A Month in the Life

Never start something you aren’t willing to stop when its no longer fulfilling its mission.

When we started “Month in the Life” in 2005 (or was it 2004?) it was to use a public blog to share individual lives throughout the Pentecostal movement. At that moment, it was somewhat unique.

For the most part, we’ve done that rather well, with people from all walks of life sharing a month of their existence. Bloggers have launched their own blogs once they realized how fun it was, while others picked up new readers for their regular blogs, and a few have realized they didn’t have all that much to share. (Yes, there were some painful months over the years & thems the breaks when you’re sending out an open invitation to different people around the continent.)

Lots of good stuff over the years though.

That Was Then, This is Now

However, the web has increasingly become Facebook Nation, with everyone who wants to communicate and share, doing it in multiple formats on the different Social Networks. That’s not a bad thing at all.

Still, it makes the need for this type of blog rather unnecessary. Nearly everyone who wants to share their life, is now doing that on one SNS or another. So, we’re going to bid adieu to this faithful blog, and thank everyone who has contributed over the past 4-5 years, and you, the reader, for dipping into the lives of others and commenting where necessary.

That said, I’m sure we’ll be using this forum for our minute-by-minute coverage of North American Youth Congress in August. Because, it captures an Apostolic moment so well.

An Unknown Future

Don’t worry, there will still be blogs on 90&9. Collideoscope will still be spelunking through our strange 21st Century, while the weekly Word will continue to tackle writing and reading through a Pentecostal lens, and the weekly Notes will continue to tackle the world of music, worship and otherwise. (RJ's opening paragraph this week made me chortle in recognition.)

Plus, maybe there’s a good idea for another blog. If ya got one, we’re interested in hearing it. The point is to offer the original, not the usual.

Finally, we’ll be making more changes in ninetyandnine in the coming weeks, to better focus its content and better fulfill our mission. Stick around wontcha?

And, apropos of nothing except to prove I’m the secret nerd king of Pentecost, The Watchmen will be the big superhero movie of 2009. Not sure it will be watchable by Christians (the original graphic novel was anarchic and wordy and crazed and groundbreaking), but it’ll be the one everyone talks about assuming the ongoing legal dispute between film studios stays settled.

Anyway, I'm not endorsing the story or movie, but many believe this is what everyone's talking about culturally, just as they did Dark Knight last year and Spider-man in past years. You might want to do your research now before its release on March 6, 2009.

There's something reassuring to a president who reads real books and wrestles with their ideas. Looks like we've got four future years of a smart guy who's not afraid to tackle the brightest minds from past and present. That's encouraging on any number of fronts.

Barack Obama's Favorite Books are listed here. I always like to see how my list compares with other's favorites, and I've got to admit there's not too much overlap when it comes to the poetry and contemporary fiction by Toni Morrison (I've only ready Beloved, and had mixed thoughts), E.L. Doctorow (only read his essays), and the increasingly overrated Phillip Roth. I like his choices by Graham Greene, Melville, and Hemingway, and am familiar with most of his non-fiction choices.

Then there's all the "Huh" choices that I may never get around to reading - which is basically everything I didn't list.

Still, it's a fun list to examine and speculate how it helped form our new President.

Sis. Nona Freeman, UPCI groundbreaking missionary to South Africa, was hospitalized for a stroke January 8, 2009, and is now in rehabilitation. If you want the latest on her status, check here.

Or watch her:



In the meantime, please take a moment to pray for this pioneer and gospel giant. Pentecost's Greatest Generation is too few already.

The "Fiction Family" download is finally available on ninetyandnine.com! Enjoy!

Also . . .
Read this on the "Gig Economy." I think much of the Western world in 2009 is living this now. It might give you some insight into the world today (and your world tomorrow?). Killer opening:

"No one I know has a job anymore. They've got Gigs. To people I know in the bottom income brackets, living paycheck to paycheck, the Gig Economy has been old news for years. What’s new is the way it’s hit the demographic that used to assume that a college degree from an elite school was the passport to job security."

Plus . . .
If you don't know about the Wimpy Kid craziness, you don't have a kid in Elementary school. Check it out anyway.

And . . .
I started Like Water for Elephants, and wondered what the book-selling phenomenon was about. Did nothing for me. Didn't sound real, but cliched.

So technical problems are preventing our Fiction Family download from being uploaded to the site. ARGH.

And the rest of the issue probably won't load until this weekend because.

I love the web. I love the web. I love the web.

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek have joined forces to create “Fiction Family.” Their self-titled debut album will be released on January 20 via ATO Records/Credential Recordings.

They’ve graced ninetyandnine.com with a free download off the CD, to be available Tuesday night, January 13-January 20, 2009. Don’t miss out on this exclusive listen on this exciting new project or read/hear more at their website!