Here are the Century magazine articles that were most popular online this year. Thanks for reading.

1) The gospel in seven words, by David Heim. “The Century asked 23 authors to boil Christian proclamation down to just a few words. What is the essence of the essence of Christianity?”

2) The Bible plus, by Kathleen Flake. “The LDS canon's four books carry equal weight of authority. All are read as historical witnesses to God's promise of salvation.”

3) This just isn’t working, by LeeAnne Watkins. “Our church tried endless varieties of adult ed opportunities and midweek services, but people didn't come. So we canceled them—all of them.”

4) The new black theology, by Jonathan Tran. “When black theologians focused on nontraditional and extra-Christian sources, white theologians had an excuse to ignore them. Not anymore.”

5) Fit for ministry, by Amy Frykholm. “Being a pastor is bad for your health. The Clergy Health Initiative aims to study this problem and begin to correct it.”

6) The absurd in worship, by Thomas G. Long. “I recently learned that ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ can speak truth—when it's not a display of militarism but just patently ridiculous.”

7) New clergy, new churches, by Jesse James DeConto. “Emily Scott had an idea: what if young adults got together for a weekly agape feast? Soon St. Lydia’s was born—but Scott was not ordained.”

8) Saved by fiction, by Deborah Smith Douglas. “Reading fiction has done more to baptize my imagination, inform my faith and strengthen my courage than any prayer technique has.”

9) Courage to date, interview with Kerry Cronin. "I once asked a panel of students about relationships—were they seeing anyone? Did they feel like they had to break up before graduation? They looked at me as if I had been speaking Greek."

10) Who is communion for? by Charles Hefling. “Offering the elements to the unbaptized can be seen as a development and not a revolution, but it is a significant change. Is it a good one?”

11) Culture changers, interview with David Hollinger. "Ecumenical leaders of the 1960s took a series of risks, asking their constituency to follow them in directions that many resisted."

12) Unnecessary roughness, by Benjamin J. Dueholm. “A sociologist might see in football a society's need to control and ritualize violence. The church fathers, however, weren't much for sociologists.”