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Intended for businesses confronted with the realities of losing control in a networked world, I thought this slide show, titled “Be Like the Internet“, might also be relevant to today’s church. A few of the slide titles could reveal a bit about the challenges for church leaders, for example “The ways for a business to thrive in a networked world is to adapt to the network” and “Most of what matters to your business is happening outside of your business”. Evidence is all around that church is happening outside of church walls - online church, sermon podcasts, Facebook groups, Christian blogs, and being part of today’s conversation in a networked world means letting go and having less control.

This point of “letting go” brings to mind the website for Epic Church in Fullerton California whose pastor, Kevin Doi, I met recently. To model their vision of a new church community, Epic’s home page prominently features the voices and links to blogs of six different people involved with Epic. Here’s where the voices of the community and network flatten the org chart of traditional organizations.

For Kindle, we’ve encountered those who maintain that prayer is a private matter handled face-to-face or in small groups, however, we see ourselves not as replacing those valuable personal experiences but as an additional channel to reach and touch others through prayer in a networked world. As we grow past our beta launch, we’ll be listening and evolving to see how our users will take to prayer in a networked world.

Read Cynthia Ware’s related post - “Is Your Church Leadership Interactive?“.