All good things…
When we first started this site way back in February 2003, we never imagined the way that it would morph and develop to ultimately become what it is today. What started out as a means for us to share and workshop some of our writing has turned into a site focussed much more around a community of people. It has certainly been illuminating.
But four and a half years is a long time. In that time our RL profiles have changed, and to be honest, Phil and I have both lost a sense of energy for this blog (something that would not come as a surprise to regular commenters, who have become accustomed to the fact that we aren’t around as much as we once were). That energy includes monitoring comments, responding to inquiries and requests to change/delete references, and so on.
We have spent several months now discussing what we would do with or about this site. This is what we have come up with. We recognise that the people who comment here have become a community of sorts and we want to give every opportunity for that to continue in some form. We toyed with allowing someone else to take over this site entirely. However, we want to maintain our existing archive as it is a bit of a scrapbook for us. And therefore relinquishing control over signposts isn’t something that we are comfortable with.
So for now we propose to just close the site. The content will remain but we will close the comments on all posts. Closing comments will be a bit of a lengthy process and will commence in the next couple of weeks, starting from the oldest posts. It is possible that in future we will start something new at this site. We might even get six months down the track, decide that we can’t bear to be without this blog and bring it back up - we don’t think so though.
We encourage commenters and others who might wish to maintain the “signposts community” to make some plans in the comments of this thread. It might be starting a group blog or a forum which reflects the same sort of open conversation which takes place here. We are happy to assist in whatever way we can, including directing future visitors to whereever you want.
We will publish a “last post” when we come to finally close off all of the comments, but for now we just wanted to thank our readers and commenters for the last 4 and a half years. To those that have helped with guest posting, and to those that have engaged in conversation and have in some way had their thinking or questioning as a result of this site, we thank you.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Hey akevin… I do recommend you at least do some lurking on Signposts 2, for the ever changing but very funny subtitles if nothing else! I promise to speak to you again, even if you do vote Republican! (ha ha!) (Very impressed you’re supporting an independent by the way!!!!)
Anyway, if not… I guess we’ll chat in heaven. If one chats in heaven. There may be alternate forms of communication. Mmm… don’t think I’ll go down that track, too weird…
August 29th, 2007 at 11:58 am
wow hadn’t looked at this string for a few days and all of a sudden people want to talk about me… finally
there’s only one thing worse than being talked about…………
August 29th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I’ve heard that some posperity teachers just go on and on and on forever!
August 29th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
HAHAHAHAAAAAA.
Lance thinks he is “christian media”????
Best laugh I’ve had in ages.
August 29th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
“HAHAHAHAAAAAA.
Lance thinks he is “christian media”????”
I’m not sure how you read that into what I was saying.
I was merely making an observation, having previously worked for more than a decade in Christian media, that with a few exceptions but in general, it just regurgigates church/Christian organisation media releases, often, word for word.
I’ve done this myself just to save time, because the mentality is, what’s the point of re-writing the media release when you can’t objectively question anything in the media release anyway?
In Christian media, you’re expected to always paint the church in a positive light, except when the secular media has exposed something dodgy about the church, and then you’ve got no option but to grudgingly report on the dodginess.
I heard one of Phil Baker’s business breakfast meetings being ‘reported’ (promoted) on a Christian radio news bulletin, and I could tell it was basically word-for-word off a Revenue Church press release.
I wasn’t saying ‘I am Christian media’….but I’ve been in the game and I know how it operates.
One noted exception to the Christian media/public relations mindset has been a recent editorial in Charisma Magazine which attacks ‘The Deadly Virus of Celebrity Christianity’..which Charisma has over the years been helping to promote.
http://www.charismamag.com/fireinmybones/Columns/show.php
But generally Christian media is as balanced and informative as an exercise machine infomercial.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Oh come on Lance - how about a bit of balance yourself? The “mainstream” media does that as well. I know, because I’ve seen plenty of press releases I was involved in repeated virtually verbatim.
August 30th, 2007 at 12:35 am
I have enjoyed lurking on this site half a dozen times since I got in email contact with Phil in 2004. (Something about a high school reunion that he and I had been invited to. I couldn’t go because I live in London. Can’t remember Phil’s excuse.) Now that it’s closing down I have decided that it’s time for me to post…You should close down more often…Anyway, I trust that I won’t lose touch with Phil altogether. Maybe next time I’m in Melbourne visiting family I should head to Preston. Advice please: should it be Blended, Thirst, Tangent or Jeebus? (If I leave it too long I guess it’ll have to be Bundoora.)
August 30th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Pull the other one Lance.
Media is the same all over the world. “Journalists” just re-hash whatever comes out of Reuters et al. I see it every day in the 9 news room. You’re no different. You read the news every day and you just read what you’re told. You might embelish a little or add some Lance personal touches but don’t try and convince me you don’t do excatly the same as you accuse the Christian media of. Media is media, christian or non, and they all suck dogs balls. I’d love to see you try and report something that went against your parent company’s ethos. You’d be out the door quicker than Kerry Packer could organise a kidnet transplant.
August 30th, 2007 at 11:13 am
that should read “kidney”, not “kidnet”, which is of course the French derivative.
Also wanted to add that Sonshine FM is/was hardly cutting edge media
August 30th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Hey Colin, you would be welcome at all of those - email me if you hit town phil@nccc.org.au
August 30th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
hhmmm i don’t think lance would have a problem with 218 TN
so whats your point…
lance basically says that the christian media is the same as what we suspect the secular media is.
so you don’t like lance.. so what.. not every last syllable that comes from him is a twisted lie, you are desperate to pin him but end up playing the man and not the ball.
do what i do .. play the ball hard till everyone gets pissed off at you
August 30th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
great link lance
here is the copy (unchanged/verbatim because i’m too lazy)
Eighteen years ago my wife and I experienced a traumatic spiritual shakedown. The growing network of churches we had belonged to for more than 10 years began unraveling after the senior leaders were accused of authoritarianism. A once-thriving national ministry to university students was reduced to rubble in a few weeks as pastors resigned, congregations disbanded and Christian friends stopped talking to one another.
All of us felt the heartache caused by broken promises and unfulfilled expectations. The pain of seeing a ministry blown apart by human failure was too much for some people to bear. Many became bitter.
Some marriages fell apart because of the stress of the organization’s breakup. A few of the most wounded people vowed to never again join any type of church. Some even rejected faith altogether.
“There’s no way to eliminate all the risks of being hurt in church. Stuff happens.”
It took me a year to recover from the shell shock. I vented my frustrations to a few friends over coffee, stayed intimate with the Lord and read my Bible often—especially the psalms of David, which are brutally honest prayers written by a guy who experienced a lot more disappointment, betrayal and heartache than you or I ever will.
Part of my healing also came when I got reconnected to a healthy church. I had to learn to trust again, even though a whiny voice in my head kept saying: “Just forget about church. They’re all the same.”
That’s what the devil wanted me to believe because his strategy is to isolate people and sour them with cynicism. I resisted his onslaught and grew stronger. What was meant to take me out of the battle ended up making me a tougher warrior—and giving me compassion for my wounded comrades.
Since my experience in 1989, I have met many injured Christians. Some were lured by church friends to participate in financial scams. Some were pulled into embarrassing religious deception—as in the case of the people who bought rural property in Arkansas in 1999 because their pastor predicted a Y2K disaster.
Others trusted a spiritual leader only to find out he was hiding sexual immorality. And others were simply browbeaten and manipulated by insecure, untested people who should never have been placed in church leadership.
There’s no way to eliminate all the risks of being hurt in church. Stuff happens. God is perfect, but He uses flawed people to carry out His mission. Here are a few key steps we can take to provide better safeguards and minimize church casualties:
1. Demand accountability. We live in a day of freelance Christianity. It seems anyone can slap a ministerial title on a business card and incorporate a nonprofit organization. Then—voila!—he opens a church in a hotel ballroom.
I’m not against people having such freedoms. Some of the best churches in the world started in hotels or strip malls. But would you blindly trust a doctor who opened a makeshift operating room in a shopping center after buying a bogus medical license from a diploma mill on the Internet?
The new church on the block may turn out to be a great place. But before you join, find out if the pastor is accountable to a reputable church network. God’s ministers are not self-appointed, and spiritual authority can’t be bought with a credit card. Yellow lights should start flashing when you learn that any minister is a lone ranger.
2. Value character more than charisma. People join churches for many reasons. Some love the music. Others are stirred by the preaching. In charismatic circles we often judge a church by its “anointing level,” which apparently is determined by measuring the volume of the pastor’s sermon, then multiplying this by the number of times people fall on the floor at the altar.
We should expect the Holy Spirit’s power to flow in church. But the biblical recipe for the anointing is not a haphazard mixture of shouting, emotional highs and spiritual quick fixes. It requires that church leaders exhibit humility, integrity, marital faithfulness and theological soundness (see 1 Tim. 3:1-7). Any “anointing” without these ingredients is suspect.
3. Keep your eyes on Jesus. We are living in a stormy season in which church leaders are falling at an alarming rate. During my 14 years at Charisma I have never seen such spiritual turbulence, and my prediction is that it will get worse in the latter part of 2007 before it gets better. High-profile ministries will be shaken to their foundations because of divorce, moral failure, heresy and financial impropriety.
All we can do is buckle our seat belts, reset our focus and hold on tightly to what we know is true. If you are worshiping a Christian superstar then your faith is on a wobbly foundation. Trust Jesus alone and you will not be disappointed.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
What’s my point? I thought it was pretty obvious.
As for playing the man and not the ball… surely you’re kidding? At signposts?
hang on….
a
A
AHAAAAAHHAHAAAAAHAAAAAAAA.
*wipes eyes*
Second best laugh I’ve had in ages.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
“Oh come on Lance - how about a bit of balance yourself? The “mainstream” media does that as well. I know, because I’ve seen plenty of press releases I was involved in repeated virtually verbatim.”
Why is it if I make a point about something, and then don’t make a point about something else, that I’m somehow not balanced.
I was making a specific point about Christian media. You want me to make a specific point about mainstream media? Fine.
Talk radio virtually completely operates as a drip feed from PR people sending out media releases.
I frequently see news copy that has been copied and pasted from a press release (I know because the copied bit shows up in the same font as the original media release).
Journalists don’t know how to say ‘no’ to a pushy Public Relations operative. I say ‘no’ to them and I’m considered Dr. Evil.
I still though think that Christian media is worse than mainstream media in committing ‘balance’ sins…and acting as PR agents instead of journalists.
“Journalists” just re-hash whatever comes out of Reuters et al. I see it every day in the 9 news room”
Oh my goodness, there is so much I can say, but I won’t.
“I’d love to see you try and report something that went against your parent company’s ethos. You’d be out the door quicker than Kerry Packer could organise a kidnet transplant.”
That is just complete and utter crap because none of us has a clue what our parent company’s ethos is. We can’t be intimidated by it if we don’t know what the bloody hell it is.
And just to cover my bases, so that I’m not accused of being ‘imbalanced’ by not referring to something else that pops into Turtleneck’s head…..I don’t like Collingwood, I think cheese-making should be covered by essential services legislation in case of factory strikes, and Regina Bird shouldn’t have won Big Brother. Hopefully I’ve covered everything to Turtleneck’s satisfaction now.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
you forgot to comment on Casey Donovan’s idol fiasco. If you’re going to address things that matter to me, get it right.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Well, i guess by this time tomorrow Signposts in it’s original form will be no more.
Thanks to everybody (including right-wing fundo’s & literalists) for providing the only community i have had this past couple of years.
God’s Blessings upon you all.
August 31st, 2007 at 3:35 pm
oooohhh no you don’t
i have the personality type that has to have the last word
i will be sitting at my computer around the clock to have the last say on all the strings i can…
August 31st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
ROFLMAO!!
August 31st, 2007 at 4:00 pm
well may you laugh but you know its true don’t you…:-)
August 31st, 2007 at 4:24 pm
ditto
August 31st, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I know some counsellors who may be able to help with your condition abtruth…
Nah, don’t go changin’…
God bless you too Reve.
August 31st, 2007 at 4:31 pm
my second last ditto should be last
August 31st, 2007 at 4:33 pm
You too, Abdullah the butcher…
I suppose it’s a benign obsession on a blog, but the right to the last word is best suspended when dealing with teenagers. Or women. Or friends.
Good luck to all in your “last words” competition.
But noone knows the day nor the hour (well the hour at least…)
August 31st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Don’t you realise yet that Phil and I are the only ones that manage to get the last word?
August 31st, 2007 at 5:06 pm
The last hours of Signposts could prove to be like a virtual game of musical chairs…..and very funny.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Actually in the last week I have realised how much I will miss Signposts and the cast of characters who have blogged here. …Again a big thankyou to everyone.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:02 pm
turtleneck,
re: “I’d love to see you try and report something that went against your parent company’s ethos.”
FYI
‘A Current Affair’ has been running very negative stories against a certain car dealer/finance company which happens to be an advertiser for the network. ACA, of course, was pleased to trumpet this fact.
I could also tell you a story or two (one as recent as the last 24hrs) where a journo has been ‘asked’ by management not to run a story because it would ‘piss off’ a major sponsor. I’m happy to report that in the most recent occurence, the journo was able to convince management of the value of the story to the public and it’s insignificance to the sponsor.
I guess it goes to show that any journalist worth their salt will stand up for what’s right, even if it’s against the company’s ethos.
Journos don’t always win these battles, but it doesn’t mean they don’t give it a try.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:26 pm
and to Janet,
Thank you so much for your kind words earlier.
Have always appreciated your thoughtdul comments and gentle sense of humour.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
and that should be thoughtful, of course.
Viva Signposts Mk I!
August 31st, 2007 at 6:58 pm
US Congress moves to convict prosperity gospel pentecostal ministers with the “ocular penetration restriction act of 2007″
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=16517383