Top Posts of 2014

Goodbye, 2014, parting is such sweet sorrow.

As we wave farewell to another year, let’s take a quick glance at where 2014 led this blog. Here are the top posts of 2014. They may not be our favorites, but the stats tell us they were yours.

The blog will be officially on vacation for the next week, letting both you and us spend some quality time with our families. We’ll see you in the new year!

10. Multi-Site or “One-Service-Only?” A Question of Evangelistic Faithfulness. The first of a four-part series on the controversial practice of “multi-site” church. The general tenor of the conversation usually places multi-side on the stand, asking advocates to prove its biblical fidelity. But here we flip the question, asking if the single-service model reflects a key biblical imperative.

9. Four Ways to Win the Battle Against Busyness. Blaise Pascal once said that busyness sends more people to hell than unbelief. So if it’s so dangerous, what are we supposed to do about it? Here are four ways to diffuse some of the tyranny of busyness in your life.

8. Don’t Be a Fundamentalist (Calvinist Or Otherwise). The question comes in pretty frequently: “Pastor J.D., are you a Calvinist?” It’s a fair question, but a more important one is, “How important should this doctrine be?” Let’s have the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism, but let’s have the gospel shine brighter than both.

7. Two Pastors—One White, One Black—Reflect Together on Ferguson. The past year has reminded us how divisive racial issues still are for Americans. We’ve made certain strides in the past few generations, but events in Ferguson, MO and elsewhere have also highlighted how deeply ingrained many problems remain. We’re learning to process this together, black and white, and to apply the gospel to it all.

6. Five Insights Into Idolatry. Now this really is one of my (Chris’) favorites. Idolatry isn’t a popular term in the “sophisticated” twenty-first century Western world. But just because we tend to bow down to fewer statues doesn’t mean we’re less in the thrall of idols than we were 2,000 years ago.

5. A Bold Challenge to Other Southern Baptist Pastors About the IMB. We issued the challenge at the Summit to increase our Lottie Moon Christmas Missions Offering by 50%. And we called for other SBC pastors to make a similar bold statement of faith.

4. 26 Ways to “Provoke the 1 Peter 3:15 Question” at Work. The apostle Peter wrote that we should always be prepared to give others an answer for the hope within us. That presupposes that our lives provoke a question: “Why do you do what you do?” Here are a number of ways to do exactly that.

3. Two Ways to Know You Are Saved. “How do I know, for sure, that I’m saved?” Those asking this sort of question are likely to want more than a blog post treatment of the subject (hence the book, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart). But it’s no surprise that such a hot topic made this a highly trafficked post.

2. What David Platt’s IMB Presidency Signals About Our Future. What does it signal? Only good things! Platt is the man of the hour for the IMB, and we’re excited to see his passion for missions translate into a movement toward completing the Great Commission.

1. Seven Signs That You’re “Judging” Others. “Judge not” is probably the most oft quoted phrase in the New Testament, especially among non-Christians. But neither Christians nor non-Christians have a very good handle on what Jesus meant when he said it. We’re here to help.