The Christian Commons: Ending the Spiritual Famine of the Global Church

by Tim Jore

For 300 years, world missions has been built on a foundation of "all rights reserved." This is both legal and ethical, but has limited reach. The missions task is immense, and millions of people in thousands of people groups are still waiting to receive even one discipleship resource in their own language.

There is another way to equip the global church for spiritual growth. Christians all over the world can use 21st century technology to openly collaborate in the creation of unrestricted discipleship resources in any language. These unrestricted discipleship resources—the Christian Commons—can be legally translated, adapted, built on, revised, redistributed, and used, by anyone, without hindrance, today. Unrestricted discipleship resources can reach more people, in less time, with less expense, more effectively.

The past may have been closed.
The future of the global church is Open.

243 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Leandro Dutra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally agree; only wish he was more concise — but he probably needed to explain it in details for the benefit of people not familiar with the concepts at hand, and that he did not use the ‘people groups’ jargon. Recommended for every Christian writer, editor, publisher, translator out there.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jore makes an excellent case for a grand vision for a new era of resources for the global church--going beyond traditional translation and language approaches that are common in the publishing world, this work outlines a methodology for revolutionizing the Church's approach to the global theological famine. This book is a must-read for anyone who works in the writing, publishing, or translation of Christian resources. My two critiques of the book are: (1) that it comes across as a bit utopian, not including any success stories of publishers or authors who have welcomed this approach, and (2) that it does not provide many on-ramps for lay-people in the church to get involved in getting behind these efforts. In an era of online petitions and crowdfunding, it would be wise to make a call for mass involvement for the sake of global theological famine relief.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A needed challenge to the copyright status quo, and eye-opening as to how our wealth is directly denied to Christians in other parts of the world. This book should be challenging for anyone who desires to see the gospel spread throughout the world, regardless of whether you agree with all of Jore's argumentation or not.

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read. This is the future of bible translation and discipleship resources for the global church.

[Greg Blok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about the need for open copyrights on Bibles and other Christian books so that others in the non-English speaking world can get access to resources that will help them to grow spiritually.