2016: A Year in Review

It’s the time of year for blogs and other sites to provide their annual round-up of the year’s most popular articles. I don’t know why we do this, but it seems to be a tradition. Down at the bottom of this article I’d love for you to tell me what you think about this kind of annual roundup. But in the meantime, let me tell you who visited and what they read in 2016.

The site served up well over 15,000,000 pageviews this year from somewhere around 6,000,000 people. These people visited from 237 different countries with 74% of them representing the United States. The top 5 countries were the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa. Following those nations were Philippines, India, Singapore, New Zealand, and Kenya. Facebook was the largest source of visitors, followed by Google and Twitter. Visitors clicked a little over 12,000,000 links to visit articles listed in A La Carte. Beyond all of that, the site generated around 6,500,000 emails to the people who choose to receive the articles that way.

The top search terms that led people here were various spellings and misspellings of my name followed by “benny hinn,” “ellen g white,” “jesus calling,” “norman vincent peale,” “resist the devil,” and “paul washer.”

Here are the top articles, listed from the tenth most popular all the way down to the first.

Did God Break the Law for Love? It happened again. A popular preacher said something in a sermon, it made its way to social media, and lots of people got upset. This was my response to one of those statements.
7 Ways Parents Unfairly Provoke Our Children. The Bible warns parents against provoking their children. Here are several of the ways we can fail to heed that important command.
Sex on the Silver Screen. This was meant to be a one-off article but has turned into a mini-series. It was the first of several reflections on Christians watching sex and nudity in movies and television.
I Forbid You To Say These Things at My Funeral. Just like the title says, here are a bunch of things I wouldn’t want anyone to say at my funeral. And yes, they are the things you tend to hear at most funerals.
Boys Need Their Moms. Boys need their moms—I am convinced of it. Even teenaged boys, boys who are nearly men. Yet this is a relationship that receives very little attention (and, sadly, is often associated with weakness and sissiness).
Some Things You Should Know about Christians Who Struggle With Anxiety. I asked my pal Adam Ford if he’d like to write a guest article and he chose to write about one of his deep struggles. It resonated with readers.
A Clean House and a Wasted Life. This article explores an interpretation of one of Solomon’s proverbs to teach that, like so much else in this life, you cannot have it all. You cannot have perfect order and perfect productivity.
How An Affair Really Begins. This article borrows from someone else to explain how and why affairs begin (and how to guard against them).
10 Serious Problems with Jesus Calling. Sarah Young’s troubling Jesus Calling continues to sell and, of course, this year brought the official and long-awaited sequel, Jesus Always.
Why My Family Doesn’t Do Sleepovers. Those who have been tracking this site for a while won’t be surprised to learn that the sleepovers article maintains it’s #1 ranking for the third straight year. This year it racked up 2.5 million views and is now over 8 million in total.

Before I wrap up, let me express my gratitude to you for reading the site today and through the year. It is a joy for me to do the writing and an encouragement to me that you take the time to read it.

And now, tell me via this little widget, how you feel about annual roundup articles like this one. Be honest!