Over the past 5 or 6 months, I have been working on an idea. I’ve had this idea for almost 2 years, but not until recently have I had the opprtunity to try to make it happen. I wanted to try to take the concept of an emerging local church community and the concept of the emerging internet community and try to merge them together. This idea was birthed out of two (in my mind) inescapable truths:

• The local church that will last and the local church of the future will be built on community. Not programs, weekend services, or great preaching. Community will be a major factor in determining the life-expectancy of a church.
• The next generation of the web (web 2.0) will be built on community. The internet will be used to not only make the world smaller and bring people together, but to build relationships, connect, and socialize. Evidence of this can be found in the explosion of blogging and community-based websites such as Flickr, MySpace, Technorati, Newsvine, etc.

To try to merge these two ideas together is logical, in my mind. If the Church is looking to make a greater impact in the world, it is obvious that it would want to try to facilitate the most powerful tool in the world (the web). Sadly, most churches will not consider this connection any further than a basic, informative website. But some churches will want to explore this area further. How can a church community and the internet community integrate effectively?

This is a time for some exciting experimentation. There are already people exploring this idea. The Ooze, Relevant Magazine, and Table & Fire are all trying to build a digital community for the Kingdom. There is no perfect model, only variations.

I had my own variation in mind when Katy and I joined Providence Church. Thankfully, the leadership at Providence recognizes the benifits and importance of a site like I had in mind and the congregation has the dynamic that would support and idea like this. So, I went to the drawing board. I tried several backend systems, but couldn’t find anything that could really create what I had in mind. I had too many ideas that I wanted to implement. So I had to rethink and retool.

I decided to start simple. I wanted to begin with a basic discussion/community site for Providence with no extra bells or whistles—just conversation. I found a great free, open-source software called Vanilla that was exactly what I was looking for: cutting edge technology, great design (standards-compliant), simple philosophy, and good support. So Bradshaw and I went to work.

What we have ended up with is the first version of The Providence Exchange, a digitial conversation room for the covenant members of Providence Church. Right now, we’re still in the testing phase, so only the leadership are involved right now, but soon we will go live and we will find out if this idea can really work.

I’m pretty proud of this thing. Not because it was a great idea, because it wasn’t even an original idea. I’m proud of it because I think it can really take some serious steps in making the local church relevant. I think it can really enhance (not replace) a community of believers by allowing that community to connect with each other anytime, anyplace. They can talk about spiritual matters, life, books, movies…..literally anything.

So, if you’ve got the time, go check out The Providence Exchange and tell me what you think about it. We’re still in testing, so if you have any advice or tips, feel free to let me know and I can make some adjustments. There are a few CSS bugs I have to knock out, but I should be able to take care of that soon.

And by the way, if you’re a church leader and are interested in developing something like this for your church, let me know and I’d love to talk to you about it.