*For reasons that you will understand after reading this article, I dearly wanted to call it "The era of the Silos is fading, long live the Ants!". But you would need to read the article for that title to make sense, and with a title like that, it's doubtful the article would get read.

In many conversations about "unrestricted discipleship resources that are not owned by a single entity", the question comes up:

Aren't you promoting "Christian Socialism"?

And the answer is: Not at all! Here's why.

In socialism, the state owns everything and, theoretically, redistributes everything equally to everyone. What we're talking about isn't even close to that.

Part of the process of preparing for an upcoming conference on "open collaboration" in world missions contexts involved compiling a list of factors that help make open collaboration projects succeed. The first factor in the list (the rest of which will be posted here shortly) is open-licensed content. Here's why.

There are only two alternatives for managing the intellectual property of a collaborative project:

1.

A recent blog post on the topic of the future of Bible software concluded with a section inviting readers to consider what the future might hold. The points the author included as a possible future of Bible software include the following:

“Going global” is the process of making content available in other languages. When someone has created a discipleship resource in their own language (e.g.

In a recent article on Wired.com, the following statement was made:

“Organizations that are founded to solve problems end up committed to the preservation of the problems.”

This is a true story, taking place at the time of writing. A missionary is working with a local church leader from a language group in another country. They are designing a storytelling approach to teach the Word of God to their people in their own language.

Within the last few years, the growth of the Internet and the increase in the number of mobile phones in use worldwide has significantly changed many aspects of life for billions of people all over the world.

This is the (very abbreviated) story of three encyclopedias: Britannica, Encarta and Wikipedia. Their stories provide a good parallel for understanding where discipleship ministry is today and the unprecedented opportunities before us for equipping the global church.

As we consider ministry models and the rise of the global church, it quickly becomes apparent that they face a dilemma when it comes to the acquisition of materials and resources to help them grow in their faith. That dilemma can be summed up as follows:

• The worker is worthy of his wages
  
• The global church is not able to pay the wages of the worker

The worker is worthy of his wages