A competitive economy can be a great thing. It gives consumers choices in quality, price, and implementation. It forces vendors to become creative, constantly improving their products and services for the sake of keeping their clients. In the church, we have the same advantages in the vast selection of products and services available. From Bible publishers to online service providers, the Body has its menu of options, and I am grateful for that.

But, there is a possible avenue that has not yet been explored. That avenue takes the form of a cooperative economy, especially when it comes to technology. Ministry technology providers are still creating the same tools, competing for the same data in the same way. A few years ago that made sense, but we are in a different place today. I am not opposing the ongoing efforts to make existing technology better. This must be done. But, with the capability to share data via the Internet, we don't have to compete in technologies that already exist. What if we spent our time building on top of existing technology? What if today's vendors opened up their data warehouses (while keeping the core technology secure) and enabled plug-in technology to third party developers? We live in an age where data exchange is simple, and progress can begin to move forward within the church. Why not take advantage of that.

My quick proposal, one that you will hear more about in my new book, Using the Internet to Impact Your City, is that we 1) build technology to collect and store data, 2) use existing technologies to share that data across vendors, and 3) build new applications to manipulate that data in ways that create new products. New vendors duplicate steps 1 and 2, feeding back into existing technologies, while passing the data forward to new technologies. This mindset and approach would most certainly transform ministry technology within a few short years.

It might even be easy and useful. Imagine that.

JG