RUNwithGOD

Christmas Letter

Didn't get the Reed Christmas Letter in the mail this year? It's probably because of three things:
1) I don't know who you are
2) I don't have your address
3) I really don't like you

#1 is definitely possible, #2 is more likely probable, since I am oh so organized. #3 is not likely since if you read about me on a regular basis you're already quite proficient on my favorite topic.... me!

Either way, the letter is below for your enjoyment. E-mail me your mailing address and we'll make sure you're on the Christmas card list for '07.

Thanks to all of you for reading, supporting, and praying. jreed

- - - - - - - -

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Greetings again from Miami. It seems like every year gets busier than the previous one. God has given us both some incredible opportunities, and we have loved being part of His plan. What’s funny is that this year shaped up completely different then how we thought it would.

Jeff continues to run The Living Word Christian Bookstore. Sales are doing very well, and the community continues to support us. We were praying over expansion opportunities, possibly opening a second Living Word in Miami or a satellite store on church campuses. In typical God fashion, He moved us in another direction. In August 2006 we started having e-mail conversations with C28, a trendy Christian boutique similar in style to Hot Topic or PacSun (http://www.C28.com). C28 is a hugely evangelical, for profit company which sells Christian clothing and jewelry in high-traffic indoor malls. C28 has been responsible for thousands of salvations as a direct result of employees witnessing to customers in the store, and we are hoping to bring that passion to Florida. There are eight stores open in California, and we opened a C28 branch in West Palm Beach, FL November 17, 2006. So yes, as of right now we now run two retail businesses in two different cities.

In January 2006, Jeff was just starting a second, part time job at Christ Fellowship as Production Director for their worship services. The church has seen strong growth overall as well as within the Media ministry and despite the extra hours during the week the job became very rewarding. Christ Fellowship is planning on starting a second, satellite campus in 2007, and both Amy and Jeff will be leaving the “main campus” to go oversee the technology on the second campus in Homestead. Needless to say, three jobs keep Jeff very busy.

Amy has had a difficult year. Her health took a turn for the worse during the beginning of the school year, and got to a point where we felt she needed to take a break from work. Amy has been on personal leave since mid October, resting and helping Jeff organize the C28 back office. She is also helping to organize a mission trip to Ukraine on which both of us will be going in January.

2007 will see us moving as well. We are leaving our two story house in Homestead to go to a one story house in “Cutler Bay”, an area of Miami that is much closer to the bookstore, making commute much easier. In addition, a one-story house will be much better on Amy’s health. We should complete the renovations and move in sometime in February 2007.

The question that seems to be on everyone’s mind these days is what is the plan for kids? We were with an adoption agency and were actually very close to completing the process. In a strange twist, we broke contract due to some internal conflicts with the agency and we’re in a holding pattern again until we get moved into the new house and then pray for God to open some doors.

Beowulf is still with us. He’s had a rough year. Ultimately, a lot of his health problems can be summarized by his passionate hatred for ducks. He tore his ACL swimming after ducks in our lake, and has gotten stitches from duck-brawls. He, too, will be very happy when we are in a one-story house away from ducks.

We covet your prayers. 2006 was a very taxing year physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We know that God has some awesome things in store for 2007. Pray for us as we seek Him in what we do. And hopefully somewhere along the chaos of this Christmas season you can find the true meaning of the Christ.

In view of God’s Mercy,

Jeff and Amy Reed

I Celebrate the Day

Merry Christmas to all. I pray that the season has found you well, and that with all the chaos of gifts, family, and friends that you have found time to find the one who we celebrate. There's a song that quickly is becoming one of my personal Christmas Traditions, and although I can't find a good copy of the song on YouTube (I thought it had everything!) I wanted to share the lyrics with you this Christmas season.

And on that note, I present to you Relient K's "I Celebrate the Day".

With this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let you know
How much you've touched my life because
Here is where you're finding me
In the exact same place as New Years Eve
And from the lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I wanna be

And the first time that you opened your eyes
Did you realize that you would be my Savior
And the first breath that left your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever
And the first time that you opened your eyes
Did you realize that you would be my Savior
And the first breath that left your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I'll compare
The things I've felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That you have come to meet me here

To look back
And think that
This baby would one day save me
And the hope that
That you give
That you were born so I might really live
To look back
And think that
This baby would one day save me…

And the first time that you opened your eyes
Did you realize that you would be my Savior
And the first breath that left your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever
And the first time that you opened your eyes
Did you realize that you would be my Savior
And the first breath that left your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever

And I
I celebrate the day
That you were born to die
So I could one day
Pray for you to save my life
Pray for you to save my life
Pray for you to save my life

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and may 2007 be filled with His Kingdom.

Santa, meet Physics

Got this e-mail back in college, loved it. Saw it recently on Mark Batterson's Evotional.com and thought that I definitely wanted to share this...

There are approximately 378 million Christian children in the world according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average census rate of 3.5 children per household that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.

Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west. This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh; hop out; jump down the chimney; fill the stockings; distribute the remaining presents under the tree; eat whatever snacks have been left for him; get back up the chimney; jump into the sleigh; and get on to the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations, we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household--a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second--3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run at best 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set weighing two pounds, the sleigh is carrying over 500,000 tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the flying reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can't be done with nine of them--Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth, the ship not the monarch.

Six hundred thousand tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance--this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of acceleration from a dead stop to 650 miles per second in one-thousandth of a second, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 g's. A 250 pound Santa which seems ludicrously slim would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4.3 millions pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.

"The Criminal Mind Christmas"

for those of you keeping up with "the criminal mind saga" (part 1) (part 2). Police arrested one of the guys that has been cleaning out our store of Gospel Music without paying for it. He came in the bookstore today, and after some quick thinking by our employees the police arrived and arrested him on tresspassing charges. I will be pressing charges, of course, and although I'm sure he'll be out of jail soon hopefully he's got the message. The good thing is that every one of my employees was in the store today to see the guy get arrested, so everyone knows what he looks like. The bad thing is that there were like 30 customers in the store today that saw the guy get arrested too. Oh well.

God @ War

For the history/geography buffs out there (my dad included) here is a fascinating 90 second video. Below is an animated timeline of the spread of religion starting in 3000 BC and going through to today. It's interesting how much clean massive amounts of bloodshed looks when it's condensed in a 90 second video.

Thanks to MapsOfWar.com for the hard work.

Marketing TO the Church

Christianity Today posted an article on the rise of secular companies trying to market straight to the church. Trying to replicate the grassroots boom of "Passion of the Christ" as well as "Purpose Driven Life", secular companies want to reach middle conservative America, and what better way to do it than through the pews.

Part 2 of the CT article is posting soon, and I'll reserve comment until then. For now, enjoy the Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) scholarly article, and let me know your thoughts.

Bite of the Apple

Okay, first off I'm the first to admit that I'm biased here...I've been a Mac guy before I could spell "PC". I'm a biz consultant for Apple, and I'm glad to say I've been a stockholder before anyone knew what an iPod was... So when Apple speaks, I listen.

Red Herring posted an article recently on how successful Apple's Retail portion has been. And if you've been in an Apple Store lately, you know how busy they are. Here's a quote from the article:

Apple’s stores have hauled in annual sales per square foot of $4,032, compared with Best Buy’s $930, Neiman Marcus’ $611, and luxury store Tiffany & Co.’s $2,666, according to Bernstein.

Apple’s recipe works like crack. Apple gives customers instant gratification by keeping inventory in stores, unlike its rivals. Apple has opened its stores slowly, building up anticipation for its stores. Finally, those stores are some of the toniest in retail—encouraging customers to drop far more money than they might in a dusty computer shop or utilitarian web site.

What lessons can be learned here in the Christian Retailing area? Best Buy tries to be everything to everyone...from plasmas to kitchen appliances. And while there may be a need for that, does Best Buy have to fill that need? What if Best Buy slimmed down and focused on a niche, a market... and let someone else worry about some of the less-popular departments. At The Living Word we've looked at a lot of our sales, trying to figure out what we need to be. And honestly, a lot of the things that people would expect a Christian Bookstore to be, we're not going to be. Some people may be upset by that, but honestly it doesn't make sense (or cents) to do some of these things.

At the bookstore we could get bigger. We could expand our inventories. We could be everything to everyone. And we could get so big we couldn't pay the rent. Our employees could be clueless on what they were selling. Customers could get lost between the aisles. The store could feel like an empty warehouse. Instead, what if we did a smaller space, employed it with people passionate about God and product, and turned inventory like crazy.

What does a "Christian Bookstore" look like on crack? It's called C28. That's actually one of the things I love about C28. They know who they are targeting. They know their audience. Their goal is only their audience. If a product doesn't reach the audience, then don't carry the product.

Enjoy the article, and dream with me about what a "christian bookstore on crack" would look like. (Feel free to e-mail me on the whole "crack" reference too!)

Tis' the season to have Wii

Okay. I've never been a huge Christmas guy. Decorating a tree, lights around the house, wreath on the front of my truck...these are not me. Yet once again one of God's ironies: I run 2 retail businesses that sell Christmas items... Yearly I am regularly accused of being a Scrooge. (btw, as I type this I'm watching "The Muppet Christmas Carol". Is there any better Scrooge on film than Michael Caine? Sorry, I just love this movie!)

Alright, getting back to the fact that I'm not a Christmas guy. One of my favorite traditions from the Christmas season is just totally spoil my wife. Yearly we will set a limit on money to spend. Yearly I'll make her think that I'm too busy running the store(s). Yearly I'll spend double whatever the limit is. Yearly she'll get upset at me. Wait 11 months and then have another go at it.

So here we are 2006 December. I've been looking for "the gift" for my wife. Where do I land? Nintendo Wii. Nintendo has a next-gen Video game system which just released in November. Demand was much greater than supply, and needless to say there are no Wii's anywhere in America. Now I hear what you're thinking: Amy doesn't want a Wii...you were buying it for you.

My wife is an AVID gamer. In college we all wasted many study hours playing our Nintendo 64 (Goldeneye, Mario Kart, etc). One year for Christmas I even bought her an Atari 2600 on eBay, since she loved playing it so much growing up. So before I get e-mails about buying gifts for myself, back off! Amy doesn't get into the games systems that I've bought recently. xBox, xBox360 are too technical/Graphic for her. She'd rather move cartoon Mario around the screen than battle realistic WWI Battle scenes, or blow up aliens or Lord of the Ring beasts.

That's the backstory, now let me give you "the rest of the story".

Brad Sutton, a friend and volunteer in the CF Studio tips me off that he knows when the Best Buy shipment of the Wii is coming in, and am I interested in going? Brad is getting the Wii for his son, and he wants company. I agree, and Brad and I meet head over to Best Buy at Dadeland Sunday at 4:30am. There's over 20 people already there. One of them says "talk to the guy in the gray shirt". Gray shirt guy has a list. I'm #28. Brad is #29. Oh, and I forgot to mention. Brad's son decided to stand in the rain at another Best Buy. He got to Best Buy Cutler Ridge at 1am. Mike got #3.

Needless to say, we were all excited about how many Wii's were coming. Rumor was 25 Wii. People were still coming. At 7am there were maybe a hundred people out there. We checked the list that we had, and three people in front of me mysteriously disappeared. I literally am the 25th person. If the rumor is true, I get Wii. Brad gets nothing. But that's okay b/c Mike is guaranteed Wii in Cutler Ridge. Everyone would be happy.

The moment comes, and the manager of Best Buy comes out with an entourage of body guards. The manager announces that in fact there are 24 Wii. Yes, 24. I am literally the first person NOT to get a Wii. I wake up at 3:30am and stand in the blowing rain for no Wii. Unbelievable.

Needless to say, I don't think Amy will be getting Wii this Christmas. It was such a great story that I went ahead and told her. eBay is selling Wii for 3x the retail cost. I think we'll save the Christmas money and buy one after demand dies down.

Fear of Tables

Let me say first off that today is typically the second busiest day in the retail year, and both of my stores did very well. TLW continues to raise the bar of expectations, and C28 WPB is paving the road in the middle of spiritual unrest. God is good, and even though there are times when I question His timing, it's good to lean back on memories of successful days and know that He is in control.

It was really good to see all the customers come in today. This week in SoFL we've had nothing but rain, rain, rain, rain. It was like a cold front was coming in, but we never really got the cold front. Instead we had rain almost solid for a week. ARGH! Nothing kills biz like the rain. What was great about today is that it still rained, and the customers came out anyway.

I worked at the bookstore this morning. I thought they would need some help and they did. I worked the floor for the most part, answering questions for the customers while the emps ran the registers. We were clicking and the registers were ringing. Running a retail store in December makes up for the lousy 11 months leading up to it.

It's funny how God finds ways to humble you right before the whole pride thing kicks in. There was this woman I was helping in the Bible section. She was trying to find Bibles for her 2 twenty-something kids. They don't really go to church, and she was hoping to find something that was easy for them to understand. I was showing her some of the NIV Study Bibles, and explaining how study bibles work.

Lesson #1 in selling a Bible: Crack it open. Find a scripture and read it to the customer. Let them hear the language, see the text, see the helps. It's like sitting in a car you want to buy. You got to "feel" it before you can own it. So I opened up the Bible and flipped to a "random" verse. Usually I am quite specific on what verses I read to customers. Go with something simple, John 3, Luke 2, ets... In this Bible, the pages got stuck and I ended up in Matthew 21 and read the verse found in the upper right hand corner of the page... verse 12.

What's the big deal? This verse is my nightmare.

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"

As a Christian retailer, my greatest fear is standing before my God and having him say "You made a mockery of me by selling _____________ in My Name." Really, I do fear that. I think sometimes as Christian retailers we try to justify what we're doing. So did the moneychangers. "Selling doves? We're providing a service? Well, the churches can't handle selling the doves to everyone! If we don't give them doves, then who else will? We have to pay the rent somehow? God made the doves, we're just the middleman for the people!" All of these may be valid arguments, but it evidently was bad enough to cause Jesus, a man who is known to literally turn the other cheek, to go medieval on some tables.

And I don't know about you, but I don't want to be on the wrong end of Jesus' temper. Would you? So yes, on the eve of this holiday season when we will do 3 months worth of sales in one month, I encourage you to join me in remembering the reason we celebrate.

Thank you, Jesus, for the opportunity we have to celebrate Your arrival, your name, your renown. May my actions, my intent, my life be perceived not as a moneychanger selling doves, but a person intent on impacting lives for your kingdom.

"Would Jesus Shop at WalMart?"

Okay, now I'm all about the independent retailers (I am one, twice) but even I think this is too far. If you don't agree with a company's business model, policies, or philosophy say so. You have that right. (And I hope you win, and take out all the other big-box stores out there). But leave your and my God out of it!

For those of you wanting more information, visit WakeUpWalMart.com

Thanks to CRonline.com for the heads up.

Rappin Pastors

From the "what were they thinking..." news channel. The video below is from Ridge Stone Church and was posted on one of their pastor's blog. Enjoy the vid, but if you find yourself saying "I want those five minutes of my life back," don't come crying to me.

The Return of "The Criminal Mind"

Wanted to update you on the criminal mastermind that has been terrorizing The Living Word. Yesterday one of our many criminal clients moved beyond stealing product, and we actually had a small TV stolen from our video section. Yes, a TV. How a TV disappears from a crowded store in the middle of Christmas sales is a little beyond me, but we're working through this issues.

On a more serious note, The Honey Baked Ham a couple doors down from me was robbed at gunpoint yesterday afternoon too. The thefts probably were not related. It's funny, once you start talking "gun" losign a tv here or there isn't that serious.

Please do me a favor. If you actually decide to shop this Christmas, please pay for your merchandise. Your retailers thank you.

Smiling Addiction

Ever been 5 minutes late for a very important meeting, and your car won't start? That has been my life for the past month. Yes my new Dodge Ram 1500 is on the verge of dying on me. And it's not from usage. The body is fine. The engine revs (it does, after all, have a Hemi). Here's the deal. When we bought it, we bought this security device that requires that a small black box (that fits on my key chain) has to be inside the truck for the car to start. No box, no start. Well, the battery has been dying for several months now, and it all-out gave out today. I get into my truck this morning and it would not start. To make matters worse, my wife is in Texas and my parents are out of town as well so I had absolutely no one close to call. Although my truck looked fine out the outside, it was useless. It would not start, and no matter how much I cranked it, there was nothing there to give back.

Parallel that to the Christian walk. So many of us look pretty on the outside, especially sitting in those pews Sunday morning. "Problems, no problems here. Not at this church. You must be thinking of that other church. Yeah, they've got problems." And so we live our lives struggling in our walk, questioning in our beliefs, fighting against things we aren't allowed to discuss, and doubting in our personal walk. This is amplified because we're too embarrassed to let it be known or too ashamed that we've failed in our "Christian Walk". And so the masks go on. You know, the smiles...the handshakes...the facade, All so a bunch of people that probably don't matter think that you're Godly. Put on your masks.

According to Barna Research (among MANY OTHERS) divorce is as high or higher among Christians when compared to "unchurched" people groups. Which honestly makes sense to me. Why should it be any different? We live in a sinful world, and yet while we as Christians try to live a perfect life we will never do it because we are SINFUL PEOPLE! But hey, let's just keep pretending everything is alright. No, Christians don't have faulty marriages. We don't sin. We're perfect. And so the game continues. Put on another layer of makeup. You've got some holes in your mask.

Have you ever realized how hard it is to be something you're not? The game is hard, long, frustrating, taxing. All your energy is spent creating the image of something healthy, but you still hurt on the inside. I struggle with this. Keep happy. Keep smiling. And move on. No pain here. No struggles. No doubts. No questions. No hurts. If we aren't all happy Christians, then we wouldn't be Christians right? Because it's Biblical that we all have to be perfect, happy... Uh oh, the mask is looking pretty rough. Might need to replace this one...

That's the lie, and that's the game. Sure, you'll look pretty on the outside. Deep down you're as worthless as a new truck that won't start. Looks good on the outside, but other than that, not too much. Careful, some of your true self is showing through the mask...

The funny this is that God doesn't care about the image. He never has. Which has surprised me in that so many of us struggle trying to please people that don't matter...trying to live up to pseudo-Biblical standards set by the proverbial Joneses, when they are only trying to keep up with the Smiths. But God who is only interested in a relationship gets put on the back-burner because we don't have time. We're too busy playing games and smiling faces, and feeling guilty on the inside because we're the only people playing the game. Or so we think.

If you've read this much, I encourage you to watch this video. Realize that you're not the only one playing the game. And frankly God doesn't care about the game.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. - Romans 5:1-5

C28 WPB in the NEWS

C28 West Palm was in the Palm Beach Post recently....indirectly at least. The Mall at Wellington Green is getting a new General Manager, and the Post mentioned C28 in the article, listing us as a "new retailer" in the growing mall. The Post Article can be found here.

C28 Update

Wanted to update everyone once again. Many of you have been very supportive in recent weeks, and for that I am thankful. The store continues to have its ups and downs. We didn't quite have the "BANG" I was suspecting, but mall traffic has been slow and customer feedback has been great. In general the mall traffic is low this year (other retailers tell me) so I think we're on the same page as everyone else. Grassroots/Buzz marketing takes its time and we know that God did not get us this far to leave us now. Check out http://runwithgod.typepad.com/romans12/2006/11/jeff_the_israel.html for more thoughts on C28 WPB's start.

 

To find out what's been going on in the life of C28, The Living Word, or Christ Fellowship, I encourage you to read my blog at http://www.RUNwithGOD.com

 

Rather than flooding people's inbox, I've moved more towards updating RUNWITHGOD.COM. If you would like to continue getting updates, please click on the link below:

http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=539663

Fill out the form attached and you'll get my updates automatically, along with (periodic) random musings. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder how I have time to do all that I do. Within the past couple weeks I've posted many stories on C28 as well as The Living Word, so enjoy it there and sign up to get e-mail updates.

 

Several of you have been asking how to buy C28 product if you don't live in West Palm Beach. I have worked out an exclusive deal for you that I think you'll appreciate. Go to the website, http://www.C28.com and shop till your heart's content. When checking out, be sure to use the COUPON CODE "WPB" - minus the "". This will get you a 5% discount to help you cover the cost of shipping. So break out the Christmas wishlists and go crazy on C28.com! And remember to enter the WPB in the coupon code field.

 

Thank you for your continued prayer support. If you have any questions or if there is anything I can do for you, please let me know. Pray for our ministry, that God would continue to keep our eyes focused on Him and not the discouragements that surround us.

 

In view of God's Mercy,

 

Jeff Reed

The Criminal Mind

Okay, I hear you. I've been so obsessed about the East Coast launch of the coolest Christian clothing store in the country, as well as the new Church Campus I am helping launch, that I have neglected to talk much about my first love, the Living Word Christian Bookstore. I do apologize for that. Many of my employees have said they feel like the Red Headed Stepchild sometimes, and we're doing everything we can to prevent that.

So how's the bookstore doing? Very well. The community continues to support us, and in an industry where Christian bookstores are dropping like flies we are continually trying to stay relevant to culture, and have seen growth and stability because of that. We are a healthy business and show no sign of decrease in sales, praise God.

However, if we do go out of business, I can tell you why it would happen... theft. I am continually shocked at how much stuff gets stolen from this bookstore. Just today, one of my employees brought in four jewelry bags from four Bob Siemon "True Love Waits" Rings. For those of you that do not know, a "True Love Waits" ring symbolizes the promise of sexual purity between a person and God/their future spouse. So basically I had someone steal four symbols of sexual purity. Makes you glad you're in the biz, don't it? We're staying sexually pure, but evidently the other nine commandments don't mean much! It's not just rings, either. Over the past 3 months I've had Gospel CDs valuing over $4,000 (retail) get stolen from the store as well.

All this begs another question: who wakes up in the morning and thinks, "Hey, I'm going to go rob that Christian store..." And once again, for the record...when we go out of business it will be because we've literally been robbed out of business. Honestly, I'm afraid to look at how much stuff is getting stolen because I'm too afraid of what I'll find.

Have a Merry Christmas! Show some love to your local retailers. It's not just the Christian Stores getting ripped off either. And if you see some guy peddling "True Love Waits" rings on the street, tell him Jeff at the Living Word says hello.

Out of Touch Pastors (?)

Ellison Research ran some surveys last month, and I'm finally getting to write on it. The question is asked: "Are Pastors as connected to pop culture as the people in their congregations?" Full report can be found here... but I've summarized below.

Pastors vs. Churchgoers (percentage who feel very informed)

36% vs. 29% on Politics (+7%)
24% vs. 24% on Sports (no difference)
20% vs. 43% on the Internet (-23%)
19% vs. 31% on Television Programs (-12%)
18% vs. 27% on Books (-9%)
16% vs. 24% on Movies (-8%)
12% vs. 20% on Radio and TV Talk Shows (-8%)
11% vs. 28% on Music (-17%)
11% vs. 17% on Magazines
7% vs. 16% on Clothing and Fashion (-9%)
5% vs. 16% on Video and Computer Games (-11%)
4% vs. 10% on Celebrities (-6%)

Jeff's Take: The bigger question here is how do we separate "sin culture" from staying relevant in pop culture. I have a dear friend who is an ordained Southern Baptist Minister, but he has never seen a R rated movie. Is that helping him stay moral in an amoral society, or is that preventing him from connecting to the people he ministers to. Does pop culture have a place in the pulpit? Whats interesting here is that this survey is for Pastors and Churchgoers... NOT UNCHURCHED. So, supposing that unchurced is more informed on some of the more worldly options, look at how much further pastors are from the people they are trying to reach.

To quote Mark Batterson (of National Community Church. Washington DC) "Irrelevance is irreverence." But at what cost?

iPods take over the world

Farbeit for me to quote the prophetic power of the Simpsons, but this is a no-brainer. Full article available on Wired.com

Taken from a recent Simpson's episode, a citizen of the future laments: "If only we'd known that iPods would unite and overthrow the very humans they entertained..."

Jeff's take: to quote Star Trek's BORG: Resistance is futile.