Eight Steps to the Radically Transparent Church

A Church article with View Comments posted 3 July 2009.
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Radical Transparency is all the rage right now. With President Obama opening access to government data in order to encourage transparency, more attention is being paid to the way that restricting information restricts collaboration, decision making, and progress. This is, however, a value derived strongly from the Internet – more specifically, from the Freedom Software movement.

Radical transparency is one of the highest ideals of Freedom Software, even more so than democracy. In fact, many such software projects are not democratic at all; witness the numerous projects that have a “Benevolent Dictator For Life.” The ability to freely acquire, modify, and distribute software is, in essence, the ability to work with your computer as transparently as possible. Freedom Software projects also exhibit radical transparency in their governance. Often times, even if decisions aren’t being made democratically, it is possible to know exactly with which data and why they were made. This sort of transparency is a natural result of software engineering tools. Bug trackers, mailing lists, source code repositories, blogs, wikis, Internet Relay Chat, etc. are all geared towards an egalitarianism of ideas that manifests itself in radical transparency.

Radical Opacity

Churches, on the other hand, are usually radically opaque. Like Freedom Software projects, they are not often run democratically, but rather have a Benevolent Dictator for Life (the pastor) or an oligarchy of elites (the Staff and/or the Church Council) who make all of the important decisions. But because churches have not embraced the transparent technologies I listed above, data for decision making remains locked up where the congregation and community can’t see it. Occasionally, there are good reasons for this – confidentiality being one. But more often, arrogance or ignorance become the stumbling blocks for wider distribution of decision making information.

It’s not a new idea to improve communication between decision makers and the rest of the congregation. The symptoms of this poor communication are not new either: people feel disenfranchised, don’t know what is going on, or are angry at decisions made without their knowledge. Poor communication is not a technological problem, it is a social problem – that is, a problem of the church’s leadership culture. Yet failing to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the ethos of radical transparency is foolish. The technologies that enable Freedom Software projects to collaborate asynchronously and with less stratification can be a solution to opacity in the modern Church.

Ideas for a Radically Transparent Church

Consult your congregation’s computer geek for ways to get some of these started:

  1. Set up a church email mailing list. This can enable discussion between members and get members’ opinions informally.
  2. Set up a church wiki. Let members edit it freely to share information about church activities.
  3. Blog everything. Every sermon, every newsletter item, every church council report, every treasurer’s report.
  4. Video church council meetings and post them online. If something sensitive needs to be discussed, move to go into “executive session” and explain the reasons why before turning off the camera.
  5. Have a church bug tracker. Let it become a place where the church’s material needs are tracked. This includes both little things (dripping faucet in the men’s room) and big things (family lost everything in a fire and needs new clothes).

Radical transparency doesn’t have to be technological. Nothing beats face-to-face conversation. Here are some things that can be done without a computer:

  1. Coffee with the council. Once a month, set aside coffee hour to be an informal come-and-go panel discussion with the church council. Let the members talk – the council should mostly listen. Or spread the council members out, one per table, so that discussion is even more personal.
  2. Regular pastoral visits at home. The practice of pastoral visitation of people who aren’t elderly or sick has fallen out of practice in many churches. Visiting with people one-on-one in their homes is a good way to understand your members, what they think, and what they want from church. It’s also a tangible way to bring the Gospel into the other 167 hours every week.
  3. Post everything. A copy of (nearly) every scrap of paper distributed at every committee or council meeting ought to be posted prominently on a bulletin board in the church building.

What other ideas do you have for making more radically transparent churches?

You might also enjoy:

  1. Starting Point for Freedom Software in the Church
  2. The Coming Death or Rebirth of Church Publishing
  3. “Freedom Software” versus “Free Software”
  4. Closed File Formats and Christian Ethics
  5. Three steps to Open Source in the Church

  • Scot McCluskey
    I hear that. Thanks for the link to Heal Your Church Website.

    I guess rather than waiting for the market to become transparent on its own (like that would ever happen), what I understand the Freedom Software movement to be doing is to push the market in the right direction. I get the mental image of a tug boat trying to turn a supertanker.

    In order to more quickly and efficiently turn the church into a radically transparent community, I would like to have a suite of applications available that would accomplish that.

    As a pastor who has been and will be (for the next few years) serving small and rural congregations, it would be helpful to have something that is highly user friendly and intuitive. My experience is that people involved with the day to day operation of congregations generally do not have wide experience or significant skills in the area of computer technology (unless it is a larger congregation in a larger city who can afford to hire someone with that training and background).

    Also, using the image of turning the supertanker, change in the church is a complicated beast and the easier you can make it the more likely you are to succeed. Because, unlike a corporation where the CEO or VP in charge of communication can simply mandate change, in the church you have to convince the membership of the need, wisdom, and practicality of the change you propose. And too often a few strong (or strategically placed) voices can sink your tug boat.

    Scot
  • Scot
    I definitely agree with much of what you propose. The primary issue is a need for a cultural shift in congregations. A secondary issue is to encourage the rank and file laity to start demanding the information. I think too many people have become complacent and used to "the way we've always done things."

    A secondary issue is this: In addition to the cultural shift that demands transparency is the amount of perceived additional work it would take to implement radical transparency. Whenever there is a major shift in congregational organization or administrative protocols people balk because they are comfortable with the status quo. The availability of technology to complete the tasks necessary for radical transparency are both an asset and a barrier. The asset is that when you write up your report, compile data, and have information to share it requires only a few clicks of the mouse to distribute them via email list serve or post them to a website or blog. The barrier is with those who have not yet adopted computer technology or are afraid of all of the negative info out there about the internet and identity left, etc.

    One thing I would find helpful (even though I could do it myself) is to have a step by step "How To" with suggestions of optimal software and web resources to accomplish each of the steps.

    Thanks for starting this conversation. In my work with conflict resolution transparency is one of the most effective ways to mitigate the effects of conflict or even avoid conflict all together.

    Scot
  • I think as openness initiatives in general begin to spread, you'll see more people demanding the same kind of transparency in their churches that they are beginning to see in government and schools.

    The lack of easy solutions for this kind of openness is being solved by companies, big and small, who are creating their own systems for doing this kind of communication. Unfortunately, most (all?) of them are "walled gardens" - they spread information effectively and easily, but they are not based on Freedom software and are not interoperable with other solutions. We do need more "how to" guides. One place I appreciate is Heal Your Church Website.
  • Joan Fumetti
    Great stuff, Ted. Thank you! Want to talk to you about our annual gathering. Was just telling one of the people planning worship that it would be great to have your benediction piece (and you, if possible) be part of that. Shoot me an email. Blessings to you all!
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