Wrap-up: Second Session

POP GOES THE CHURCH – Second Session

After the break (see previous entry on this subject for additional information) we moved on to the question:

Where is God found in the culture?

And

Is there a biblical basis for using the culture to communicate the message?

In answer to the second question, the speaker pointed out that in the Bible there are often references to the pop culture of the time. For instance, Acts chapter 17 verse 28 quotes Paul saying: “For in you, we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are your children.’”

The reference Paul is making is to a line from a poem called Hymn to Zeus by a poet of the time called Cleanthes. The portion of the poem from which Paul quotes is this:

O God most glorious, called by many a name,
Nature’s great King, through endless years the same;
Omnipotence, who by your just decree
Controls all, hail, Zeus, for unto you
Must your creatures in all lands call.
We are your children, we alone, of all
On earth’s broad ways that wander to and fro,
Bearing your image wheresoever we go.

The speaker claims that Paul was using the poem in much the same way that today we should be using quotes and examples from our pop culture when talking to our audience. Cleanthes’ poem in Paul’s time can be compared to a song by The Beatles, or U2 or Britney Spears, or any other popular band or performer. The point is even stronger because the quote comes from a poem that praises the god Zeus, and yet, Paul did not hesitate to use it.

Later on, in Titus chapter 1, verse 12, Paul quotes Greek philosopher Epimides as stating that “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” Again, the message is the same: it’s o.k. to borrow images from the pop culture to illustrate a point or make it more relevant to the audience being addressed.

After discussing biblical precedents for using the pop culture in the church, the focus returned to the first question: Where is God Found in the Culture?

In order to address the question, we watched a clip from a TV show called Friday Night Lights. We were asked to consider the following questions while watching the clip:

• What real human needs or issues does this show bring to the surface?
• What are some of the underlying questions it raises?
• What world values does it bring up that are not supported in the Bible?
• How could you use this show to help connect people back to God?

When the clip was over, we compiled a list of issues in answer to the questions posed above. This list included human problems in dealing with:

• Uncertainty
• Fear of the future
• Helplessness
• Job Security and Finances
• Marriage/Relationships
• Denial
• Shame in who you are
• Success is not always the answer
• The power of someone believing in me
• Being valued for who we are instead of what we do
• And about a dozen or so other things

One of the points made while reviewing this clip and understanding its value as a tool is that your audience needs to realize the clip is simply a tool. There should be a statement at some point to the effect that the excerpt being used doesn’t signify that you agree with it. You don’t necessarily agree with its message or the philosophy of the program or the artist that created it. This helps create a boundary for you as a church, and for your audience. As a church, you are in a position where the pop culture really is simply a tool. If your audience understands that the culture is being leveraged and not embraced, they will also be more understanding and less prone to dismiss the church as simply a place to be entertained.

The second session ended with a brief explanation of the services provided at Granger Community Church:

The weekend services, the speaker explained, are geared toward attracting as many people as possible. The techniques include those mentioned above (TV show clips, in-house videos, popular music) as well as other channels such as bulletin boards placed throughout the city, mass mailings sent to community members, and an Internet presence.

The Thursday night service on the other hand, is geared toward an audience that is already ‘churched.’

In the speaker’s own words: “the weekend service starts with a topic and then it moves into scripture. The Thursday service starts with scripture which we take and make topical.”

That covers the POP GOES THE CHURCH workshop I attended. I’ve reviewed the content of the workshop, and in a subsequent blog I’ll try to review how the lessons taught at this workshop relate to companies and institutions that are not affiliated with the church.

Stay tuned for more…

 

Wrap-up: First Session

POP GOES THE CHURCH

I attended the POP GOES THE CHURCH workshop on Friday, March 14. The workshop consisted of one speaker and a large selection of multimedia items to help with illustrations or to prove a point.

The attendees were seated in round tables, roughly 5 or 6 people to a table. Altogether there were approximately 30 attendees. We were supplied with binders outlining the workshop, and paper and pens to take notes.

The speaker (Tim Stevens) began by describing the problem:

• The Church tends to target people that are already ‘churchy.’
• The Church is often oblivious to the larger culture (perhaps even disdainful of it) and as a result, alienates itself.
• Most churches are ineffective in reaching new people.
• Spiritual interest is growing in our culture, but the church is not seen as a place to explore this spiritual growth.

The first session of the workshop addressed the following question:

Is leveraging the culture in the church okay?

Within that category, these additional questions were raised:

How do we:

• Use the culture to make church appealing to all generations?
• Make sure the ‘message’ is not just a ‘show’?
• Reach out to new people, not just transfers from other churches?
• Create a great experience for new people?
• Transfer church values to new believers?
• Make sure we don’t cross ‘the line’?
• Figure out how far is too far?
• Balance two styles of churches?

The point was made early on that it may not be helpful to simply mimic a specific prop. What might work at Granger Community Church, may not work at another church. Instead, we need to understand the principles being used at Granger and apply them to something that might work in our particular church.

There were also four main points the workshop examined:

1. Churches tend to condemn things. As such, they become famous for what they oppose instead of what they stand for. The problem with this approach is that instead of changing to make our content relevant to the culture, we expect the culture to adapt to us and what we value.
2. Churches tend to separate themselves from the culture: Sometimes churches have too many rules we can’t follow. The example given was of Jesus becoming angry with the religious leaders of his day because they imposed rules that weren’t in the Scriptures.
3. Churches tend to embrace the culture: sometimes church becomes so relevant that it seems to be worshiping the culture instead of God. The difference between embracing and leveraging is this: leverage is a tool used to spread the message. Embracing is accepting the values of the culture as your own (or as the churches) and can go overboard.
4. Churches tend to ignore the culture: sometimes there are opportunities presented by our culture that churches choose to ignore.

The workshop was presented in a somewhat interactive format. The speaker made his point, played a video (a clip from a popular TV show, or a small video created by the church) and asked the audience for comments or questions.

For example, we saw a video of a TV show called 24, but while the main characters acted out their parts, their voices were dubbed over. Jack Bauer, the main character, was seen frantically flying a younger man in a helicopter while talking on his cell phone with a woman. The modified audio for this clip had the characters frantically talking about trying to get to church on time in helicopter.

The clip was fun and entertaining and it made its point well: using a character from a popular TV show grabbed our attention, appealed to something we were already familiar with and helped us associate it with church, and it also served as an incentive to find out what else this church had to offer.

Although clearly an unorthodox approach to increasing church attendance, it’s nonetheless an effective approach.

The first session ended with a question and answer period followed by a break. I’ll take a look at the second session in my next blog…

 

A car is a car is a car… or is it? – Audio Piece, 2nd Draft

For years now, I’ve been convinced that my car is on its last leg. I drive a ’97 Saturn which I purchased in ’96. The first few years with my Saturn were happy years: we went everywhere together! I had done my share of research before purchasing a vehicle and felt very pleased with my choice. It was relatively good on gas (I don’t remember the exact number, but I think it was somewhere around 30 miles per gallon), it was rated well in Consumer Reports and it was a stick shift which I enjoy much more than automatic transmission. The car was also famous for its unique material: it was made from some kind of fiberglass. In theory, I could take a baseball bat to it and the car would simply pop back into shape without a dent or sign that anything had happened. The fiberglass was also impervious to rust, a big plus! This was clearly the car for me.

But let’s take a slight detour to look at previous vehicles I’ve owned and my experience with them. It will help you understand my misgivings about cars and car dealerships. My first vehicle was a bicycle: it was a great mode of transportation, extremely fuel efficient and required very little maintenance. I had to give up the bicycle as my main mode of transportation because of the many miles between work and home. It simply took too long, and bad weather would often create a problem for me. A car seemed like a better option at the time.

The car I purchased was a small Pontiac T1000. I bought it used for around $300.00. Not a bad deal, I thought at the time, even if I have to put in a few dollars here and there for maintenance or for an occasional repair. At the time I was in college and couldn’t really afford much more than that. My little T1000 lasted a good six months before things turned sour. I’m no mechanic and my knowledge of cars in general is rather limited, but I was extremely impressed with how many components my T1000 had in it! I became a regular at the local car shop in Goshen, learning, almost every other week, a whole new set of part names my car needed to continue functioning. I secretly suspected that the name T1000 was chosen because that’s how many parts the manufacturer knew would have to be replaced over the life of the car. Even after the repairs, if I drove with 2 or more passengers, the car couldn’t make it past 45 mph. It was an ongoing joke back then: musician Sammy Hagar had released a song called “I can’t drive 55″ and it became the theme song for my car. I couldn’t drive 55 either. My little T1000 died a dishonorable death: the engine locked up, and repairs would cost more than the car was worth. I was glad to be done with it.

Right after the T1000, I drove a used 1984 Honda Accord. It was a great little car – 2 door, fuel-efficient, stick shift. It got me to where I needed to go and it was low maintenance. I was very happy with my Accord until the engine fell out from under it. It turns out that the Accord (unlike my current Saturn) was not impervious to rust. I should have paid more attention to the signs: at one time, the whole gas tank area rusted and more or less crumbled away. I took it to the local Honda dealer and found there was a recall on that particular section of the Accord. All the repairs were made, fortunately, free of charge. During the winter and more so during the spring I noticed my shoes and pant legs were often wet after driving around. It didn’t take much investigating to find the problem. The floor in my Honda was rusted out and was slowly but surely crumbling away. After some time, there was a fairly large hole in the floor of my car where water easily splashed up and got me. If I wasn’t careful, I could also put my foot right through the floor. The problem was easily taken care of by placing a mat over the hole. The mat concealed the problem but Alas, it also gave me a false sense of security. I could no longer see the hole and as the saying goes: out of sight, out of mind. It was only a matter of time before the rust gave way to the engine’s weight. This was a slightly harder problem to ignore. In the end, Saturn took my Accord as a ‘trade-in’ and in return gave me $500.00 towards a new car. I remember the Saturn salesperson telling me that ‘those Honda engines will run forever while the rest of the car rusts away.’

Today, my Saturn has nearly 170,000 miles on it, it burns oil all the time – enough that I have to add a quart or so almost every other week – and the shift stick gets stuck half the time. I often have to wrestle with it at the most unfortunate moments, just to shift into another gear. Before the car hit 100,000 miles I had no problems at all with it. I took it in to the dealer for regular oil changes and followed the maintenance plan they recommended. Soon after reaching the 100,000 mile mark, back in 2002, things started falling apart. My ‘check engine soon’ light came on regularly and every time I took it to the Saturn dealer to see what the problem was, they told me a part needed to be replaced – often an expensive part – for the car to continue running as it should. Over the next 6 months I put in close to $1200.00 in ‘necessary’ repairs. Saturn finally told me I needed to have the engine rebuilt. The car, they said, wouldn’t last much longer otherwise. That’s when I stopped going to the Saturn dealer.

Six years and 70,000 miles later, and my Saturn is still running. I took my Saturn to a different auto shop where they didn’t tell me the engine had to be rebuilt. Instead, I’ve replaced the oil regularly, replaced the brakes, put in a new starter and purchased new tires. The ‘check engine soon’ light is always on but I really don’t notice it anymore. Every summer for the last few years I think: “if only I can get the car through this coming winter.” And so far, the car just keeps on going. Today, just like last year and the year before, I’m looking at the new cars on the market: in particular I’m looking for a car as fuel efficient as my old bicycle, low on maintenance, with an engine that will run forever and a body that won’t rust. With all the new hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars hitting the market today, I’m sure my next car will be a winner!

 

South Bend Potholes – Letter to the Editor

This past winter has been an adventure driving down the streets of South Bend, Indiana. During the last month alone I’ve hit enough pot holes, and hit them hard enough that I’ve had to replace the rim on my passenger front tire once already. I have a slow leak in my passenger back tire, caused by a bent rim as well, which I’ll have to get replaced sometime soon. So far I’ve paid $97.00 in repairs and I’ll probably have to pay more before the season is over.

I’m tired of swerving all over the road, along with everybody else, trying to avoid pot holes every few feet. I don’t understand why the streets are in such bad condition. We pay taxes to ensure our streets are maintained and drivable. Can anybody explain to me where our ‘street repair’ money is going? It certainly doesn’t seem to be going to repair the streets.

 

Wrap

One of the workshops offered in Wired Churches’ upcoming March 14 event is titled: POP GOES THE CHURCH. The concept behind this workshop is that the mainstream pop culture exerts an enormous amount of influence on all of us. Every day we come in contact with it in different ways: the music we hear on the radio, concepts and values we absorb by watching television or going to the movies, advertisements, and even the language we use while interacting with coworkers or friends. In contrast to the pop culture we live in, churches tend to continue using language that caters to congregations from the 50′s and 60′s. Often, the churches’ choice of music and the way it relays its message may be outdated and unappealing to the younger generations.

This workshop identifies these and other problems the church deals with in its effort to maintain and increase its membership. The message we need to learn is that the mainstream culture shouldn’t be shunned, but instead, should be used as a tool to promote the church.

POP GOES THE CHURCH is a workshop about the church and its ability to use the mainstream culture to capture an audience. But the information offered is not limited to churches. The lessons being taught can be applied to other institutions as well. Anyone interested in modern marketing techniques and concrete results should consider attending. Keep in mind that the church hosting this event is the largest church in Northern Indiana. Its growth and its ability to remain relevant within the community are due in great part to the techniques taught in this workshop.

I’m including an excerpt from a promotional brochure about this upcoming workshop:

If you’re open to new strategies for impacting today’s culture, this is your opportunity to think beyond “normal” church:

• Creating a service that conveys your message in the language of your listeners
  
• De-mystifying the development process, from brainstorming to debriefing
  
• Creating buzz and deciding what is buzz-worthy
  
• Setting realistic timetables for planning and execution
  

For more information or if you’re interested in attending the POP GOES THE CHURCH workshop, simply follow the link.

 

“Plug-in” to your future: alternate energy and the oil crisis – 2nd Draft (Persuasive Piece)

Many of the things we take for granted today may lead to some of tomorrow’s greatest problems. I’m speaking of our energy consumption and the environment. Some of the resources we consume without a second thought are finite, although often we treat them as though they will never run out. Fifty years ago people may have been inclined to think that resources were a problem for future generations: they would never see a world where resources ran out. But today is a whole different story. Today our rate of consumption guarantees a future in which, in our lifetime, fossil fuels will become scarce and eventually, unavailable. Oil reserves and natural gas are already costing us a great deal, both as individuals and as a country. We pay ever-increasing prices at the pump, ever-increasing utility bills, but instead of questioning and confronting the underlying problem, we complain and ask our government to help keep prices down. Our economy, in turn, has become dependent on foreign oil. The United States currently imports 58% of its oil to meet domestic demands, and it’s estimated that by 2025, the United States will be importing up to 68%. The energy problem is two-fold: we’ve become dependent of fossil fuels for our day-to-day activities, and these fossil fuels threaten our environment with global warming and pollution.

What does this mean to us as individuals, and is there anything we can do to resolve this problem? There are, in fact, many alternatives today. Companies and governments have invested a considerable amount of time and money into alternate energies. Today we have options that didn’t exist 50 years ago: we’ve all heard of hybrid cars which run on both batteries and fuel. Some of these cars run on ethanol or other fuels which are actually renewable. They do not pollute, or do not pollute as much as fossil-fuel powered vehicles, and they certainly reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Some manufacturers have developed electrical cars which can be plugged into a 110 volt electrical outlet in your garage and charged overnight. These cars do not pollute at all, and if the electricity they use comes from solar power or wind, they do not depend in any way on fossil fuels. Other manufacturers have developed hybrid plug-ins, which run primarily on electricity and can be plugged into a regular electric outlet (at home or at the office, or anywhere really, if you have a long enough extension cord). These hybrid plug-ins can get 100+ miles per gallon of gasoline, but are also available to run on alternate fuels such as ethanol.

Both electrical cars and plug-in hybrids bring with them a promise of freedom from constantly running to the pump for a refill. Imagine living in a house powered by solar panels or a wind turbine: your electricity would come entirely from renewable energy resources. Your lights and heating would cost you next to nothing (aside from the original cost of installing solar panels or a wind turbine). And at night, you simply plug your car into an outlet in the garage and let it charge. In the morning you have a ‘full tank of gas’ in the form of a fully charged battery and you’re ready to go to work without making a trip to the gas station.

If you are looking for a way to reduce your utility bills, avoid regular visits to the gas station, help the environment and reduce our country’s dependence on foreign resources, I suggest you take a look at some of the plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles available today.

 

Wrap

Wired Churches’ public training seminars are an undiscovered cache of business and marketing techniques. These events, hosted at Granger Community Church, cater to church ministry leaders in the area as well as nationally. Although their target audience is the religious community, these events are easily adaptable to the business community as well.

The events I will cover will take place on March 14, and on April 18. They consist of a series of workshops geared towards using modern marketing techniques to attract an audience. The church, the thinking goes, needs to adapt to today’s world if it expects to continue growing and being an influence in the community. Old church habits need to be left behind and modern methods need to take their place.

This thinking is very much in line with the readings early in the semester about newspapers and their place in today’s information age. The issue is the same: what does an institution need to do to remain viable in today’s world? How can it continue to attract crowds and keep them interested? With so many options available today, what can you do to stand out and appeal to your target audience?

Wired Churches’ public training events address these questions as well as many more along those same lines. If you or the place you work for has struggled with these issues, this is a public event you should attend.

Stay posted for more information…

 

A car is a car is a car… or is it? Audio Piece, 1st Draft

For years now, I’ve been convinced that my car is on its last leg. I drive a ’97 Saturn which I purchased in ’96. The first few years with my Saturn were happy years: we went everywhere together! I had done my share of research before purchasing a vehicle and felt very pleased with my choice. It was relatively good on gas (I don’t remember the exact number, but I think it was somewhere around 30 miles per gallon), it was rated well in Consumer Reports and it was a stick shift which I enjoy a great deal over automatic transmission. The car was also famous for its unique material: it was made from some kind of fiberglass. In theory, I could take a baseball bat to it and the car would simply pop back into shape without a dent or sign that anything had happened. The fiberglass was also impervious to rust, a big plus! This was clearly the car for me.

Let’s take a slight detour to look at previous cars I’ve owned and my experience with them. It will help you understand how I feel about cars in general: right before my Saturn, I drove a used 1984 Honda Accord. It was a great little car – 2 door, fuel-efficient, stick shift. It got me to where I needed to go and it was low maintenance. I was very happy with my Accord until the engine fell out from under it. It turns out that the Accord (unlike my current Saturn) was not impervious to rust. I should have paid more attention to the signs: at one time, the whole gas tank area rusted and more or less crumbled away. I took it to the local Honda dealer and found there was a recall on that particular section of the Accord. All the repairs were made, fortunately, free of charge. During the winter and more so during the spring I noticed my shoes and pant legs were often wet after driving around. It didn’t take much investigating to find the problem. The floor was rusted out and was slowly but surely crumbling away. After some time, there was a fairly large hole in the floor of my car where water easily splashed up and got me. If I wasn’t careful, I could also put my foot right through the floor. The problem was easily taken care of by placing a mat over the hole. The mat concealed the problem but Alas, it also gave me a false sense of security. I could no longer see the hole and as the saying goes: out of sight, out of mind. It was only a matter of time before the rust gave way to the engine’s weight. This was a slightly harder problem to ignore. In the end, Saturn took my Accord as a ‘trade-in’ and in return gave me $500.00 towards a new car. I remember the Saturn salesperson telling me that ‘those Honda engines will run forever while the rest of the car rusts away.’

Right before my Accord, I owned a small Pontiac T1000. I bought it used for around $300.00. Not a bad deal, I thought at the time, even if I have to put in a few dollars here and there for maintenance or for an occasional repair. At the time I was in college and couldn’t really afford much more than that. My little T1000 lasted a good six months before things turned sour. I’m no mechanic and my knowledge of cars in general is rather limited, but I was extremely impressed with how many components my T1000 had in it! I became a regular at the local car shop in Goshen, learning, almost every other week, a whole new set of names of parts my car needed to continue functioning. Even after the repairs, if I drove with 2 or more passengers, the car couldn’t make it past 45 mph. It was an ongoing joke back then: musician Sammy Hagar had released a song called “I can’t drive 55″ and it became the theme song for my car. I couldn’t drive 55 either. My little T1000 died a dishonorable death: the engine locked up, and repairs would cost more than the car was worth. I was glad to be done with it.

Before my T1000 I drove a bicycle everywhere. Great mode of transportation, very little maintenance and it kept me in great shape.

Fast-forward back to the present. My Saturn has nearly 170,000 miles on it, it burns oil all the time – enough that I have to add a quart or so almost every other week – and the shift stick gets stuck half the time. I often have to wrestle with it at the most unfortunate moments, just to shift into another gear. Before the car hit 100,000 miles I had no problems at all with it. I took it in to the dealer for regular oil changes and followed the maintenance plan they recommended. Soon after reaching the 100,000 mile mark, back in 2002, things started falling apart. My ‘check engine soon’ light came on regularly and every time I took it to the Saturn dealer to see what the problem was, they told me a part needed to be replaced – often an expensive part – for the car to continue running as it should. Over the next 6 months I put in close to $1200.00 in ‘necessary’ repairs. Saturn finally told me I needed to have the engine rebuilt. The car, they said, wouldn’t last much longer otherwise. That’s when I stopped going to Saturn.

Six years and 70,000 miles later, and my Saturn is still running. I took my Saturn to a different auto shop where they didn’t tell me the engine had to be rebuilt. Instead, I’ve replaced the oil regularly, replaced the brakes, put in a new starter and purchased new tires. The ‘check engine soon’ light is always on but I really don’t notice it anymore. Every summer for the last few years I think: “if only I can get the car through this coming winter.” And so far, the car just keeps on going. Today, just like last year and the year before, I’m looking at the new cars on the market: in particular I’m looking for a car low on maintenance, high on fuel efficiency, and friendly to the environment. With all the new hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electrical cars hitting the market today, I’m sure my next car will be a winner!

 

Sentence Structure

Sentence #1

This is just what we feared would happen as a result of President Bush’s decision to go outside the law in dealing with terrorism: men who may well have committed crimes against humanity are being put on trial in a system so flawed that the results will seem unjust.

The structure for this one is:

A is what we feared would happen as a result of B in dealing with C: A

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/opinion/13wed1.html
Sentence #2

Instead of being what they could and should be — a model of justice dispensed impartially, surely and dispassionately — the trials will proceed under deeply flawed procedures that violate this country’s basic fairness.

The structure for this one is:

Instead of being A, the trials will proceed as B, which violates this country’s basic fairness (C).

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/opinion/13wed1.html

 

Wal-Mart – Part II

Wal-Mart and local food

My previous blog talked about some of the positive things Wal-Mart is doing for the environment. One of the things it’s doing, I’m happy to say, is offering locally grown foods in its grocery section. Wal-Mart currently buys locally in 24 states. The intent here is to save in ‘food miles’ which save shipping costs and reduce the cost of energy for a product. It also means that the consumer will be eating fresh produce as well as supporting the local economy.

For those of you who are not aware of the importance of purchasing locally grown products, there is an excellent article titled Buying Local – What’s the Big Deal? which describes this issue clearly. Some of the points in the article can be used to illustrate the positive impact Wal-Mart is having in communities around the country. For instance, the article talks about highly processed foods which are bad in terms of environmental costs, but also in terms of health care costs. Wal-Mart is focusing its business practices on purchasing locally grown products, therefore eliminating the environmental costs. At the same time, Wal-Mart’s fresh products give the consumer the option of buying food that is healthy for them. I understand that Wal-Mart also carries a large selection of processed products, but change doesn’t happen overnight. We really can’t expect Wal-Mart to give up all the products it currently markets. Besides, purchasing healthy food instead of unhealthy food is the consumer’s choice.

Other statements in the Buying Local article (along with my own comments) include:

• Ask your grocery store manager to carry more locally produced food items (this is something Wal-Mart’s grocery department is focusing on strongly).
• Ask friends and co-workers about local food sources (optionally, tell your friends and co-workers about Wal-Mart as a local food source).
• Be willing to pay slightly more for quality, organically grown local food (Wal-Mart does an excellent job in this area. Not only is it driving to provide a very large selection of organic products, but it does so at prices that low and middle-income families can afford. Purchasing fresh organic products that are good for you and your family is now an option for everyone, not just middle to upper-class citizens).
• Stop giving your money (and thus, your support) to an industrial food system which is undermining our health, wasting our natural resources, and polluting our water (although Wal-Mart has a ways to go in removing environmentally harmful products, we should support the environmentally sound products it does carry. Doing so will promote healthier products on the shelf in the future).

In summary, Wal-Mart has gone a long way toward becoming an environmentally conscious company. There are many other aspects to Wal-Mart’s environmentally driven business plan, and I will try to write more about them in future blog entries.