What is Church 2.0?

Greg Atkinson has been more than zealous during the past year or so in hosting local forums. At these meetups, he’s connected church leaders with one another and surfaced stories of creativity and innovation among followers of Christ. And he’s capturing many of those stories in a forthcoming book that he’s co-authoring with Cynthia Ware and Tony Steward. I’ve lost count of how many Church 2.0 Forums he’s pulled together. And, Greg’s got 3 more lined up for this Fall in Boston (10/17), Tulsa (10/24), and Portland (11/7).

A question you may have is, what is Church 2.0? I know I’ve asked the question. For the record, Church 2.0 is a “collaborative conversation“:

And I’ve paraphrased Church 2.0 as “stories and conversations of how Christ-followers from churches of all sizes are changing the way church is done“. Don’t quote me.

Whether the term as Greg has coined it will stick or not, we’ll see. I’ve heard from some that Web 2.0 is not well-defined and that introduces confusion, so maybe “Church 2.0” could be confusing, cf. Google has a range of results for “Church 2.0” // a Church 2.0 presentation by Bart Caylor, book titled The Wired Church 2.0, blog posts by Andrew Jones (circa 2005), Mark Glaser (circa 2006), PBS MediaShift (2006), this Church 2.0 wiki curated by Unitarian Dan Harper, wikipedia had an entry for Church 2.0 – now deleted …

Now, Greg notes that the Church 2.0 Local Forums is not only about tech:

These gatherings are for ALL Church leaders. This isn’t just a “tech” thing. These Church 2.0 Local Forums are where Church leaders gather together to meet, network, discuss innovation, leadership, technology and share stories of what God is up to in their city. I don’t present anything. I don’t sell anything. I simply listen, learn and help guide the conversation. It’s truly a God-thing. I really appreciate your friendship and your support.

Clear? Crystal.