What does open-source mean to you? To a developer, it means a chance to contribute to the world. To the technology companies, it means their competition isn’t another company but the entire world. To technology users, it means free technology such as Firefox and Skype.
Open-source has become a cultural buzz word. Everyone has heard it, but not nearly as many people know what it means. In over-simplified terms, open-source is a project model in which a company releases the super-secret product details for a piece of technology. This means any developer in the world can work to improve his or her product. It also means he or she can’t make any money off of his or her technology.
Why would anyone pay for what can be obtained for free? It sounds like a really bad business model, but it has created some of the best software in the world today. If the whole world becomes your development team, imagine how much work can be done. The company usually still manages the changes being made to its product, but once a product becomes open-source, it belongs to the masses.
Open-source is exciting for small businesses and individuals because software that used to cost a small fortune is totally free. Open-source is exciting for technology companies, because they literally can have the whole world working on their development teams. Open-source is exciting for hackers because they can get all the information they need to create viruses or other nasty computer bugs. The only entities that don’t like open-source are the big companies that are trying to compete with it.
Open-source has become so popular that it is more than just a way to create new software — it has become a way of thinking. Open-source says that information belongs to everyone because it’s about combining skills and experience to tackle massive problems instead of waiting for Microsoft, Apple, Intel or IBM to do it for us. Open-source allows for swarm-style ingenuity.
The open-source way of thinking is creeping into our culture; we soon will see it in our churches, as well. It has been well-documented that Christian culture lags behind secular, so it’s not here yet; but soon…The natural question is: What does an open-source church look like? How do we recognize an open-source Christian?
Imagine a church in which we all collaborate absolutely without organizational barriers. Imagine a world in which spiritual understanding, decision-making rationale and creative ministry ideas are the property of the masses. Imagine a world in which Christians tackle massive jobs such as world poverty or biblical illiteracy without waiting on an organization or an expert to tell them how to do it. Imagine a world in which we shared resources and ideas freely. It sounds a lot like the way the church should be in the first place.
The danger comes to an open-source church in the same way that it comes to an open-source Internet browser. If anyone can contribute, anyone can do so with malicious intent. As always, the greatest strength easily can become the greatest weakness. In guarding against cyber attacks, every one of us has his or her own firewall, anti-virus program and spam filter. Defenses are individual, because attacks affect individuals. In closed-source Christianity, our defenses have been corporate. We have made our stand on theology by attaching ourselves to the right organization, but when the open-source model reaches the church, each of us will need to develop our own defense system to protect against spiritual attacks. That means church leaders must train individuals to study the Word of God personally. In a perfect world that already would be true. Is it true in your church?
