It has been our custom to do a rundown on some of the key stats from the blog both this year and since I started blogging. I love to share these rundowns because it shows, to some degree at least, what you have been interested in reading. Though my numbers are not massive, close to 350,000 of you have visited this year.

I am so grateful to every one of you who has commented, shared or even just clicked on and quietly read. These lists of top posts give me the opportunity to say thank you to you for taking your time and choosing to spend any of it reading content here. I am grateful to each of you who has found themselves here and engaged with me in whatever way.

I am only too aware that there are so many writers and opinion spouters you could listen to other than me. That you consider any of my thoughts at all useful and take them at all seriously is not lost on me. So let me say thank you for reading. Even if you don’t agree with much written here – and I am really not aiming for total agreement – I am grateful that it is interesting enough to you to come and read.

So, with that said, let me get to the first half – places ten through to six – of the most read posts of 2025.

10. Three mistakes with commentaries

In at 10, this one takes a look at three common mistakes we can make in preaching preparation when it comes to using commentaries. Commentaries are a great help to us as we seek to get to grips with a passage of scripture, but they can also be used in less than excellent ways. This one highlights three common ones.

9. Did Jesus explicitly claim to be God?

It is a fairly common line to hear. Jesus didn’t ever claim to be God, did he? This one pulls together a bunch of biblical examples of when Jesus did claim to be God.

8. Wolf is not the only alternative to sheep

At number 8 comes this post about particular kinds of people we might find in the church. We hear a lot about wolves and sheep, but these are not the only people we may find in church. This one takes a look at some of the other people Jesus speaks about who show up in the church.

7. Straining gluten-free and non-alcoholic gnats whilst swallowing camels

This year saw discussion in the Church of England concerning the legitimacy of using non-alcoholic wine and gluten-free bread as part of eucharist (that’s communion or the Lord’s Supper for all us nonconformists). This one not only looked at the theology and biblical considerations that should lie behind the question, making up the bulk of the post, but also drew a wider point about the ongoing travails of the Church of England in relation to them.

6. People expect it to be churchy

Finally, topping the bottom half of most read posts of 2025, is this one on the apparent turning of the cultural tide and the so-called quiet revival. This one particularly looked at the kind of churches people were being drawn to and why: ‘it is quite jarring if – in going to a hospital for an operation – the place you walk into feels closer to a pub. It might be familiar to you as a surrounding, but it would be both surreal and feel a bit like you had come to the wrong place. You might well like the pub, but you weren’t looking for a pub. You wanted the hospital. I am pretty sure the same thoughts go through people’s heads when they wander into churches that have gone to great lengths to feel like anything but a church. You may well like the thing they are aping; but you weren’t looking for a cafe. You wanted a church.’