This year Soul Shepherding received 562,204 page views, including crossing the milestone of 1,000,000! (Since January 1st of 2010 we’ve received 1,281,230 page views.) What are people reading? Here’s our Top Ten list.
Most Popular Posts Viewed in 2013
Our four most viewed pages in 2013 were all written in previous years. (They’re being picked up by search engines and are linked on other websites.)
1. Identity in Christ Verses in the Bible. Our #1 post of the year is a Bible study in 2006 that was part of a class I taught to church lay counselors. This year it received 28,362 page views. These inspiring verses will help you appreciate how very much you are loved and esteemed by God!
2. Spiritual Disciplines List. Our second most accessed post was published in 2012 and received 27,045 page views in 2013. I think it’s so popular because it features short, practical explanations of the most powerful disciplines for life in Christ.
3. Fear Not 365 Days a Year. This post from 2010 received 26,317 views in 2013 — that’s a lot of people seeking the peace of Christ! Have you ever noticed how often the Bible says “fear not”?
4. Lectio Divina Guides. Have you ever tried one of our Lectio Divina guides for your personal devotions in God’s Word or to share with a small group? Thousands of people did in 2013. (17,194 page views.) We have 43 one page sheets on and keep adding to this library.
Most Popular Posts Published in 2013
For numbers five through nine in our Top Ten list we feature the five most popular new articles posted to SoulShepherding.org in 2013:
5. Pastor’s Wife Scriptures. It’s challenging to be a pastor’s wife. These Bible verses have brought encouragement to many pastors’ wives this year.
6. Personal Reflections From Dallas Willard’s Funeral. On May 8th of 2013 Kristi and I said goodbye to our beloved friend and mentor. We thank God for the huge impact he’s had on our lives and our ministry to pastors and leaders. I’m currently writing a book that will include the best of these lessons.
7. With Jesus in the Storm (Rembrandt’s Meditation). In our groups and one-on-one conversations with ministry leaders/caregivers we guide them into experiences that help them open their hearts to Jesus. Our “Soul Shepherding experiences” are great for small groups or personal devotions. This one is based on Rembrandt’s masterpiece meditative painting of Mark 4:35-41.
8. Inner Healing Prayer with Psalm 46. Here’s another experience. This meditation and prayer has helped Kristi and I and many others bring our emotional wounds and unmet needs to the Lord at “the river whose streams make glad the city of God.” It may be the most powerful prayer in the Bible for learning to live from reality of the Kingdom of the Heavens in our midst.
9. Bible Verses to Run with Jesus. I wrote this short Bible study at the beginning of 2013 when I tried to run three marathons in three months like I did in 1980! I stopped at two in two months. That was my ninth marathon and it may be my last as I have back pain from a compressed disc. Thankfully these Bible verses are good meditations for running and walking! They’re really about our spiritual race of following Jesus.
Last But Not Least
To close out our Top Ten of 2013 we mention a post that belongs in the list not for it’s number of page views but for it’s impact.
10. A Prayer for Pastors (And Anyone who Ministers to Others). A pastor wrote me this year to say that he prayed this prayer over and over with tears because it brought him so much encouragement.
A Library for Intimacy with Jesus
SoulShepherding.org includes a free library of 531 devotions, Bible studies, guided experiences, and in-depth articles all focused on furthering our intimacy with Jesus in life and ministry. Anytime you can go to our “articles” page and click on one of our most popular tags/subjects to find the article you’re looking for.