Cultral Relevance

Scott Bedbury, former head of advertising at Nike and current chief marketing officer of Starbucks, “We wanted to be in the know, if you will. If you were in the head of Nike Basketball, you damn well better know what’s going on in the minds of young basketball players – the music they listen to, their vernacular, how they define success, what they fear, what they dream. The bulk of it is just about getting out there and wandering around. And anybody in the marketing group at Nike was penalized, if not put into early retirement, if they didn’t get out there, if they weren’t continually curious.”

What might the church be like if every pastor who doesn’t get out there and isn’t continually curious were put into early retirement? Ummmm, well, maybe we wouldn’t be laughed at and scorned for being woefully out of date and out of touch? And maybe we would be in relationship with people who are far from God, which would not only change their lives, but would impact our preaching, style of music, the form our discipleship takes.

So … are you in the know? Out there? Continually curious? If you had to prove that was true of you, what evidence would you supply? If someone else wanted to prove you weren’t in the know, don’t get out there, and aren’t that curious, what would they show us about you?