What’s Your Brand?

As a student of advertising, I am always intrigued to see how the purveyors of various goods and services present themselves and their products to the buying public.

Sometimes I’ll see a great TV spot that makes me smile or laugh. But, when the spot ends, I have no idea what product or service the advertiser has offered. And, I do not know the name of the advertiser. I always feel sad. What a waste. They spent all that money to sell to me and I don’t even know the name of the company or the name of the product.

In contrast, all throughout the mid-morning hours of this business quarter, ConAgra Foods has run a TV Spot that is nothing short of delightful and outstandingly effective.

The spot shows a young elementary school-aged boy eating Chef Boyardee pasta. His dad stands next to him, picks up the empty can, and reads the label. The camera focuses on the part of the label that announces the product contains a full serving of vegetables. The dad then speaks loudly to the mom across the room and asks her if she realizes what the can of pasta contains.

The mom quickly turns on the garbage disposal to block the sound of her husband’s voice. When he tries to tell her again, she bangs on some hanging pots with a wooden spoon. She obviously doesn't want her son to hear about the vegetables.

As the scene ends, the announcer gives a voice-over that really pops: “Chef Boyardee...obviously delicious, secretly nutritious.”

Wow! What a great brand: “obviously delicious, secretly nutritious.” It started me thinking about what brand I project to the people who cross the pathway of my life. When people think about me, what brand pops into their minds?

The Apostle Paul struggled with how the people in the church at Corinth were thinking about him. In 1 Corinthians 3 he tries to deal with how the Corinthians are thinking about and talking about the various spiritual leaders of the day. He urges them to stop boasting about men; to stop identifying themselves with a particular leader. Rather, they should place their identity with the Lord Jesus Christ. ( vs. 21-23)

In 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, Paul asserts: “So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” The Greek word translated “servant” can also refer to a slave who has been pressed into service. It can also refer to someone who has placed himself or herself into bond service: a bond-servant or bond-slave.

It is quite possible that Paul was thinking about the passage in Deuteronomy 15:12-17. In that passage, God gives instructions to His chosen people how to set free a fellow Hebrew who has sold himself or herself into slavery in the seventh year of indenture. In verses 16 and 17, God describes how a servant can choose to remain with his or her master “because he loves you and your family and is well off with you.” Thus, a servant or slave becomes a bond-slave or bond-servant for life.

When the Holy Spirit prompts us to respond to God’s gift of love and grace through the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we acknowledge God’s claim on our lives, we become a bond-slave or bond-servant of Christ.

As I have heard my dear friend, Dr. David R. Mains teach many times, a steward is a slave elevated to a position of responsibility in his or her master’s household. Still a slave, the steward has overall responsibility for the possessions of his or her master. He or she has no interest in her own reputation, possessions, or success. Rather, he or she is fully devoted only to those matters that concern his or her master.

So, Paul seems to say that the “brand” by which he wishes to be known consists of being a “bond-slave of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God.” And, he goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 4:2, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.”

What’s your brand? How will you choose to be known to your family, to your friends, and to anyone who crosses your pathway?

As for me, I really like: “obviously delicious, secretly nutritious.” But, I like even better: “bond-slave of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God.”

_{Copyright © 2009 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}