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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Sold!

Steve Jobs while presenting the iPad in San Fr...Image via Wikipedia
I had the opportunity to celebrate Mass this afternoon over at the Catholic Archdiocesan Youth Center (CAYC, Lorong Low Koon), for the youths and young adults undergoing the School of Witness (SOW) program.

In my homily, I mentioned something about Steve Jobs and his way of 'selling' a product, from an interesting read here. When he first introduced the iPad into the public's eye and subsequently the world, he sold us the idea that this device is “magical” and how it is a great way to experience the Internet. He also gave practical examples of using the iPad and emphasized its ease of use and how fun it is, basically for anyone, to use. When his competitors jumped onto the bandwagon recently and started selling their iPad killer tablets, they talked about how they had dual-processors, included so many gigs of memory, and ran the latest Android OS. They reiterated the great tech specs their tablet had compared to the iPad and other tablet devices. Time will tell whether these tablets will 'kill' the iPad.

However, noticed how Jobs sold his iPad that captured the imagination of millions of people worldwide that his competitors had to play catch-up to. While the competitors spoke of technical superiority their product may have over the iPad, Steve spoke of how his product will change people’s lives. It is as if, the article mentions, while his competitors were trying to sell toothpaste, Steve was selling white teeth! Between white teeth and toothpaste, it is a no-brainer which most people would gravitate to!

What's this got to do with our faith life?

The article which is one of the items where my homily runs on, mentions that the method of Jobs sales pitch can teach us something about how we evangelize our faith to others. Certainly, we do need to know and pass on the technical details and teachings of our faith - the hows, whys and what-nots. But these are not the main first things to use to get people's attention. Instead we must proclaim that Christ has changed our lives and that he can change yours/others as well. Those who are in most need of Christ will be drawn to our experience and it will lead them to want to know more about this Jesus Christ and his Church that have so radically changed our lives.

I am assuming that we ourselves, who are in this evangelizing mission, have lives that are radically changed by Christ, or that we have experienced Christ profoundly to be able to share this experience.
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5 comments:

Playful Elena said...

Hello Fr Aloy,

I often believe actions speak louder than words. I may say a hundred words to try to evangelize to others. But, only one small negative action on my part will change people's mind. I guess that was why Jesus was incarnated so that the people could experience the God's abstract Love through the tangible presence of Jesus Christ.

How do I share God's abstract love with others more effectively? Words are effective but not as effective as how I lead my life and my interaction with the others as words are still abstract. Other people can experience God's love personally through their five senses as human beings through what we do and our body language. Most people tend to take in ideas, words, etc. easier when they see that they are relevant to their own lives.

I may be wrong. To me, Christianity is a form of lifestyle where God wants me to lead life to the fullest in Love with the others. Sometimes, I even think that in this modern and harsh world where I may behave like an animal fighting with others in some ways, especially in the corporate world where it is just like a jungle, Christianity is reminding and teaching me to be more like a human with love. Well, these are just my thoughts. Even before I can evangelize, I must start with myself for transformation and having loving experience with God and staying close to God so that when I evenaglize to the others, my focus is set right that my evangelization is not about showing people how holy I am and imposing my will and Christianity on the others. Rather, my focus is all about pouring the love out from my heart and gratitude that God has been blessing me with and sharing it with them in Love, touching their hearts from the work of God. No matter what, all my words and actions towards others should be based on Love.

Thank you for the interesting sharing. It also give me some ideas in my work though. See you around if you are invited to preach at IHM.

With Love,
Elena

Anonymous said...

Hi Father Aloysius,

Me think Steve Jobs has succeeded in promoting and selling a lifestyle, beyond products.

Which makes me think how successful are we in 'promoting' or 'selling' our Christian lifestyle to the non-Christians?

Do our lifestyles 'attract' or 'repel' others?

Scary scary.

Terence said...

Hi Father, you might want to see this video, on how Steve Jobs promotes the ipad. Maybe that's why now God is the Awesome God

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZS8HqOGTbA

Anonymous said...

I like very much your "sales pitch" here. Like any "business", I think our failure is we don't believe in our products, we don't live our products. This is why we fall back on model answers and the FAQ list. Likewise, our main excuse for not witnessing is that we don't know the faith teachings when we reality, we should already be living the faith.

I have always wondered who sells more. The insurance agent who uses standard sales pitch or the one who shares experiences?

Anonymous said...

I would think this blog has a very significant fire, striking on way we could have approach evangelization as Jesus would have done, sending out his disciple... nothing is needed but your sandals and your faith. When a wise reader had pointed us to this blog, I recounted the possibilities of breaks or misses in successful telling of what wonderful difference it would make, if one is to learn more about our changed life. I never noticed a dire need for solution until this blog. As such, I see the light of God's lamp in this blog, wisdom that could only be from blessings of God. A realistic reflection of how we could have fare if we trust in God. The trial of clear speech may still come when we reached out but we know it's worth now. I feel Jesus would have said again, build the church upon this rock, when we look upon sharing our own experiences and our own founding of faith.

Thanks for the blog Fr. Alloy, we need this one about now.

 

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