ZA MAGAZINE // seek truth.

The time has come to stand for all we believe in. And I, for one, am gonna give my praise to you. - Hillsong United

Greetings, one and everyone! Welcome to ZA Magazine. This site has been a long time in the making, and I’m so fired up that it’s finally on the ‘Net!

On March 22, 2007, a Bible study was taught to me on the subject of ministry. Referencing John 2:13-17 (”Zeal for your house will consume me”), we were told to “get a burden” - to pray for something that would consume us. God answered my prayer immediately. For the next week I could think of nothing but starting a website that was a spin-off of my old blog (RabidPopTart’s Xanga). I knew that it was to be centered on the idea of teaching absolute truths and it was to keep close to my style of writing at the time: teaching, tough at times, but honest, humble, passionate and loving. At least I think that’s how I write. But I didn’t want to be impersonal, I don’t want to be this faceless Christian hero. I’m a man, just like anyone else, but the Lord has given me a hunger for Scripture and the ability to write a decent article.

Right away, I wrote a series of articles about the existence and importance of absolute truth, with the last installment coming out on April 6, 2007 and introducing the site concept. I made a header with an old telescope and put it into a WordPress blog and tried to make a page out of it, but then the project fizzled in the heat of final projects. Summer came, and by God’s grace I was able to raise enough money to launch the site. Then came the fall, where I needed a project for a web design class. I chose ZA, and I got the basic design hammered out! Over Christmas break, I found out how to run WordPress onto my computer and I started to convert the design to fit. Then came Australia and two months of adjustment. Finally, I took the plunge! On April 23, 2008, I registered zamagazine.org with InMotion Hosting. That was a fun call; I had to figure out how to make an international call on my mobile phone in order to verify my account! Now, almost a month and a half of hard work amidst studies and traveling and 10,000 other distractions have yielded what you see now! Praise God!

We’ll be posting three articles a week, every Wednesday morning. As the site grows, I envision a weekly Saturday article, then daily posts. It all depends on how big this gets in my life and how many writers help out. I already have Buzz on the team and I have another writer lined up, as well as a guest contributor or two. This isn’t just about me!

Register and comment! I envision an awesome community of people who don’t take what we say without analyzing, interpreting, disagreeing, adding, correcting, and so forth. Think critically about the content and respond to it!

I won’t tell you how to navigate the site - if I need to, then it isn’t good design. It should be pretty intuitive. Find out more about the site’s goals on the “about” page. Click the “welcome” button on the upper right of the home page to get a YouTube welcome message from me.

This site is still a work in progress! Let me know if anything is seriously wrong. It’s functional, but not perfect, and it will be improved once the smoke clears and people start finding the mistakes.

Much love goes to the beta testers who endured constant questions and requests from me. Rick, Buzz, Madelyn, Matt F., and anyone else…thank you so much!

That’s enough out of me! Go read some articles!

To God alone be the glory,
Brendan