Nike, the mission of God, and you

There are few things that are more uncomfortable (and more painful) than a pair of shoes that does not fit properly. And though I am not a male version of Imelda Marcos (nor Carrie Bradshaw) I do like to wear shoes that are at least presentable in their style and how they look. It still grieves me to think of that twice worn pair of white Nike shoes that were stolen from the hockey locker room at the arena when I was about 12 years old! White Nike tennis shoes with a red stripe, the only model they made. The things you remember from childhood!

I dropped my daughter at a soccer camp yesterday (imagine that). Set up beside the soccer camp was a tent staffed by a couple of Nike employees. The girls attending the camp were invited to try out a new pair of Nike soccer shoes and see how they felt and how they looked. You see Nike has figured something out here, you need to go to where the people are; not just wait for them to go to a store that carries their product and hopefully purchase a pair of their shoes. But the amazing thing is not that Nike will come to you to sell you a new pair of shoes, travelling salesmen are nothing new. The amazing thing is that you can custom design these shoes yourself through a program called NIKEid.

Set up inside the very hip looking tent were six computers that were accessing the Nike website. Check the site out here. It is really pretty cool. You can design everything about your shoe; everything from the cleat type, to the color of the swoosh, to your own name and number on the back or on the tongue. You are able to personalize your shoe to match your team’s colors or your own personal preferences. Shipped to you in a matter of a couple of weeks!

As I drove home I thought about what it might look like if we did something like this as the body of Christ in the world. What would it look like if we took ourselves on the road and offered people the opportunity to set up their own SPIRITid? A personalized spiritual development plan that meets the specific needs of the individual instead of offering the same white pair with the red swoosh to everyone.

At the risk of sounding like spiritual consumerism, let me be clear. I am thinking more of a plan that would inventory giftedness and affinity for particular missional activity and assess areas of personal development with goals and activities determined for improvement. What would you like your spiritual growth to look and feel like for the next year? What is needed in your life to provide comfort and peace spiritually? Do you need to focus more on prayer, relationships, scripture, engaging the world around you? Hmmm…

So here is my offer, if you are interested in developing a SPIRITid plan, email me and we can meet or get in touch by phone to explore what this could look like. Why should Nike have all the fun?