On Monday, I listed the top 10 books I read during the year of 2014. Below is a list of the top 5 blog posts of 2014, based upon views (or “hits”). Mind you, only 2 of the 5 articles were written this year. But it goes to show that, via such avenues as Google-searches, people might come across your material at one point or another.

1. Fear-Driven Biblical Interpretation: This rang in with the most views in 2014. Here is a summary of my challenge: “We are extremely prone to over-react towards those who fall outside of our own ilk and we are fear-driven in our approaches, which leads people to use emotional manipulation in keeping people in line. For example, one might say: “If you believe this, then you’re gonna believe that – oh, and you’ll compromise the gospel!” No, that’s not a solid conclusion, and there’s evidence to the contrary!”

2. The Average Church Size in America: I put up this post in January 2011 and it has continued to garner attention for quite some time. It rings in as the second most viewed article, not just in 2014, but for all-time on the blog. There are 2 statistics that might baffle those living in North America: a) half the churches in the U.S. have less than 75 people and b) the average people population of a given local church in North America is 184 people. That’s reality (and I’d argue this shouldn’t be seen as negative).

3. C.S. Lewis on the Trinity: Some 4 or 5 years ago, I got involved in posting reflective comments as I followed a blogging debate about the doctrine of the Trinity. On one side you had an orthodox Trinitarian (Rob Bowman) and on the other side you had a biblical Unitarian (David Burke). In the midst of my theological commentary on the debate, I had a little side excursion, posting some pertinent thoughts from the great Lewis and his Mere Christianity.

4. My Working Thesis on Our Fear of God’s “Earthiness”: Just a few months ago, I posted this article with the thesis that we are afraid of God’s earthiness when it comes to three important components of Christian life and theology – a) the earthiness of Jesus, b) the earthiness of Scripture and c) the earthiness of the local church. I had purposed to follow up with an article on each of these 3 points. I’ve yet to do that, but perhaps that can be a project for early 2015.

5. Jesus’ Interaction with People: Back in 2009, I looked at how Jesus was willing to touch, look at and listen to people as he interacted with them. He was the great shepherd and I suppose the gospels have much to offer us from the life of Jesus, and especially how he truly cared for people.

There you go. The 5 most read articles at The Prodigal Thought in 2014.