Looking back at 2025
The posts you loved + a peek behind the curtain of Field Notes + thank you
Hi friends,
You know my weakness for navel gazing so did you expect to escape 2025 without a look back at the year that was here at Field Notes? I hope you’re still in soft pants and unsure of the date altogether. We had a lovely, busy Christmas. We hosted the extended fam this year and it went well and also I was sound asleep on the couch by 8:30 p.m., apron still on. Christmas is a lot and I always look forward to these “in-between” days after the big day and before everyone returns to school when the kids can sleep late (the dog never does so I’m up anyway) and all the pressure has lifted.
As we turn towards 2026, I’m still considering what to prioritize both personally and here at Field Notes as well as vocationally. Looking back is always helpful for clarity on what’s ahead. I mean, as a family, we are doing this work - we got a dog! we have another kid graduating high school in the spring! our 25th wedding anniversary is coming up! etc. etc. - so of course it makes sense to do this for our work-work, too.
ℹ️ I actually have a big announcement coming - like next week! - for you about a new project. I’m very excited about this one and I think you’re going to love it. So keep an eye out for that next week.
And of course I have a book manuscript due in two weeks as well (my timing remains impeccable) which means that if you happen to see me in public, muttering to myself in my sweatpants with a messy bun on my head while swearing I’m quitting writing books, that is to be expected at this stage of the process.
But I always like to take a moment here before the old calendar is tucked into the drawer and the fresh one is hung on its kitchen hook to look back at the year that was here at Field Notes. So let’s take a peek behind the curtain, shall we?
A peek behind the curtain
We were just shy of 4 million views here at Field Notes! (What in the world??)
I’ve been writing Field Notes for eleven years now, but here at Substack since 2019 as one of the earliest adopters and the entire time, you’ve kept this little earnest spot in the top ten of all newsletters for our category of Faith and Spirituality here.
Subscribers increased by 11% overall. We primarily grow slowly but steadily through your own referrals and word of mouth. I mean, this is a pretty quiet space, you know? I don’t run sales or promote much, I rarely “go viral” whatever that means these days. I’m a writer, not a hot-take content creator. Everything about Field Notes defies conventional wisdom for building a community or audience as a writer. (Apparently not everyone loves text-heavy, wordy, earnest essays with footnotes? imagine!) but we just keep steadily growing as each one of you forward the essays that resonate with you to a pal or gift your friends a subscription for their birthday or post snippets on your social media. I am so very grateful for this. I never take it for granted when you trust me with your people. Thank you, truly.
One of my favourite little stats is what they call our “retention rate” - meaning, if people sign up here, do they stick around? And our retention rate is so encouraging: once you’re here, you lot tend to stay with us much longer than most other comparable newsletters. Your loyalty and steady presence makes me feel like this is truly a community, not just a click-bait viral farm or whatever. I love this one.
I sent out 64 Field Notes missives to you all this year. These ranged from our devotional series to breath prayers, long essays to book chats, interviews with other authors to community conversations and much more. It’s a mixed bag.
We still have a lot of good conversation and connection in our comment sections. It’s a good reminder, every week, that we’re all real people on this road together. I love knowing your names and stories.
We revisited our Unexpected Jesus series together with four new deep-dives into stories from the Bible together. I loved writing these for you but I think we’ll take a break from the series. If you have any suggestions for our 2026 deep-dive, let me know in the comment section!
We had an Advent for the Exhausted Ones that connected with a lot of you. I think I might do something similar for Lent and then for Easter, too! Any thoughts?
We were practicing prayer together and I wrote new Breath Prayers for Holy Week, Breath Prayers for Autumn, and more for faithfulness among others.
Readers here are mostly from Canada and from the United States (especially Texas, California, North Carolina, Washington, and Illinois), but there are a good number of us who call the United Kingdom and Australia home.
We have given away more than 2,000 paid subscriptions to folks who can’t swing it right now. I love this aspect of our community: not one paid subscriber complains about the fact that we do give away subscriptions to every one who asks. If anything, you all always offer to pay MORE so that more folks can be part of our quiet outpost here on the Internet. This feature will remain a pillar of how we “do business” around here. (If you are interested in learning more, the details are at this Welcome page.)
While we chat money, I wanted to let you know that we are committed to keeping this one of the most affordable paid newsletters available. (Our subscription fee is more than half the typical going-rate for these things and that yearly subscription is basically more than half the year free.) There won’t be a price increase in 2026, promise.
Now let’s get to what you liked the most - or at least, what was shared/read/viewed the most! along with a little inside-baseball on my end for those posts.
The Top 5 Field Notes of 2025
Are we still calling ourselves Christians? Or are we done here? // Written back in March, this one skyrocketed to being in my top two posts of all time here at Field Notes. Basically, if you are wondering how we can still claim the name of Christian when it has become synonymous with harm, well, suffice to say, you’re not alone. Almost a million of our visits here at Field Notes were simply because of this post. (Related: A Benediction for the Stubborn Ones Still Holding On)
The Christian Bookstore Rejects: A few messy thoughts on being a devout Christian author who writes books geared for Christians and yet almost never stocked in the Christian bookstore // An off-the-cuff old-fashioned blog musing, I am surprised to see this one so high up on the list, to be honest. It felt highly specific but it seems that it connected with a lot of us, not because we’re all overly earnest Christian authors, but because the dominant narrative of Christianity leaves us out altogether and we’re figuring that out.
“Get bangs or get Botox, girl”: A few more thoughts on aging at this bonkers moment in time // Back in October, I happened to share a picture of my hair at the moment and the response to my natural face and grey hair inspired not only the title for the piece but a robust conversation on aging at this particular moment of time. It’s a lot of words about having a face basically.
Then be the last one: Or, The Narrow Road // Out of all the most popular posts, this is probably my favourite one. Or maybe it’s the one that is informing my life the most, ever since then. Writing this helped me to articulate something important about my work and witness at this moment in time. I think of this one more than you might think.
In which I get honest about contentment, capacity, and a few other things: Or; Fit for purpose // My very first post of 2025 held true for me throughout the year. I might have more reflection on this as 2026 dawns but the framing ideas here - contentment, capacity, and letting myself be “fit for purpose” as I am right now - held true for me. Trust me to find the spiritual lessons in The Great Pottery Throwdown, eh?
And a few posts that were a bit quieter in views but meant a lot to me personally:
In-dwelling: if God is with us then perhaps God is staying put with us, too.
This is where the constellations shine in the darkness: I can’t figure it out, so I give God glory for it.
An Incomplete and Highly Personal Litany of Why I Love Being Canadian // ...for no reason in particular *ahem* at this exact moment in time
Your job isn’t to get over your anger.: Anger is our holy starting point, but it is Love who sustains the passion and directs it into life-giving transformation.
I know the words by heart: Or, Permission to borrow courage from each other
Thank you
Thank you so much for your support and kindness around Field Notes. It is my greatest joy to write for you, knowing that it lands in your inbox or mobile phone screen as a real person from a real person.
As a reminder, we always take time at the end of the year to donate to the causes and non-profits we’ve featured here throughout the year from your Field Notes subscriptions on our collective behalf. We sent that money off this week and it felt good to know that we all did that together, too.
Thanks for subscribing, of course(!), but also thanks for your thoughtful comments and interaction there. I really do love when you comment and read every single one; it helps remind me that I don’t just send these out into the void but to you and your particular self.
Thanks for sharing my work on social media or with your friends, for buying my books(!!!), for following me on social media, for all of the referrals and recommendations from my fellow writers or readers, for generously supporting the causes and non-profits that we feature here, and for the dozens of ways that we’ve connected outside of this space, too.
I’m grateful for you. I start these letters, every week, as “Hi friend” because after all these years - more than eleven of writing Field Notes, more than twelve of writing books for you, more than twenty of writing online now - this somehow does feel like a friendship, and an important one, to me. I am so grateful for your presence, your trust, your companionship on the journey, and the absolute privilege that it is to be alongside of you through the page or pixels.
May 2025 close the door gently on her way out.
Love S.
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Thank you so much for all the Field Notes this year. I love receiving & reading them and gain a lot from your insights and perspective. I always feel a sense of calm when a new note lands in my inbox, knowing that after reading it I will always leave feeling calmer, refreshed and encouraged. Happy New Year to you & your family x
Sarah, you feel like a friend to me. And I am grateful for the friendship. My favorite emails are from you. Thank you for doing the Lord’s work and leading us well.