I listened to Gary Hamel talk about the future of the church at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. He blew my mind. One of the gems he dropped (among many, mind you) was the following:

We need a lot more business models and innovations in church. Why is church a lecture, not a discussion?

He talked about how the church has become a one-way street when it could be (and should be) a two-way street. Less monologue, more dialogue. More questions, less answers. Then he mentioned something that had never occurred to me as a preacher and teacher:

Open-source sermons.

It’s like Linux or Wordpress, but for messages. What if the members of the community had a chance to give their input into what was covered in the weekly message? What if someone has a unique perspective on the Scripture being preached on and can “lend a hand”? What if some of your members have a Masters of Divinity just “sitting around” and would love to “take it for a spin” every now and again?

So, in keeping with another Summit presenter’s advice to “just do something,” I decided to give this a try for my message this week. (And beyond, if it works!) My text is 2 Samuel 6:1-11, so I’d encourage you to give it a read and contribute your thoughts here: http://bit.ly/imm-81309. The beauty of this all is since Immersion is webcasted, my “community” is literally worldwide. Certainly there are some limiting physical factors, but anyone and everyone can contribute and watch what God does on Thursday nights.

Think of the benefits:

• Attenders eagerly anticipate the message, hoping something they’ve shared can add to the word that God has for your congregation.
• Increased Biblical fluency–if your people want to contribute, they’ll have to read and know the Scripture you’re talking on!
• Decreased preparation time for the communicator.
• Broader ecumenical and cultural experiences built into the message.

You, as the communicator, would ultimately have the last word in what went in and what didn’t. This idea speaks to shifting the “professional clergy” from being the “powers the be” to the “powers that see”–see the connections, opportunities, and wisdom in the surrounding community. It would leverage technology in order to allow the faith community to build a collective and communal word to themselves. Brilliant.

Would you be willing to try it?