In the fall of 2002, I bought Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs book. (There is an ongoing, active book blog that keeps updating all these themes here at smartmobs.com) . It took the theme of Virtual Community into the world of portable technology. I see this as a key element for Web 2.0/ Church 2.0.

My simple premise is this: If the church is really the center of our life; if it is the locus of all of our passion and the source of our life in Christ, then it is around this body that our communication interests and passi ons should revolve. The implication there is that the church be a source of enabling us to connect in as many ways and in as many places as possible; to keep us in conversatioln, to keep us learning and asking; to keep us in touch with those whom we have cast our lot. So there are scores of ways to enable us to “connect” during “downtime”; listening to podcasts on the way to work, getting phone messages or vibrates when blog posts are updated or RSS feeds update; a notification of a timely nature for the ministry we are involved with.

I’m still awaiting that device that combines ubiguity, effectiveness, dependability (not the least of which is the battery issue), and all-in-one functionality. Phone, browser, pager, MP3/Podcast player, RSS reader, etc.