“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” As interesting as that question has been to some, my concern is more personal: If a pastor posts a blog entry and no one reads it, does it make any difference? Thankfully, due to 16,900 unique visitors to this blog this year, I haven’t yet posted something no one has read. But several of this year’s posts were more popular than all the rest, and I want to list them here. Maybe you missed one of these. Maybe you’d like to look at one of them again.

1. Five Confessions of a Messy Pastor

This one got more than double the readership of any other post on this list. Why? I think it’s because it dealt with pressing issues not confronted often enough. Most pastors I know long for a safe place to admit depression, confess sin, or deal with the unique pressures that come to senior ministers. For too many, that place just doesn’t exist, and so we’ve seen significant falls from grace, ministry failures, and more than one suicide. The realities raised in this post need to be confronted with compassion by elders and other leaders everywhere.

Read “Five Confessions” here.

2. These Dogs Lead to Heaven

In many ways, Katelyn and Jeffrey Hoglund are not your typical suburban evangelical churchgoers. Recovering drug addicts after years of desperate living. “Parents” to five huge dogs (sadly, only four now) whose antics they record daily for a growing YouTube audience. Entrepreneurs making a business out of sharing their story. Along with all this, they are thoroughly committed Christ followers. It’s a journey of redemption, both funny and hopeful. No wonder so many wanted to read it!

You can read about the Hoglunds and their dogs here.

3. Why THE Church Must Be Bigger than YOUR Church

Every week I talk with someone much more interested in demonstrating love for lost people than beating the church around the corner. Several of them found this post and shared it with others who feel the same way. What does it mean for my church to be kingdom minded? A whole generation today is asking that question. I’m glad for the chance to participate in the conversation.

As you read this post, you’ll see how it relates to the next most-read post, described below.

4. Three Lessons the Pain of Ministry Taught Me Last Week

As I was grieving with hundreds in our community over the death of 10-year-old Sable Gibson, I realized that many just don’t know what to do with pain. The Gibsons, transparent about their own pain but committed to walk through it together, offer us an example of courage, forgiveness, and love. In the process, they’ve formed and rekindled relationships in a dozen different corners. Among all the hard things I’ve had to face, this one affected me in a special way.

These three lessons can apply to anyone’s life, not just a pastor’s.

5. Has Kanye Taken a Real Jesus Walk?

When someone as prolific and prominent as Kanye West gives his life to Jesus, everyone’s interested. I am too, and so I decided to offer a defense of this believer that many (including some Christians) were criticizing. We’d all be healthier and happier and more effective for God if we were a little less judgmental. Now, that is a good take-away as we begin 2020!

Read my post about Kanye, and maybe you’ll be as inspired by his transformation as I am.

Those were my top 5 posts of 2019. Let me know…what your favorites were and what do you want to hear more of in 2020? Thanks for reading and interacting weekly with me. I hope to hear more from you in 2020.