Open Source Evangelism

As everyone knows, the church's main mission is spreading the Gospel message. Years ago, it just seemed like all you had to do is move to a new area and "set up shop". Nowadays, it isn't so easy. With the rise of religious fanaticism in places as far-flung as India, Sudan, and Indonesia or the continued rise of nationalism in countries like Venezuela, we are finding more countries closed to traditional Christian evangelism. These developments must give rise to another way of thinking. We must develop ways to get our feet in the doors.

How might we go about doing that? Well, in my opinion, we need to utilize a three pronged approach. The first approach centers around developing indigenous people to bring the Gospel to their people. We must remember that religion was used as a convenient anvil to hammer the people against in past centuries. Africa, Asia, and the Americas were conquered by priests, soldiers, and armed settlers (squatters). It is no wonder that native Africans, Asians, and Central/South Americans are suspicious of any non-native that tries to import Christianity to their country.

The second approach centers around how to get the "foot-in-the-door". We must develop our laity, who are well-versed in open-source and open standards software and technologies, to consider committing four years to missions work. With the appropriate research, we can find out what skill sets are needed in the developing country that we wish to reach and send those that are best qualified. By utilizing the approach that we are interested in helping these countries develop their Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, we can ensure that these normally weary countries open their doors for us.

The third approach revolves around developing economic opportunities within the target countries. Using a combination of technology, education, and micro-credit type economic development programs ensures a (potentially) lasting goodwill to the cause of Christ. Obviously, being able to harness technology for economic reasons makes a lot of sense. Transmitting zeros and ones does not require you to be in the same area as the one paying you for your work. High quality and low cost will ensure a steady stream of work. Educating indigenous people on how to use computers, how to write code, and how to support their code will help to increase the economic opportunities that are available to them. Micro-credit banks, in the same vein as the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, could be established with low interest loans from church-based financial institutions. These micro-credit "loans" would allow the indigenous folks to purchase the necessary equipment that they need to pull themselves out of poverty. While developing economic opportunities that do not favor the West does not ensure a ready ear to the Gospel, it does help to soften the image of the West (which is so closely linked with Christianity).

Tying all of these approaches together won't be easy. Here is what I believe is a good model: By sending out technologists paired with trained missionaries, we gain a foothold into developing countries. The technologists provide lifestyle evangelism to those that they are trying to teach the technologies to. If the church would sponsor trained indigenous people to further enhance localization, we would have the ability to reach many more people with the Gospel. Think about it, localization of computer systems, paired with a good translation program, would allow us to:

1. Translate Christian textbooks - especially if they are good quality books written by college professors.
   
2. Translate classic Christian books - this would allow for the formative classics to be made available for new generations of Christians. That way we can provide an even greater depth and breadth of Christian knowledge for everyone.
3. Allow non-English/non-Western texts to be translated for our knowledge.

Digitized courses, using the above mentioned texts, would allow indigenous Bible colleges to spring up where ever there is a need. One Christian (missionary or otherwise) with a computer and printer would be able to replicate a well-equipped classroom anywhere, anytime. That would be awesome.