Author: Jonathan Dodson

St. Patrick on Suffering

Patrick was a Romano-British citizen, kidnapped in Britain at age 16 and served as a slave for 6 years in Wood of Fochoill, Ireland.  He later returned to the homeland of his captivity, Ireland, to spread the gospel and plant churches.  His mission to Ireland 457-492 began at age 40 after being turned down after his first request to be commissioned as a missionary.

St. Patrick’s early captivity fostered a theology of suffering that sustained him throughout his ministry.  The precise area of his captivity is still unknown and was likely excepted from his confession because of his emphasis on the providence of God directing Patrick’s ways for his personal sanctification and the conversion of Ireland.  This redemptive theology of suffering is encapsulated in his reflections on captivity “and the Lord ‘poured down upon us the heat of his anger…and there ‘the Lord opened my heart to an awareness of my unbelief’ so that, perhaps, at last ‘I might remember my sins and that I might turn with all my heart to love the Lord my God’ (1.17, 20).”

Evangelism Without Additives

This book looks helpful. Finally a book that is more concerned with counting conversations than conversions. Here is a blurb:


What if…
·you didn’t have to make a speech in order to “witness”?
·you could use everyday experiences to nudge others closer to Jesus?
·the things you’re already doing counted as evangelism?

Evangelism can be as normal as asking great questions and paying attention to the people Jesus misses most. It involves doing things you already do, but with a little more intentionality. Just by being yourself and becoming unusually interested in others, you can discover that people will ask you about Jesus.