The top 10 most visited posts in 2013
- 11 ways to #BeChristInChristmas – I’m glad this was my most-read post. It was also the one I shared the most on pages like The Christian Left. I was a little disappointed that they never shared it. The Christian Left has over 150,000 followers on Facebook, so when they share something, it has a dramatic affect. When they shared my Happy Holidays post in 2010, I had more traffic in one day than I usually have in three months.
- Memorial Day Liturgy – Written in 2010, this page spikes twice every year. Thanks largely to The Text This Week, where many worship planners go looking for material to use in worship.
- 2013 Mascot Bracket – A Fat Pastor tradition, the Mascot Bracket is one of my favorite, and most time-consuming, blogs to write every year. It also gets shared beyond my normal audience, which is nice. Readers usually learn something, and hopefully get a chuckle or two along the way.
- Veterans’ Day – I have to thank Jenee Woodard at The Text This Week for the high traffic of all my liturgies. This is another one that I wrote a few years ago, but has staying power because it is a link on http://textweek.com.
- Maundy Thursday Liturgy – I wrote this liturgy for Maundy Thursday in 2012. It works for Good Friday as well.
- 40 Notes in 40 Days – Inspired by Rethink Church’s 40 Photos in Lent, I decided to work on developing relationships by writing 40 hand written notes though Lent. I don’t think I was able to write all 40, but I did a lot of them. Nearly 9 months later, I’ve had people tell me what a blessing this activity was in their life.
- Take up something for Lent – Written in 2011, this was the outline of an Ash Wednesday sermon. I think it has resonated with people that felt their tradition of giving up something for Lent had lost its meaning.
- 2012 Mascot Bracket – I find it funny that this was so popular in 2013, but a lot of the traffic comes from those searching for images of mascots I used in the post.
- Longest Night: For those that mourn at Christmas – I wrote this in 2012, and it was adapted on the General Board of Discipleship website by Taylor Burton Edwards.
- Yo mama’s so nice – Written in 2009, this was really a collaborative effort of a group of pastors bored at a conference. We started telling Yo Mama jokes in a skype chat room. This one has endured because of Google searches. Every day there are a number of people that search something like “nice momma jokes.”
Looking at this list it is clear that I owe a good amount of traffic to people coming here from The Text This Week. It might be time for me to make a donation. It really is a remarkable resource. It makes me very happy to think that some of the prayers and liturgies I have written have not only been read online, but used in worship in churches across the country.
Only three of my posts that I wrote this year were in this top 10 list, but five of the next six most popular were all written in 2013 (Slow Cooker Pulled-Pork, Rape-Prevention Checklist, ABCs of Christmas, Why I’m rooting for the 49ers, and Prayer for the scariest room in the school). Next, I’ll go through my posts written in 2013, and pick my favorite 10. I’m wondering though, if any readers have a favorite.
The Fat Pastor 