The Open Source Church

So I was reading the March issue of Fast Company Magazine and posted 5 things about Google’s Innovating environment over on my 11 Bravo Company Blog. I thought though that these would be things that would apply to a church as well. I mean as a Church we are not selling a product or trying to win market share in the normal sense, but in a way we are. Therefore I think that churches need to look at innovation in the same light that a business does. “What can we do to further our vision, without compromising our mission or message”, which is exactly what Google does. With that said here are the 5 things that I pulled from that article:

1. Release products fast- Then fine tune them to work. This
   builds a buzz and a fan base, and then keeps those people interested as
   you are continually improving the product instead of having long
   development periods.
2. Keep things simple- Travel policies(don’t overspend),
   Employee Assimilation(Just have them start doing their job), Company
   Policies(Use common sense)
3. Except for Hiring- This is the exception to keeping things
   simple, in fact it is what enables you to keep things simple. If you
   are making hiring a big process then you can be sure you are getting
   people who you can trust with simple policies and procedures.
4. When in doubt, Do something- If you have two paths and
   you’re not sure which is right, take the fastest path. Whats true in
   physics is true with product creation/Business. Once you get a car in
   motion it is easier to steer then if it just sitting in a parking lot.
5. Create Fearlessness- Google instills a sense fearlessness in
   it’s employees. They are not afraid to take on big tasks, they are not
   afraid to speak up with a crazy idea(in fact if they do it will
   probably become the next great product), they are not afraid if they
   don’t know how to do something(they figure it out), they are not afraid
   because the Google environment creates a sense of fearlessness when it
   comes to innovation. Even if they fail they aren’t going to lose their
   jobs for trying out a new product. They will probably just try to
   refine it and relaunch it.

So what can your church learn from Google?

Ok so we didn’t get any of those cool web 2.o type pages up yesterday (sorry, we just got a little busy), but today we present to you our AboutUs.org wiki page. What is this? Well it is basically just a summary of what the website is and what the organization does. Why would we need this? Well for one it creates something more valuable then gold in a Search Engine owned world, linkbacks. Linkbacks help improve your sites search engine ranking. The more linkbacks you can get to your domain from reputable sources the better your ranking will be.

Anyway go on over and check it out, and if you want you can even add or edit info on it.

Today we are setting up a lot of web 2.0 apps for ourselves here at The Open Source Church. Why you ask? Well simply put we are a technology driven project so we are going to stay on top of technology(and we just love doing this stuff).

Also a lot of these great Web 2.0 apps actually help market your church to the masses. Most are free so it will cost you nothing. Think about it. If you spent one day setting up a Facebook Page, A Squidoo Lens, A AboutUs wiki. you could reach more people, which means more possibilities of change dlives. All for just a little bit of your time.

If you are interested in helping to promote your church using these and more great Web 2.0 apps, get started doing it yourself or  contact us today find out more.

We’ll Keep you updated throughout the day as we get different apps up.

I just read this article over on Wired Magazine. It outlines the history of “Free” and explains why “Free”is the future of business. This article is a good description of us here at The Open Source Church.

We are offering a free service in hopes of a a latter reward, only for us that reward will not come here on the earth but in heaven when we we hear the Lord “Well done my good and faithful servant”.

How does this apply to churches though? What services are we offering our guests? What is the cost of those services, either real or implied? In the world we live into day people are starting to be conditioned to expect things for free. What can your church do to capitalize on this?

Most churches are offering free stuff already, coffee, dough nuts, childcare. But what other services could you offer to guests that would generate interest and attendance while not raising you operating costs?

Maybe it is providing a Moms day out/Parents night out, utilizing your building which just sits there when your not having service. You could offer up your volunteers to help clean up the surrounding neighborhoods. Or you could show free movies for families once again utilizing that facility you have.

The point is utilizing the resources you have and using them to give something away. After all isn’t that what Jesus did? He used his life and gave it away for us, in the hopes that we would accept that gift. That is the ultimate example of “Free”.