Open Source, Strategy
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Church 3.0 is Open Source

Posted by John Saddington on Oct 20, 2008

The masses have only really begun to understand the web 2.0-movement (and I might be a little presumptuous there even) and yet the avante-garde of the internet have already begun postulating web 3.0: It’s about Open Source.

Yahoo! is no exception: They’re thinking OS (or Y!OS to be precise).

And one thing that I’m practically 100% certain of is that among the things that will define the so-called 3.0 movement, especially for the Church, is open source.  It’s inevitable, and it’s one of the only ways that the capital-C Church will become more effective in the growing internet and digital economy.

Open Source, by nature, leverages the collective intelligence of the masses, and that’s how the best applications for the Kingdom, from my perspective, are going to evolve and be developed.

Sure, you can throw a whole lot of money, corporate and organizational sponsorship, and world renown leadership/name recognition into the product development roadmap and create a kick butt app (and what I’m saying is that it’s possible) but historically speaking, I don’t see that as the modus operandi for God’s great works among men.

Rather, I see, generally speaking, humble men with little fame in and of themselves that God has chosen to raise up and do mighty things.  I see 12 Jewish men that the world would never have otherwise recorded unless Jesus has engaged them and go out and change the course of human history.

I think that is Open Source Theology:  Principles of good product development leveraging the corporate mass of amazingly intelligent and gifted men and women collectively missionally driven to create history-changing web applications for the Kingdom.

Yahoo!, of all organizations, at least gets it (considering their extremely questionable leadership, product history failure rate, and somewhat shaky future).  Shouldn’t the Church get it then?

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John Saddington

John is the Chief Editor @ The 8BIT Network and Senior Blog Junkie here at ChurchCrunch.He enjoys Triple-Tall Americanos, developing Wordpress Themes, and a few other Random Things.

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9 Responses to “Church 3.0 is Open Source”

  1. Greg Atkinson
    Monday, October 20, 2008 at 9:52 am

    In the book and movement known as Church 2.0 – open source is a very big part of it. We are a long way from anything 3.0, bro.

    Reply
  2. Greg Atkinson
    Monday, October 20, 2008 at 10:09 am

    Please know that I like and agree with your blog post – it’s just that what you’re talking about IS Church 2.0.

    As I’ve traveled the country speaking to Church leaders the last 8 years, I’ve found that most of the Church is at 0.5 – it’s a HUGE stretch to get them to 2.0.

    But in what we (myself, Tony Steward and Cynthia Ware) are calling “Church 2.0″ is the value and philosophy of open source.

    Reply
  3. John
    Monday, October 20, 2008 at 10:50 am

    @Greg,

    As mentioned in my tweet, I believe Church2.0 has elements of open source, but it’s not as open as people believe.

    Just take a look at apps being developed right now… where do you see open standards? it’s certainly not a standard… yet.

    my thought is that church 2.0 is really web 1.0 (this is super simple processing here, but I think my point can be understood).

    church 3.0 is web 2.0 for the mainstream, and so-on.

    Reply
  4. Jose_HC
    Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 2:33 am

    I am quite new to this discussion (at large) but on the software and media side of things the church is not open… probably should be and will get there. Especially when more and more people begin to realize that the open and networked nature of web 2.0 is an amazing vehicle to reach the lost. I definitely need to think more about this … thanks for pushing me forward on the topic.

    Reply
  5. human3rror
    Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 2:44 am

    Jose, glad you joined in though! I think there's so much to be added here (and of course it isn't fully fleshed out yet).

    have a great weekend and take it easy1

    Reply
  6. Charles K Barry
    Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 6:33 am

    I agree with you – suggested resource confirming this trend’ “The Starfish and the spider”

    Reply

  1. Church 2.0 / 3.0 / 0.5? - ChurchCrunch

    [...] Yesterday was a day of great conversation as I had the opportunity to twitter-chat with @gregatkinson about Church 2.0 / Church 3.0 / Church .5 which began out of discourse from my post on Church 3.0 as Open Source. [...]

  2. churchcrunch (churchcrunch)

    New blog post: Church 3.0 is Open Source http://tinyurl.com/6rdz4h

  3. human3rror (human3rror)

    RT @churchcrunch: New blog post: Church 3.0 is Open Source http://tinyurl.com/6rdz4h – read about the future during lunch: open source baby!