By Kent d Curry

So, what do you think—do we look a bit different?

We featured a modestly upgraded design at the end of 2000, if I recall correctly, but the same basic look (with other small upgrades) for the last six years. In internet time, you just lived through the millennium of no change.

Now it’s been revolutionized.   

This has been a looooong process, first to create it, then to implement it, but the fine folks at Voppa.com have given us something to shout aloud, “Ain’t it cool? Look at us! Look at us!”

So tell your friends won’t you?

So Is There Anything Else?

This redesign can handle all of the latest trends and technologies, so that opens up a world of possibilities…we’re open to ideas if you have them! At last you’ll see more graphics (pictures on the internet—who would have guessed?) throughout the site, as well as (we hope) monthly podcasts, and maybe even videos of…well, that’s a secret right now.  (If you’d like to contribute your own podcasts or video clips, contact us with your ideas at editor@ninetyandnine.com!)

That said, if there’s anything that isn’t working or should be improved, please let us know. Now’s the time to get everything in its correct place.

Dot NET?

We aren’t changing the zine’s name, but our current address is different (for a bit). Basically, you can’t design a new site with a live site at the same address, so we snatched up the ninetyandnine.net name for development. At some point, the two URLs will merge, but not for now.

If you poke around you’ll notice many of the archives are empty. See, it’s a long painful manual process to get seven years of articles (somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 different pieces) into the redesign, so we’ll be keeping ninetyandnine.com live for you (and the search engines) to access throughout the near future. Many of our archived writings are actively linked by sites throughout the world, so we don’t want to diminish that. At some point, they’ll all be in Dot NET and the world will smile.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to publish the same fascinating articles you write us, only now they’ll be shining through this spanking-new look.

As The Ushers Come . . .

Several ministries have been kind enough to advertise with us by paying actual money. 90&9.com readers are notoriously loyal. Please make that same effort with our sponsors, at least by clicking through their ads to see what their ministry is offering. It is their money that pays for our redesign and other improvements. Your interest in their ministry brings them back to us and keeps you reading every week.

Just click through their ads and take a look-see, that’s all we’re asking.

A Natural Evolution/Transformation

Frankly, we’ve been swimming against the tide since we started. Written articles have always been our drawing point and, with a dearth of competition on Apostolic matters (that still puzzles and amazes us), it’s given us an ever-growing readership. (Indeed, the last week of August was our best so far, with almost 22,000 readers.)

We didn’t realize when we started this ministry that it would tap into two of the prevailing attitudes of our times—high reader interaction (articles come from you, while Letters and Survey Sez! are rarely edited) for web success and peer leadership (the eschewing of institutional experts for knowledgeable peers/colleagues; Home Depot and other similar businesses have made millions from this).

When we began (Oct 7, 2006 will be our 7^th anniversary), we patterned the zine after our respective College and Career Sunday school classes—biblical relevance to daily life. That means, since we cover non-doctrinal issues, we can disagree with each other without being divisive. We can apply scripture to our lives in fresh ways and share those methods with others.

Such interactions won’t always make everyone comfortable; frankly, they won’t always be completely correct, but it’s all part of Christian dialogue toward a deeper Scriptural maturity. Without dialogue, everyone suffers alone.

If you only visit for one week you might be alarmed at some of these articles, but regulars see it in context, therefore it’s not radical but challenging—iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:17) so that all might benefit.

This doesn’t excuse mistakes or lessen responsibility for articles that aren’t fully explored or might be plain wrong (we’ve done that), but it’s one week of the conversation. It’s about continual application, not one-stop perfection.

90&9 Live Anyone?

So our individual Sunday school classes became a web zine and now the web zine is going live in a different format. Welcome to the IQ Forum, an event for Christians to attend. It will be an interactive forum dealing with biblical relevance to daily life. (Sound familiar?)

As a full co-sponsor, ninetyandnine.com is offering two days of relevant classes that just might redesign your life. We’re not highlighting high-impact preaching but concentrated teaching featuring enough application for you to use that same day.

The IQ Forum isn’t for passive readers but passionate doers. We find many read an article, take a truth, ponder it, and then might absorb it into a safe, predictable life. Others take that same truth and transform their outlook for Him despite the inconvenience. IQF is for the transformers or the hopeful transformers who are willing to adjust and grow for the good of the Kingdom. (By they way, the IQ stands for Identity Quotient, not Intelligence. We don’t care how smart you are.)

With panels on “Songbook Burning” and “The Integrated Church,” and sessions on “Avoiding Burnout,” “Time Management,” “Bringing Hollywood to Church,” “Debt Reduction,” “What You Should Know by Now,” everyone’s Christian life will be addressed.

It’s a forum because it’s important that your voice is heard. Every session is intimate and open to your thoughts and questions, facilitated by speakers who are living it today, not remembering it from yesterday.

On October 20-21, 2006, it’s “90&9 Live” and you really don’t want to miss it.

The Near Future

Wow we feel great!

The redesign has us in high (if somewhat exhausted) momentum. In the next month we’ll be live blogging from the UPCI’s General Conference, broadening our news coverage, increasing our use of graphics and photographs, co-sponsoring the IQ Forum, expanding into alternate media, and generally doing our best to live triumphantly for Him in the 21^st Century with you.

We’d love for you to come along.

ninetyandnine.com

Ó 2006, Kent d Curry

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Kent d Curry is an executive editor of ninetyandnine.com.