What If?
Hi and welcome to World Wide Open. We are an organization committed to empowering Christians to make a radical impact, individually and collectively, in their local and global communities. We are coming out with a beta version of the World Wide Open website real soon and we are glad you are here to check it out.
As a bit of background, we have been alpha testing some ideas throughout Houston, TX for the past year and we are in the process of taking what we have learned about how Christians utilize the web to put their faith into action, move resources from areas of plenty to areas of need and advocate for important issues and building it into the new World Wide Open site. We should be up and ready to rock sometime in the fall. If you want to learn more about the idea, take a peek at the Flash intro, it can be found at www.worldwideopen.org/intro.
One last thing - as an organization, we like to deal in What Ifs and, also, If Then's. Let us explain. Once someone dreams a big What if (blank), the next step is If (blank) then . Make sense? For the past three years, we have been dreaming up a bunch of What Ifs about the Christian church. The World Wide Open website is an If Then, a response to a bunch of What if dreams. Still with us?
Some of the What Ifs we came up with, some of them other people told us, it is not important where they came from, what matters is that people are dreaming them. And not just a few people. There are a bunch of us, certainly thousands today and maybe even hundreds of thousands. God only knows. In case you are wondering, here are some of the What Ifs that have been laid on our hearts and others have told us:
1. what if, using some technology, every Christian could connect to a way to love the world that was perfectly matched to their unique giftedness?
2. what if the church was known for what its for, and not what its against?
3. what if I want to know, real-time, what is going on with the church in Tanzania or Turkey or Toronto?
4. what if two people, four doors apart, care about the exact same thing but have never met
5. What if those two people use the fact that they are alone in their concern as an excuse for not doing anything?
6. What if those two people could be automatically connected?
7. what if Christians could have a real-time, global view of their resources and the needs of the world?
8. what if resources within the church were moved as efficiently as they are in the for-profit sector?
9. what if two churches, right down the street from each other, could easily connect and collaborate in ministry?
10. what if every Christian gave 10% of their time and not just 10% of their money?
11. what if someone did not have to write a book to share the wisdom God had given them?
12. what if church was a verb that happened between Sundays?
13. what if there was a global platform to share wisdom, knowledge and best practices about ministry?
14. what if someone could instantly find all the other Christians in the world who were passionate about the same thing?
15. what if someone doing ministry in La Herradura, El Salvador or anywhere else in the world, could connect with others who had also served there?
16. what if someone with an accounting degree could do the books of a non profit in rural Uganda?
17. What if pastors in Joberg could share their ministry templates with pastors in Australia?
18. what if two non-profits could easily share their best practices for how to solve a local problem?
19. what if you could listen to any pastor in any language at anytime?
20. what if there was high-tech, predictive modeling for international missions scenarios?
21. what if it was weird when churches of different denominations did not work together?
22. what if Christians were known as being overly generous?
23. what if: you fill in the blank.
See you soon.
-- The WWO team
As a bit of background, we have been alpha testing some ideas throughout Houston, TX for the past year and we are in the process of taking what we have learned about how Christians utilize the web to put their faith into action, move resources from areas of plenty to areas of need and advocate for important issues and building it into the new World Wide Open site. We should be up and ready to rock sometime in the fall. If you want to learn more about the idea, take a peek at the Flash intro, it can be found at www.worldwideopen.org/intro.
One last thing - as an organization, we like to deal in What Ifs and, also, If Then's. Let us explain. Once someone dreams a big What if (blank), the next step is If (blank) then . Make sense? For the past three years, we have been dreaming up a bunch of What Ifs about the Christian church. The World Wide Open website is an If Then, a response to a bunch of What if dreams. Still with us?
Some of the What Ifs we came up with, some of them other people told us, it is not important where they came from, what matters is that people are dreaming them. And not just a few people. There are a bunch of us, certainly thousands today and maybe even hundreds of thousands. God only knows. In case you are wondering, here are some of the What Ifs that have been laid on our hearts and others have told us:
1. what if, using some technology, every Christian could connect to a way to love the world that was perfectly matched to their unique giftedness?
2. what if the church was known for what its for, and not what its against?
3. what if I want to know, real-time, what is going on with the church in Tanzania or Turkey or Toronto?
4. what if two people, four doors apart, care about the exact same thing but have never met
5. What if those two people use the fact that they are alone in their concern as an excuse for not doing anything?
6. What if those two people could be automatically connected?
7. what if Christians could have a real-time, global view of their resources and the needs of the world?
8. what if resources within the church were moved as efficiently as they are in the for-profit sector?
9. what if two churches, right down the street from each other, could easily connect and collaborate in ministry?
10. what if every Christian gave 10% of their time and not just 10% of their money?
11. what if someone did not have to write a book to share the wisdom God had given them?
12. what if church was a verb that happened between Sundays?
13. what if there was a global platform to share wisdom, knowledge and best practices about ministry?
14. what if someone could instantly find all the other Christians in the world who were passionate about the same thing?
15. what if someone doing ministry in La Herradura, El Salvador or anywhere else in the world, could connect with others who had also served there?
16. what if someone with an accounting degree could do the books of a non profit in rural Uganda?
17. What if pastors in Joberg could share their ministry templates with pastors in Australia?
18. what if two non-profits could easily share their best practices for how to solve a local problem?
19. what if you could listen to any pastor in any language at anytime?
20. what if there was high-tech, predictive modeling for international missions scenarios?
21. what if it was weird when churches of different denominations did not work together?
22. what if Christians were known as being overly generous?
23. what if: you fill in the blank.
See you soon.
-- The WWO team
Labels: World Wide Open launch what if
posted by The WWO Team at
5:48 PM
9 Comments:
This is an extraordinary way to connect needs and need-fillers. I am completely on-board with this innovative way to push toward becoming a missional church!
Thanks,
Neil
815-483-9884
This is a great vision that is shared by many around the globe. I think most people just view it as too big a giant to tackle. Good for you! How is the progress coming? Bata version coming soon?
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how can I contact you guys? Are you in California per chance? I want to introduce you to our non-profit and how we could help each other out.
Please email me at rz@projecthantout.com (the website is outdated - don't look at it.)
Sounds like an amazing vision. I thought you might want to know that we have something similar to this that has been in operation for a couple of years now at www.urbanministry.org and www.christianvolunteering.org.
UrbanMinistry.org currently has over 5,600 articles from experts on a wide range of global issues.
ChristianVolunteering.org has over 2,600 volunteer and short term missions opportunities across over 1,500 ministries.
Our global partners on these sites include the Salvation Army, World Vision, the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, Christian Community Development Association, YouthPartnersNet (formerly Compassion USA), Here's Life Inner City (Campus Crusade), Gospel Communications, Evangelicals for Social Action, FASTEN and others.
I wonder if there is a way for us to work together. You can find more information about us at http://www.techmission.org or you can call me at 01-617-282-9798 x101.
So...what's been happening in the last six months?
How are things going with the World Wide Open. We have been using the "faithHouston" site for a few years and they indicate that information is moving over to here.
Let us know how it is going.
Keep up the great work.
I saw this site by complete chance. I was looking around Vision Launchers site and watched the how it works video about your site. I'll be joining as soon as you're launched! I've been a non-denominational Christian circa one year after high school graduation (1994). I'm a musician so I think I'd connect w/other Christian musicians through your site. I wish someone would make a youtube style site like ninjam so musicians could just plug-in and play w/other world musicians. Through the site, ninjam utilizes this idea via a software download, but you could revolutionize the ease of this by a free sign in and select someone's profile to collaborate with. If you could have this as an option through your site, that would be very avant-garde. (send royalties to...) Just kidding, love your site idea. John Ramirez.
I would like to learn more about your vision for World Wide Open and the progress made thus far. I have some resources that I think you may be interested in. What is the best way to get in contact with the WWO Team.
Thanks,
Judah Musick
Portland Oregon
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