This year, the most read articles and watched videos included topics from marriage and parenting to prophecy and church membership. See what you missed or what might warrant a second look as I break down the top 10 of 2023.
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Like most people at the end of the year, I get reflective and try to look back over the ground that I’ve covered. When it comes to the writing and speaking I’ve done for Out of Neutral, I want to try to understand which episodes have had the most influence in people’s lives. To do that, I compare the top-performing articles and videos and come up with a combined list. This year, the top 10 are dominated by discussions of emotional needs, spiritual abuse, and the differences between Catholics and Protestants.
The church building can be a safety blanket for Christians. It’s our home turf, but it can be an obstacle to many. Taking part in a community event helped us get to know organizers and others who care about our city. We didn’t change the world, but we showed up and were able to bless our city and be blessed by the people we met and the discussions God opened up.
Speaking into the internet is different than preaching because you can’t see who’s on the other side. At the end of the year, though, I like to check back and see what articles and videos gained the most traction. While I write for the congregation, certain posts attract broader attention (although in my case, not very broad!). This year, I compared the most-watched videos with the most read blog articles, took out anything from The Unstuck Life, and combined the results to form the top 10. This year, 3 of the top 10 related to Christian living and the gospel, 3 focused on predestination, and 4 dealt with the pandemic and mental health. Maybe there’s something you missed, or maybe there’s something you want to give another look. Here are the top 10 in ascending order.
Early in the pandemic, I thought I was taking a long-term approach to all that was happening. I knew that we couldn’t just hold our breath for a few weeks or months and hope that it would all blow over. I knew that we had to settle in for the long haul and develop long-term strategies to cope in the midst of an extended battle with COVID-19. We’re now well past what I had anticipated, and all reports are that we still have a long way to go. I want to share what I learned about how Christians are faring in the pandemic from The Fellowship’s recent national conference and suggest some areas where we need to pray and give attention.
People like William Carey and Hudson Taylor get mentioned so often in conversations about missions that you could get the impression that the spread of Christianity is just the story of European evangelistic exploits. That certainly isn’t the case. Today, Christianity is thriving in Africa while it is struggling to survive in many parts of Europe. And now there are more missionaries being sent out from South Korea, Brazil, and Nigeria than any country in Europe. I’ve been reading a book called Clouds of Witnesses that chronicles the contributions of African and Asian Christians to the church. Because Grace Baptist has been so blessed by the testimony and ministry of Zimbabweans over the years, I was intrigued to learn about Bernard Mizeki, one of the first missionaries to bring the Gospel to that nation.
I’m on vacation this week - in sunny Richmond Hill - but as we start off the new year, I wanted to look back at the most viewed articles from Out of Neutral. While written primarily for the church family, some posts took on a life of their own and were read more broadly beyond our local setting. In case you missed any of them or wanted to have another read, here are the top ten in descending order.
With 2020 almost drawing to a close, instead of a regular post, I thought I’d share a behind-the-scenes look at the studios where we film our sermons, vlogs, and Sunday School videos. Some people have asked whether I film these at my home. Others have wondered whether I use my phone to record them. If I was relying on my own talents and resources, I probably would. Thankfully, God has provided a great team. They have invested a lot of time and research in getting the right lighting, sound, and picture quality to ensure that what you see online doesn’t distract from the message we’re trying to communicate. Out of gratefulness for them, let me show you what things look like from the other side of the camera.
Dealing with the closure of our church ministries has been a difficult process for everyone. For some of you, it’s probably been the longest period that you’ve gone without attending a church service since you were born. For others without such established patterns of church attendance, the separation is different. As we try to navigate through the unchartered pandemic waters that we’re facing, it’s important that we continue to listen to each other and seek God’s will for our next steps. To help in that, I wanted to share the results of our latest survey about returning to in-person worship services along with some of my own thoughts.
It’s an unusual week for me when I write letters to our mayor, city councillor and member of parliament. But last week was one of those weeks. I wanted to share with them a recent study on the economic impact of churches on their communities. It’s an important issue because more and more secular people are of the mind that it’s a drain on the economy for the government to provide tax exemptions to religious institutions. The research shows that the opposite is, in fact, true. Even if you never intend to attend a church, you benefit from the economic impact that the church has in your city. Let me explain.