The Insanity of God

1.Nik describes how he and Ruth responded to what they felt was a clear call to serve in one of the most dangerous, least-reached places on earth. What does their willingness to go reveal about how they understood the call of God at that stage in their lives?

1.Nik and Ruth lose their son Andrew to an illness that, in almost any other setting, would have been treatable. How does the location of Andrew's death — on the mission field, in obedience to God's call — make the grief more complicated, not less?

1.Nik makes a deliberate choice to *go and listen* rather than simply reading about persecution from a distance. What does this posture of listening — especially across cultural, linguistic, and experiential chasms — require of a person?

1.Dmitri was imprisoned for his faith for seventeen years, during which time he sang a hymn of praise to God each morning in his cell. How does this single image confront your assumptions about what sustains a person in prolonged suffering?

1.Nik discovers that the Chinese house church, which was brutally suppressed for decades, grew to tens of millions of believers during the very years of its persecution. How does this reality reshape the typical Western narrative about what the church needs in order to grow?

1.Many of the Muslim-background believers Nik interviews came to faith through dreams and visions of Jesus — without any missionary contact. How does this challenge or expand your understanding of how God pursues people He wants to save?

1.Paul writes in Philippians 3:10 that he wants to know 'the fellowship of sharing in [Christ's] sufferings.' Nik's journey suggests that the persecuted church may understand this phrase in a way that comfortable Christians simply cannot. What do you think 'fellowship with Christ' in suffering actually means — experientially, not just theologically?

1.Jesus' letter to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3 is addressed to a congregation that is 'rich, wealthy, and in need of nothing' — and yet Jesus describes them as 'wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.' How does this ancient letter speak to the state of the Western church today?

1.Nik's central question — 'Can faith survive in the worst places on earth?' — has now been answered by hundreds of testimonies. In your own words, what answer does the evidence of the persecuted church give to that question?

1.1 Corinthians 12:26 says that 'if one part suffers, every part suffers with it.' Hebrews 13:3 urges believers to 'remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners.' How well do you think the Western church currently embodies these commands — and what would it look like to take them more seriously?

1.Isaiah 55:10-11 promises that God's Word 'will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.' How does the Ripkens' story in Somalia embody this promise — even when visible fruit was agonizingly slow to appear?

1.The title of the epilogue, *The Insanity of Obedience*, carries forward the book's central theme. In what sense is obedience to the Great Commission genuinely 'insane' by the world's standards — and in what sense is it the only truly rational response to the gospel?

1.Looking back across the entire book, which single story, person, or moment was most personally impactful for you — and why do you think that particular image or testimony landed where it did?