Our 16 most-read magazine articles of 2016
Here are this year's Century articles that were most popular online. Thanks for reading.
(1) William H. Willimon: Why leaders are a pain
There's a subtext to lots of sermons I hear, and some I preach: Discomfort is avoidable. Here's my formula. It's the promise of all bogus religion.
(2) Reggie Williams: Seeing whiteness
I used to lead activities like the "Privilege Walk" and "Cross the Line." I couldn't shake the feeling that they were not taking us very far.
(3) Brian Doyle: So much Twain
Together, the three volumes are five inches tall and weigh more than my children did when they emerged from the sea of their mother.
(4) Mark Yaconelli: Failure to launch
I planned a service for students. None came.
(5) M. Craig Barnes: The post-anxiety church
The mainline Protestant church has to stop fretting about its future and sacrifice itself to mission.
(6) Samuel Wells: When the church gets it wrong
The woman looked at me with fear, pain, and trust—all things that the church has instilled in its faithful all these centuries.
(7) Melissa Florer-Bixler: Children at the grave
For career day at my daughter's school, I brought pictures of some of the things pastors do. The students were mostly interested in the funerals.
(8) Ross Kane: Should Episcopalians repent?
The Episcopal Church was and is right to affirm same-sex marriage. Now we should be willing to face the costs.
(9) Emily C. Heath: Being they
We call God "Father" and "Mother" because children don't say "Parent, Parent." But what will my children call me?
(10) Kyle Childress: Guns in the pulpit
In Texas, even pastors are carrying.
(11) Tony Jones: The faith of the Dones
The Dones aren’t leaving church because they’re burned out. They’ve just hit so much bureaucracy that they seek more efficient venues.
(12) Wesley Granberg-Michaelson: Stealing Jesus
My ecclesiastical criminality has been going on for 45 years. It all started at a Trappist abbey in Virginia.
(13) Peter Marty: Christian conviction in the age of Trump
Practice the beatitudes. Speak truth to power. Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.
(14) Katherine Willis Pershey: On knowing (yes, in the biblical sense)
When I first had sex, it wasn't just teenage hormones. I wanted to know and be known.
(15) David Heim interviews Molly T. Marshall: A seminary's calculated risk
"We had to be willing to do a clear-eyed assessment of our financial situation—and to risk our old identity for the sake of a renewed mission."
(16) Sarah Morice Brubaker: Why the world needs Sarah Coakley
Coakley's kind of theology requires more than claims. It needs prayer.
