This year has been one of interesting twists and turns as we have found more and more readers coming to our website. Many have sought out how to do mental health ministry better, some Christian counselors how to incorporate their faith more, and a lot of churches wanting suicide prevention or how to have a counselor join or partner with their staff. But by far the biggest content sought out on our website this year was one of healing, self-care, and how to just find rest in God. You’ll see this in the top posts below.
The top searches to finding our website via Google this year alone are:
- “christian suicide hotline”
- “abide app reviews”
- “godly marriage”
- “pastor burnout 2021”
- “christian anger management”
1. 2021 Pastoral Mental Health Report
The most viewed article our review of the Faithlife 2021 Pastoral Mental Health Report and what this means for pastors across the country with regards to mental health. The article did not make any specific interpretation of the results, but we did and it is not doom and gloom but not positive either.
2. Difference Between Licensed and Biblical Counselors
We’ve seen many clients and counselors struggle with the difference between these two types of counselors and what is best for them. We have our own biases that we tried to leave out of the article. And the next article on this list actually inspired us to go ahead and write this because of their own bad interaction with a Christian counselor.
3. I Love Jesus, But I Want To Die [Book Review]
This book was one of the best of the year for us to read and while I am normally not a fan of autobiography style books within the Christian mental health scene, this one his many key points about negative experiences and what true clinical mental health experiences can and should be like, even with a Christian-integration.
4. Pray.com App
We receive a lot of requests to review books, services, apps, and other things which leaves very little time to actually focus on any one, so we have to say no a lot. Pray.com was different in how they asked by giving us full access to their platform and if we thought it was compelling enough, would love a review. And the content was really good so we did it.
5. Disability and the Church [Book Review]
Let me first say that if you are not following Lamar Hardwick on Instagram, you should be. His heart for being a pastor comes out and he puts in his advocacy within his posts. He is also going through cancer treatments and in the midst of it, showering Christians with hope and strength to keep battling on. This book is honestly a testament to Lamar’s life and something we definitely want to support.
6. Clergy Appreciation Day and Month
I actually accidently came upon this about a month out from the day and having almost a decade of previous ministry experience, knew this is something that could help reward pastors and so wanted to make sure to share it. Pastors tend to not get much praise, have humility to not ask for it, and many times lack the reward of their service. Most pastors don’t do it for the praise, but it can be a real motivation boost when a congregation member or community member comes up and says thank you.
7. Rest For The Weary
This is one of those articles that came out of interactions with our social media community, something we hope to do more of in 2022. People are tired, exhausted, and honestly, burnt out. We need to do more of self-care to rest in God and build resiliency not only to do good stuff today, but to be in ministry for years to come. More on this next month.
8. What To Do On A Sabbatical
Just as with the previous item on this list, pastors have taken to this article to find how to best take a sabbatical during their time in ministry. Honestly, part of the process is to convince their leadership it is okay to take, something we hope to tackle in a future article.
9. REBOOT – Christian Trauma Recovery
Having worked within youth ministry as a full-time staff with military teens for many years, this ministry hit personally for me. Even better, I was first introduced to it at my own church and want to absolutely support it however I can, so highlighting it on this website was a joy for me.
10. Even Leaders Struggle with Addiction
While it is sad that pastors struggle with their own addiction, it’s even more concerning how church governing bodies respond to pastors heartlessly and, in many instances, with contempt. People are fallen and pastors will mess up from time to time. This isn’t to justify their actions. But a body of people that respond poorly is not a mistake, but sin within a group setting and must be addressed. This was our hope to normalize and shine some light into this problem.
What articles did you like from the year and what do you want to see written in the future?
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