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Today, an the following email came across my desk from my MBA alumni network:

From: marketing-bounces@__.edu On Behalf Of ________
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 2:44 PM
To: marketing@___.edu
Subject: [Marketing] Youth / Vice Marketing – Job Search (Posting for a Friend)

Fellow Columbians,

Attached is Scott’s resume for those who are looking to hire a marketer with deep experience in youth / vice marketing (alcohol, tobacco and video games).  I highly recommend Scott.  During his current job search, he has consulted for my company and I have been extremely impressed with his knowledge / contribution.

Best,
xxxxxxx
EMBA ’04

Did you realize that in today’s world, companies are literally paying for “deep experience” to specifically targeting “vices” to youth?

Does that sit right with you?

Is there any more reason for the Church to engage today’s youth culture in order to offer alternatives if not just to counter balance the onslaught of marketing dollars explicitly working to make the journey through adolescence just that much harder to get through?

Does anyone agree with me that the world needs more Godvertisers out there?!?!  Anybody with me?

Tonight, our family sat down and watched some of the videos on YouTube together with awestruck eyes and ears.

This is because we’re living in an age where “it is happening” RIGHT NOW.

Sometimes it’s hard to notice it when you’re in the middle of things.  But we got a chance to step back tonight and get a glimpse of what is happening in our world today from a very macro perspective.  Even my 7 year old took notice.

It was all the more encouraging for some of the latest projects I’ve been working on in ministry today.

What was so remarkable and why? Continue Reading…

I recently watched a short  interview of Dr. Harold Attridge, dean of the Yale Divinity School and professor emeritus David Bartlett who focused on the Book of John’s telling of two specific miracle stories: the feeding of the crowd from just a few fish and pieces of bread as well as the story of Jesus walking on water.  It was refreshing to ponder about what John was trying to accomplish in the fourth gospel.

Early Christians used stories like these by taking the miracles and evidence of Jesus’ command over nature in a way that confirms the deity of Jesus Christ. Interestingly, the discussion between the two scholars identified John’s reluctance in using these types of miracle stories as mere proof points for Christ’s divine nature, but rather that the gospel writer utilized them as a “sign” pointing to material worthy of much deeper consideration.

For example, one way to take texts beyond a common superficial reading is to see a connection between God providing the manna to eat in the wilderness and the bread produced in the feeding of the thousands. Significant meaning may derived when Jesus declares “I AM the bread of life” –making a Eucharist understanding of this gospel writer’s offering.

If this is the reading received from the text, the gospel message which John is “pushing” breaks from common expectations held at that time, one of which that saw Jesus Christ as fulfilling a royal or military leadership — certainly hoped for by many. We do see in the first half of John within the “Book of Signs,” other examples of this type of misunderstanding of Jesus’ true role and identity.

This discussion between Attridge and Bartlett is a great reminder for enabling a richer relationship with God’s Word. We always have the option to take it at the most perceptible level, which by itself may not be invalid. But our Scriptures give us the ability to connect with deeper meaning within almost every discourse.

I loved the discussion’s metaphor of simply “chewing the bread” vs. “chomping at it” in order to get at the “really chewy parts” as if you’re working on a “big hoagie” – Continue Reading…