Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Christian Networks and Collaboration


The church is in desperate need of Christian Networks and Collaboration. Recently listening to a speaker on Ted.com*, Howard Rheingold presented the need for heightened collaboration. He opposed the view that successful biology is at war with itself.

Along with Rheingold's discussion on collaboration, Robin Chase (founder of Zipcar, Inc) discussed wireless-mesh-networks.

Wireless mesh networks provide an excellent metaphor for the mode of operation that the church should operate under. Chase pointed out that each device acts as a wireless router and amplifies the wireless signal. (For tech gurus, forgive the simplicity of this explanation.) In Hurricane Katrina, the simple wireless mesh network in the French Quater was the only network still up and running after the storm. Though a few of the devices were destroyed or lost, the overall network sustained.

How appropriate an illustration that is for how the church should operate? With heightened Christian Networks and collaboration, the church would also prevail. Sadly, it is too often the case that Christians are operating as islands, not collaborating, or acting as a typical wireless-router system.

Is our signal strong enough to be picked up by those in need? Only by our interconnectedness will the body continue to prevail.

* - Ted.com is compendium of thinkers. Admittedly, much of their thought is based on an evolutionary belief of creation, which is not my belief. However, their commitment to expanding thought is worth of respect, and worthy to be mimicked by Christians as well.

As this blog is committed to expanding Christian thought and enlightenment to better serve the world into the Kingdom, we are always on the search for powerful thinking.

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