The man behind Abercrombie & Fitch

Check out this article at Salon.com (you can view the article after viewing an ad, without registering). It's about Mike Jeffries, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch. He talks about a variety of topics, including some of the controversies surrounding the company (like t-shirt slogans). (HT: Ypulse.com)
An excerpt:


For example, when I ask him how important sex and sexual attraction are in what he calls the "emotional experience" he creates for his customers, he says, "It's almost everything. That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that."

As far as Jeffries is concerned, America's unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."

1/2 of Teenage Girls Watched Idol

Teenage girls are American Idol watchers. This article talks about the phenonomen:
Even more astonishing, “[a]mong teenage girls, the show had an extraordinary 49 share — meaning that of every girl in the country watching television for those two hours, with about 100 channels to choose from in most homes, half were watching Fox.”

Current MiX Series

Recently in MiX we have been in a message series called Kingdom Perspectives. It is not so much a topical study as it is simply looking in Scripture at the book of Matthew. Two weeks we looked at the genealogy of Christ. Last night we focused on the characteristics of those that God favors, as Jesus taught in the Beatitudes.

Next week we will continue in the sermon on the mount, looking further in chapter five of Matthew. Jesus is teaching here about the importance of the heart and how our sinful actions are rooted in sinful hearts. Kevin will be teaching next week, and I have encouraged the students to read Matthew 5 this week as part of their personal devotions.

I encourage you to ask them about this, to encourage them to read it, and even talk with them about the Scripture. I think this Scripture is very important and useful to out middle schoolers in showing them that Christianity is not just about modified behavior - it is something that changes us from head to toe from the inside out.

International Justice Mission

In February, MiX will be using the International Justice Mission curriculum. This series, which we will call I See Things Upside Down will teach about God's view of oppression, hunger, and other faces of poverty. This focus will resonate with our Souper Bowl food drive for God's pantry and the Fast4Food that will take place on February 24-25.

You can read more about the Justice Mission by clicking on the link above or the title of this post.