long exposure airport photography
Long exposure photography is pretty cool, combined with a bit of overlaying and you’ve got an interesting way to chart the movements of aircraft around an airport..
More in the Flickr Set.
Don’t call me baby… unless I’m wearing this mask
These are pretty freaky (not to mention expensive), but if you’re sick of all your friends getting called baby faced without you… well, it could be $250 well spent.
