I started this blog on July 18, 2007, five years ago on Wednesday. It's been a great five years of blogging. 551 posts, thousands of comments, and countless hundreds of hours of writing later, and I'm happy to say I've loved every minute of it. By way of marking the occasion of the fifth anniversary of The Search, I thought I'd look back at some of my favorite and most popular posts. If you've been a longtime reader you'll maybe remember some of them. If you're a newer reader, here are some old favorites I commend to you:
- Favorite movies list: Top 25 Films of the 2000s
- Most enjoyable list to compile: Top Ten Most Stereotypically CCM Band Names
- Favorite "launched a significant personal relationship with a reader" blog post: Have Missions Become Too “Deeds”-Centric?
- Favorite Malick/Tree of Life post: The Divine Guide in Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life
- Favorite Malick-themed list: 39 Facts About Terrence Malick
- Most idealistic political post: 45 Things I Want in a Presidential Candidate
- Requisite Tebow post: We Need More Tebows
- Favorite analysis of a Lady Gaga song: Lady Gaga’s Alien Logic
- Saddest moment for a wannabe social media skeptic: I Joined Facebook… Sigh.
- Saddest title: Christian Film: Still Abysmal After All These Years
- Favorite three-part series: “What We Really Need Now is No” (part 1, part 2,part 3).
- Second favorite three-part series: "Types of Hipsters" (part 1, part 2, part 3).
- Favorite patriotic post: 30 Great Things About America
- Reason I still don't have an iPhone: What is the iPhone Doing to Us?
- Making sense of Joaquin Phoenix via Marilynne Robinson: The Challenge of Belief
- Post Rob Bell would hate the most: Christianity 101: Exclusivity
- Favorite Holy Week post: The Horror of Grace
- Favorite Lent post: Lent, Self-Denial, Life, Bonhoeffer
- Favorite liturgical Advent post: Advent Prayer Requests
- Favorite attempt to incorporate film theory into a movie review: No Country For Old Men
- Favorite post from my travels: Debussy, Debauchery and Dieu (A Weekend in Paris)
- Favorite post on technology: In Praise of Being Out of the Loop
- Most likely to be a topic I return to: Brokenness Equals Authenticity?
- Inspiration post for my new book: Movies Too Disturbing to Sit Through
- Also an inspiration for the new book: Was Jesus Ever Tipsy?
5 Most Commented
1. Are You a Christian Hipster? (Feb. 7, 2009): This blog post was the first excerpt of Hipster Christianity that I posted on the blog, about a year and a half before the book actually came out. It remains one of my most trafficked and commented-on posts ever.
2. 100 Greatest Worship Songs of All Time (March 14, 2008): I wrote this oldie on a whim and had no idea it would become my all time most trafficked post. I get about 500 views on this post every day, mostly from people googling "worship songs" or "best worship songs" (try it: this blog post is like #3).
3. Best “Christian” Albums of all Time (Oct. 29, 2007): What can I say? Lists about Christian music always elicit plenty of response. This one--my selections for the best "Christian" albums ever--was no different.
4. The Tragedy of (Most) Modern Worship Music (Aug. 26 ,2007): I'm sensing a pattern here. Discussions of worship music has gotten a big response. This post--basically a summary of all my curmudgeonly thoughts about contemporary worship--apparently struck a chord.
5. Sad Times for the Episcopal Church (July 16, 2009): This post, written in response to the latest move by the Episcopal Church in America to affirm LGBT lifestyles, seems almost antiquated given how much farther down this path Episcopals have gone since. In any case, it drew lots of emotional discussion in the comments section.
5 Most Trafficked Posts: