We know the big story this year has been same-sex marriage (trust me, if I have to write one more story on same-sex marriage, I think my brain is going to melt). Unsurprisingly, some of our most read stories have been about that. Our most popular story all year was a Fact Check on what the Christian churches really think about same-sex marriage, but Eugene Peterson and David Bennett also had their moments in the same-sex marriage spotlight.

But in those rare moments when we weren’t thinking about same-sex marriage, here are some of the more popular stories we worked on:

We caught up with Darlene Zschech about a bunch of different things, including her take on the real meaning of worship. Watch the video below, or read the story:

You were also pretty darn excited about Senator Lucy Gichuhi (who replaced Bob Day in the Senate in May this year). We managed to get an interview with her before she was sworn in, where she talks about growing up in Kenya, moving to Australia, and the role of Christianity in her life. Watch a snippet of the interview below.

And it turns out we Christians know a thing or two about being weird, because one of our most popular stories was Seven real weird things Christians believe (and you won’t believe No. 6!). Bible Society CEO Greg Clarke says, “Christianity is weird par excellence.” So, what is number six?

We love that you guys love a feel-good story, and this next one is just that. We sent one of our videographers to the beach one day to catch up with some young Christian Surfers who are encouraging each other to be followers of Jesus. Seriously, it’s just good. Watch below, or read it here.

In other good news, we were encouraged that you all seemed to enjoy our story Results are in: Aussies admire people who live out a genuine faith. The stats from the survey showed that the greatest attraction to investigating spirituality and religion is seeing people live out a genuine faith. Awesome!

You also were pretty keen on our story about the origin of the Cross Equals Love movement (you know, those people who skywrite + = ♥ in the sky every Easter). If you missed it you can catch up on the video below, or read the story here.

And right back at the start of the year, you got pretty excited about our Beach Mission story. We especially loved this story and the way so many of you commented about your own Beach Mission experience, sometimes many years in the past!

We’d love to know what else you loved this year – tell us below!