So What Faith

Greg Smith

Celebrating So What Faith: 13 Years & 2,000+ Posts (#2002)

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Thirteen years ago today, I launched So What Faith. One day later, I added my first blog post.

Thank you for journeying with me. While this blog has remain committed to exploring matters of faith that matter, my vocational context has shifted several times:

Now, I enjoy roles that offer a blend of all of the above categories. I currently serve as Executive Director of the White Rock Center of Hope – a faith-based nonprofit that partners with local churches and local institutions of higher education, and I serve as Board Chair for the Texas Association of Charitable Clinics – a membership organization of nonprofit clinics that provide healthcare for uninsured and underinsured Texans.

Photos of Greg Smith, 2011 and 2022 (Naples, Florida)

2000 Posts

Since I started in 2009, I’ve now been blogging in three different decades. I recently reflected on my experience in each with a post about each decade. And, over the years I’ve reflected on the experience overall at the end of several years and at the end of blogging on a daily basis for 1,000 days.

Interestingly, half of my blog posts were written in less than three years (1,000 Days of Daily Blogging, July 2013) while the other half took ten years.

This post is post #2002!

Top Posts

As of December 2021, the top posts all time based on page views were

  1. Pastoral Prayer – Love (2014)
  2. Prayers of the People – Youth Sunday (2009)
  3. Are 10,000 Churches Closing Every Year? (2019)
  4. My Visit to Next Level Church (2012)
  5. Sermon: Lost –> Found –> Party (2015)
  6. 12 Marks of Convergence Christianity (2012)
  7. 6 Decades of Decline in the United Church of Christ (2018)
  8. Review of Not a Fan (2011)
  9. The Acceptable Year of the Lord – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011)
  10. Reading the Whole Bible (2010)

Top Series

Most posts on So What Faith stand on their own. Excluding sermons, the top posts that were part of an intentional series or that clearly go together and have become a series are:

  1. Top 10 Books of the Year (2010-2021) – an annual list of the 10 best new books I read that year
  2. Search for a Church (2017) – a series of 18 posts over 17 months chronicling our search for a new church after moving to Corinth, Texas
  3. The Future Church (v.2020) – 10 Shifts (2012) – a series exploring the top 10 ways I hoped the American church of 2020 would differ from the church of 2012
  4. Search for a Church 2.0 (2019) – a series of 11 posts over 13 months chronicling our search for a new church after moving to Fort Worth, Texas
  5. Saying Goodbye to Hardin-Simmons University (2020-2022) – a series of 7 posts about the changes at HSU from the closure of Logsdon Seminary to the adoption of a problematic Statement of Faith
  6. Pandemic Posts: Wisdom for Ministry During the Time of COVID-19 (2020-2022) – an occasional series of 35 posts focused on doing ministry during a pandemic
  7. Giving Up the Church I Always Knew (2021) – a series of 6 posts focused on what I plan to leave behind as we move toward a post-pandemic church
  8. One Faith – Many Traditions (2010) – a series of 9 posts exploring how my understanding and experience of Christianity has been enriched by 7 denominations or traditions
  9. Celebrating Blogging Milestones (2012-2022) – including this post, a series with 14 reflections on the experience of blogging here at So What Faith
  10. God is Doing a New Thing – My Experiences in UCC Congregations (2022) – a new series with 5 posts (2 published to date and 3 coming soon)

700 Book Recommendations

Since my first post, I’ve used this blog to share what I’m reading. Over the years the format has changed from book reviews to book ratings/recommendations. In the first 13 years, I’ve shared over 700 new books (new meaning published within a year of the time I posted about each).

So What?

Every year has provided a new opportunity. And, every year I’ve reaffirmed my commitment to continuing to create new content. I’ve managed to post at least 50 times every year, which means new content has been available to my readers somewhere between once a day (during the nearly three years I blogged that frequently) to once a week.