1. Patrick's breakthrough came when he began to leverage his knowledge of the native language and customs to build a bridge between Irish lore and the Christian mythos.
  2. What Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 28, atop a mountain, is a reaffirmation and clarification of what God told Adam and Eve from Mount Eden in Genesis 1.
  3. In their last Q&A with Jesus, the disciples ask, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" I used to think that was a dumb question by confused disciples. I was wrong. In his response, Jesus teaches them--and us--what the restoration of Israel's kingdom really looks like.
  4. This is the key to understanding missions and preaching: It is His mission, His message. Christ commissions only His Kingdom of God message to be preached, period. You are not at liberty.
  5. The Gospel outpaces all would-be and eventually fleeting identity-makers and brings in the truth of a renewed-in-Christ humanity.
  6. The history of the early Reformation in the New World is both a tale of pirates and the battle of catechisms.
  7. No matter which side, it’s easy for all of us to build Bible verses into grenades aimed at obliterating the political other.
  8. A good place to start is to work hard at loving those no one else seems to love. I can’t think of a more Christ-like action.
  9. Folks who have done missions in third world nations come back with stories about how they were transformed by the experience, and yet often there is no reference to Christians proclaiming the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.
  10. We may seem destitute of hope, but the hope of Christ is stronger than our weakness.