With the past few days providing a chance to spend time with family, eat Christmas leftovers, and breathe a little, there happily hasn’t been much web browsing going on.

So, if it’s not too introspective, allow me to instead share the 10 most popular posts here at That Happy Certainty from the last twelve months. 

By the way, I’m really grateful for your support and encouragement in reading, sharing and feeding-back on the blog this year, not least The Sunday Refill. It was a big surprise to be given the runner-up prize for Premier Digital Blogger of the Year, particularly because there’s a handful of blogs that I read regularly that deserved that more than this one!

To be honest, in some ways I’d have liked to have written more non-Refill articles this year; it seems my draft folder is getting fatter, but sometimes it feels like there’s just not the time to turn them into finished articles. Like last year, there’s been a fair few book & resource reviews on the blog, but family life, ministry on the ground, and other projects have rightly been the main focus. Maybe in 2019 I’ll find a way to write more about the things that are naturally taking my time.

So here we go, the 10 most popular posts at That Happy Certainty in 2018…

(By the way, I’ve intentionally discounted the weekly Refills, as well as my annual round-up of Christmas and Easter videos – they’re normally much more popular than anything else, so feel a bit like anomalies!)

As you’ll see, half of the most read posts weren’t even written this year, which perhaps says something about their ‘enduring’ significance’ and something about Google’s algorithms! But the big lesson is that if you want something to be read by lots of people, write about a royal wedding…

1. 9 Assorted Thoughts on That Wedding Sermon

2. “We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience” (2014)

3. Not Deciding: Leadership Lessons from Band of Brothers (2014)
4. The Difference Between Wounds & Scars (2014)
5. Review of Life Explored (2017)

6. So Much For The City: Rediscovering a Vision for Small-Town Church Planting

7. Review of The Goldilocks Zone (Collected Writings of Mike Ovey)

8. “The best things we do are usually the hardest”: An Interview with Dave Griffith-Jones

9. ‘This Is Awesome Cutlery’ Album – A Review (2017)

10. Progress by Adrian Reynolds – A Review

And if you really want to overload on geekdom, you can also see previous years’ top 10s from 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, or even 2013.

Seven up – and have yourself a very merry Christmas!

1) Christmas Feels – As Christians, how do we remember the ‘real meaning of Christmas’? Should we head to the nearest barn and just watch an episode of One Born Every Minute? How should we approach all the turkey, tinsel and festive trimmings? I enjoyed this little video from the team at Faith in Kids. But maybe don’t watch if you’re highly susceptible to house envy – you’ve been warned!

2) What to Watch Out for on TV this Christmas – Christian media guru Tony Watkins gives us his take on what’s worth watching over the next couple of weeks.

3) The Collected Best Christian Books of 2018 – If you’re into your book lists and annual round-ups at this time of year, then, seriously, look no further. Challies compiles just about every Christian book list going.

4) 10 Ways to Be a Christian this Christmas – These ten simple and practical ways to express our Christian faith at Christmas from Kevin DeYoung are worth revisiting again this year: “#6 Find time to be quiet. At some point, get away and be still. Even if just for 10 minutes. Even if it’s in your bed after everyone else is asleep. Go on a walk. Take a long shower. Get up early. Sit in the dark. Look at the snow. Stare at the tree. Just be quiet, ponder, and pray.”

5) The Child Who Won the War Against Children – Excellent and stirring stuff from Rebecca McLaughlin.

6) Songs for Christmas by Sufjan Stevens – Is it Christmas without Sufjan singing away in the background? You can currently download this collection of some of Stevens’ Christmas classics for free via Noisetrade. Never heard of him? Give him a go!

7) How to Configure Your iPhone to Work for You, Not Against You – New iPhone for Christmas?

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Also, we’ve added a few new videos to our list of Christmas & Advent Videos 2018. Looking for something to set the scene for tonight’s carol service or services on the 24th & 25th? Look no further!

My 3 Favourite Christmas & Advent Christian Albums

Sharing is caring. Know someone who might find these links interesting? Why not forward it on?

Seven up…

1) 10 Questions to Get Beyond Brexit – Whatever you think of Theresa May politically, it’s hard to not be in awe of her dogged determination this week. And yet with Brexit taking up so much air time, social media time, conversation time, how do Christians engage with it? Glen Scrivener’s Speak Life team introduce 10 Questions, in a short video, above, to help us get ‘beyond Brexit’. And if you want a more in-depth exploration of them check out their podcast here.

2) Chinese Christians Arrested – Over 100 members of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, China, have been arrested since December 9th, including Senior Pastor Wang Yi and his wife, Jiang Rong. Wang Yi had the foresight to write a statement of ‘Faithful Disobedience’ which he requested his church publish if he was ever detained for more than 48 hours. There is growing tension for Christians in China since the government began increasing the pressure on ‘underground’ (i.e. non State-affiliated) churches. Recent events have led to many Chinese churches signing this Declaration in protest against the government.

3) Church of England Gender Transition Liturgy – Amidst Brexit back and forth and Christmas preparations, you’d be forgiven for not picking up that on Tuesday the C of E’s House of Bishops issued guidance on the use of liturgy to mark and celebrate a person’s gender transition. Whilst this is technically in response to a statement from the Bishops in January (responding to a motion from way back at July 2017’s General Synod), the timing has been rather unexpected – not least because of everything else going on in the country, and the fact that most churches and clergy will be consumed with Advent & Christmas preparations at the moment. However, Lee Gatiss has explained the serious problems with the latest guidance in a helpful blog post, Transitioning a Liturgy, and Ian Paul looks into the rather confusing and surprising nature of the guidance being issued at this time. Yesterday the Church of England Evangelical Council also issued this response.

4) Brighton church with lots to sing about this Christmas – An encouraging little video news item from ITV. I was encouraged by this line from pastor Joel Virgo: “We grow because we do something very old. We teach people about Jesus from the Bible. But that’s the very thing we’ve found people need… that’s still life-giving.” Amen.

5) Understanding the Fortnite phenomenon – If you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 12 months, you may not have come across Fornite. But maybe it’s worth peeping out and finding out a bit more, because, apparently, there are 200 million people who have discovered it. The average user spends 6-10 hours of their week playing it and 60% are 18-24. But why? The linked Twitter thread above is a good place to begin getting our heads round why it’s become such a ‘thing’.

6) 18 Pieces of Goodness in 2018 Pop Culture – A fun round-up of some of the memorable and striking cultural examples of God’s common grace at work in our world from the last year.

7) The 5 Best Toys of All Time – For something a bit different, you better find these on Amazon before they sell out…

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Also, we’ve added a few new videos to our list of Christmas & Advent Videos 2018. Looking for something to set the scene for tonight’s carol service or this week’s assembly? Look no further!

My 3 Favourite Christmas & Advent Christian Albums

Sharing is caring. Know someone who might find these links interesting? Why not forward it on?