NOTE: I am putting my weekly sermons on the church website. It will be on for two weeks (usually posted on Friday) and then placed in the Archives area by date. You can download in a matter of seconds.

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766

May 25, 2002
Sermon: "Change Is In The Air"
Scripture: Acts 10:44-48
Reverend Larry Gerber

Letting go of a proven winner is difficult, whether the product be a well-known style of footwear, automobile or sacred music. But sometimes pulling a switch is a necessary tactic for long-term survival.

The Nike swoosh. Arguably, there's no brand or logo with more worldwide recognition than that swoosh. Among the many items it has adorned are the Air Jordan shoes. Nike's Air Jordan shoes were red-hot sellers for 17 years. Named for basketball's luminary — Michael Jordan — 60 million pairs were sold. Recently the two Jordans — both man and shoe — have dropped down to earth. Michael Jordan's not the main-man megastar of hoops now. His namesake sneakers have chilled, too.

What did Nike do about its lost revenue? Tried another shoe. First try was the VC Shox, named for Vince Carter, a.k.a. "Air Canada," the gravity-defying forward of the Toronto Raptors. His shoe retailed for an astronomical $160 per pair and quickly tanked.

So now Nike's marketing similar shoes with unknown "streetball' players." This maneuver plays on the fantasies of fashionable hipsters, but it isn't producing a championship shoe that'll score big bucks season after season. Or is it??

NEWS FLASH!!!
BEAVERTON, Ore. (May 22,2003) -- Nike Inc. has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on celebrity athlete endorsements over the years, adding its trademark "swoosh'' to stars like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
But signing high school basketball phenomenon LeBron James to a contract worth more than $90 million is a rare move for Nike, considering its latest pitchman has yet to step onto the court as a professional.

"There's no question about it, there is a tremendous risk here,'' said John Horan, publisher of the Sporting Goods Intelligence newsletter.

The Beaverton-based athletic shoe and clothing maker signed the 18-year-old James to a seven-year, $90,000,000 endorsement contract Thursday, hours before the NBA draft lottery.

Nike is playing for big stakes -- an $8 billion market for athletic shoes in the United States. By outbidding rivals Reebok and Adidas for James, Nike hopes to block erosion of its U.S. market share for basketball shoes, which depends almost entirely on teenage boys, said David Carter, a University of Southern California sports marketing professor.

The deal might make financial sense, but now an awful lot is riding on a very young man who won't have the benefit of working on his game in college. Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon, called the deal an "act of faith.''

But he said the deal was so important that Nike founder and chairman Phil Knight was brought in to close the deal, showing James how the company could create an entire line of products around him, as it did for Jordan, who eventually became a Nike executive after overseeing the creation of the Air Jordan brand.

There's a lesson here. While we don't want to think of Christian ministry as a "game" or a "business," we do need to stop to consider whether the methods we're using — tried and true in the past — are working for us today.

When the apostle Peter was faced with a crowd of heathen Gentiles whose ways were not his ways, and whose thoughts were not his thoughts, he knew (and had learned — see the early verses in this chapter) that God was doing a new thing. And when God is doing a new thing, you've got to let go of your old thing, whatever that is.

He began to sing a familiar hymn to a new tune, a new beat and a new band — one which included Gentiles. It was a shocking turn of events. Notice the reaction: "The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles" (Acts 10:45 NIV). The word even is telling. The unthinkable had happened. Even the Gentiles were heirs of the gospels, even the marginalized, even the homeless, even the addicts, even singles, even the non-traditional families, even ethnic communities — were and are heirs of the Good News.

To reach them may require letting go. Here's an example:

When the Reverend Stephen Carnahan of a UCC church in Portland, Maine, got permission from his deacons for an outreach worship program, the first thing he did was lock the organ and hire a three-piece band. He says: "We now have a band that can play contemporary pop music. It's a music style the people know. Music is essential." He advertised in the city's alternative weekly newspaper with this headline: "Church for people who don't like church."

RevFun — Stephen's e-mail nickname — changed everything, except one thing: the Word of God. He tossed out religious language. There's no pew talk. No pulpit. No message called a sermon. The Word is the one thing that stays the same, but the words are different. Attendance grows and grows.

Peter saw an opportunity to spread the Word while not letting his preconceived prejudices prevent him from acting. Reverend Carnahan does the same. Each abandons tactics, sticks to the core message, and succeeds.

In 1908, Henry Ford created his remarkable route to personal profit with his revolutionary hand-cranked Model T "Tin Lizzie," which sold for $825. By 1914, because of Ford's production line, the car price dropped to $206. His Model T, which came in every color so long as it was black, achieved a 60 percent market share, and in 17 years 10 million cars were sold.

But Henry Ford very nearly sat at the table too long, holding losing cards. In the 1920s the car market changed. General Motors offered new cars at competitive prices with conveniences that the Model T lacked — like an electric starter. Suddenly this novelty starter took on the characteristics of a desirable consumer product. 1920s drivers demanded conveniences.

Ford wouldn't let go. Once when he returned from a vacation he found his engineers had updated a Tin Lizzie. Ford stomped in its roof and kicked out its windshield. Finally, sales sputtered and Ford faced reality. He didn't change just its color or its name — he changed tactics. In May 1927, Ford stopped the Model T's production. He closed his factory for six months, retooled and then produced: the Model A. The Model A was a winning hand. He still produced personal motorized transportation, but by abandoning the tried and true and experimenting with something new, Ford succeeded in recapturing the market.

When successful and beloved products fail, it's time to let go. Practical and tactical innovation is key to any church that preaches Christ. Change not for change alone, but with one eye to improvement and the other to our real purpose, our real reason, for doing what we do as church.

Henry Ford built cars. When his car didn't sell, he changed everything — except he still built and sold cars, only better ones. Nike builds shoes. When sales fell they changed marketing, not tactics. Unfortunately, that's not enough.

Let go. Focus on the essential. Try a few things. See what works. The core message at Stephen Carnahan's church is still Jesus Christ, but all the trappings have changed. Some denominations are trying to regain market share the Nike way, by trying to create "brand loyalty." Denominations are creating logos, observes one pastor — instead of focusing on the essential Logos: the word of God.

Too often we're loyal to tactics, rather than to Christ. We're in love with a crank- start and forget that the whole point is to make the car go.

What applies to us as churches applies to us as a country, and to us as individuals. Perhaps God is calling us to a reinvention of our lives. Perhaps he is calling us to let go and retool for a greater experience of life and of himself.

As we take time this weekend to remember those who fought for our country, and for our freedom; remembering those who never came home; remembering those who were wounded; remembering those who sacrificed their time and family, let us look once again at our scripture for today.

As we remember, perhaps, like Peter in Acts 10, it's time to ask God to do a new thing in our lives. We need to:
• Embrace our core values
• Explore all of our options
• Be thankful in all things
• Dream new dreams
• Keep a journal of our progress
• Enlist support from valued friends
• Be filled with the Holy Spirit

Thank God in all things, and pray for peace on earth...... Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. Let us stand, let us be thankful, let us be responsible, and let us be spirit filled, as we sing......

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766