Thin Walled Church

Thin Walls..

In the Thin Walled church- Learning takes place in multiple locations, venues, and times- Real Space and Digital Space- on-demand and “just-in-time.”

A Thin Walled church designs with Mobile, Global, and Local in mind at all times. 

A Thin Walled church increases choice of- time, location, delivery, and content.

Thinning the walls is developing an Internet campus and going to the Cloud. Thin Walled churches enable services MON-SUN, anytime, and delivered anywhere.

Thin Walled churches make it easy to share knowledge, wisdom, and insight among teams inside AND among other churches, fields, and professions outside.

A Thin Walled church gets new ideas from internal and external sources. These ideas are free to be explored and lead to organic innovation due to a loose organizational structure—thin walls between teams, departments, staff, and leaders. 

Thin Walled churches leverages networks—especially learning networks.

They know learning networks increase opportunities for collaborative learning—learning things only collaboration through Thin Walls can bring. Networks increase range of learning projects for Thin Walled churches to participate in. 

Thin Walled churches value social learning values and reciprocity. Thin Walled churches share through the network. The network remembers if you helped someone learn. The thin walls in networks know...If you didn't they remember that too.  

Thin Walled church values low bureaucracy and high empowerment. Thin Walled churches remove barriers for learners to network, pursue ideas, extend knowledge, and create new possibilities. 

In a Thin Walled church teaching is not locked to pulpit. Teaching is done peer-to-peer, in groups, and through Personal Learning Networks.  All teach and all learn. 

A Thin Walled church creates systems and programs to push those inside out into community and pull those out in the community inside. 

Thin Walled church- church develops networked communities inside and outside. In Touch-space and Cyberspace.  

Thin Walled church is participatory, networked, connected, transparent, internally and external focused. 

As more churches go online, embrace social media, open up, and participate in networks- the church walls will continue to "thin.”

 

Comments

[rental mobil]

Nice article, thanks for the information.

[djchuang]

An adjacent idea is a Church Without Walls. That term is already being lived out by NewSong Church in Irvine, CA, where the people of the church are the church, and not so much the organization. While we theologically believe in the priesthood of believers, we haven't found a good response to empowering and training our church attenders and members to collaborate even more using tools readily and freely available to us-- both inside and outside the church walls. Too much of what is being shared and produced for the church is done by staff and pastors, and we the organized & branded church aren't platforming the many individuals and groups who we say are the church, but churches sure make it look like the staff is the church ;(

[Rob Jacobs]

DJ, thanks for sharing your thoughts and the what is going on at NewSong Church. I would love to learn more about what the looks like in application. I agree that too many churches are holding on too tightly to the work that needs to be done, instead of empowering the actual CHURCH.