A year ago I was a cyber-unregenerate. I was satisfied with a rattle trap 286, DOS, and my old dot matrix printer. I considered modems a toy. But my friend Dan kept 'witnessing' to me. He described the joys of the on-line world, told how it enriched his life and ministry, and warned me of the coming destruction for those who pass by this opportunity. He jabbered about the on-line world every time we got together. I came to feel I was indeed missing something and gradually got under conviction.

A bit more than a year ago, I received a free disk in the mail, with an invitation to join AOL. I didn't know the difference between services, (Dan attended CompuServe) but the AOL people seemed friendly and they wanted me, so I took the leap and joined. My life was transformed. My wife and kids saw the change. A whole new world opened up to me. I met new friends, learned new terms, quit watching TV, and starting the day by switching on the computer. I was 'converted' to the cyber world.

I immediately became evangelistic about recruiting all of my friends. (I discovered a few were already on, but they'd never told me about it.) I tried to recruit everyone I met. I even passed out free AOL disks as I traveled, and I turned in addresses of people I knew, so AOL would send them a disk. I became more persuasive (and more annoying) than my friend Dan had been. I wanted everyone in the world to find what I'd found! I was grateful to my friend, and became loyal to AOL, the service which had introduced this new world to me.

I am far less excited now, at least about AOL. Why? Last year AOL had about a million members—we are now run