christmas magic

I went to a brilliant pantomime in Kuwait where they performed a spoof magic show. One of the items was a mind reading trick in which a member of the audience is asked if they know which word the magician had previously written down on a piece of paper before the show began. When the volunteer replies "No" the magician screamed "Correct!" and pulls out the paper to show that he had written the word "No".



I used this to begin my sermon in order to talk about how God planned the Christmas story in advance. This led onto the use of the Magician's Choice in which 5 numbered envelopes containing a different response and understanding of Christmas. held by different people around the world. I got a line of children out to hold each envelope in front of them with each number clearly visible to the audience.



I asked a volunteer to choose an envelope (he chose the one I wanted him to pick by applying the Magician's Choice technique - Tis was envelope number 2). Envelope number 2 had a picture of the baby Jesus in it. The other envelopes had pictures of a Santa, a Christmas Tree, a pile of gift wrapped presents and a Christmas Turkey. All these pictures were revealed from the different envelopes with comments on how they represent for many people the only meaning of Christmas. Then I highlighted the choice of Envelope 2 "chosen" by the volunteer which contained the real meaning of Christmas.



It was great fun and made for a fifteen minute sermon. The great thing about this technique is that you can adapt it for any season or occasion.



Blessings

No Proselytizing Please!

I can hardly pronounce the title of this blog! However when you are working in Christian ministry in the Middle East, it is vital to understand the boundaries allowed by your host countries. The law in most of the Islamic countries in this region states very clearly that you cannot share the Christian faith with Muslims in the public arena and describes this prohibited activity as proselytizing. It is worth noting though that the legal definition of proselytization under Islamic law does not correspond with what Christians understand as evangelism. Islamic law describes proselytising as wilfully seeking to corrupt, manipulate, deceive or coerce someone into changing their faith. It also adds that the indiscriminate mass distribution of literature or other media which criticizes Islam or promotes Christianity over Islam is forbidden.

Clearly there is a huge gulf in what Christians see as normal evangelism which is sharing the Christian faith in the context of friendships and gossiping the Good News. There is no brain washing involved or deception. There is no attempt to undermine the religion of Islam, rather we simply talk about Jesus and what he means to us. Incidentally there is nothing in there which prohibits the use of Gospel Magic unless of course, the use of deception is raised!

when Gospel Magic goes wrong

Working as a Gospel magician in the Middle East can have its challenges. One is the heat of the savage summers can really mess up your props. Glues melt, plastic warps and before you know it you are ambushed in the middle of a magic show or presentation by faulty props.

My most memorable faux pas occurred in Egypt when I was performing a Drink in News routine where you pour water into a folded newspaper and then turn the newspaper upside down over a volunteer's head. The trick is that the water has disappeared completely and does not come out of the paper (thanks to a special plastic bag which is glued inside the paper). On this occasion though, the sun had melted the glue that held the bag and before my eyes and the entire audience of an Egyptian church the bag slid out on top of my volunteer and burst - drenching her and ruining her dress with a sticky mixture of glue and water!

Another time I was using one of the Axtell drawing boards and the heat had warped the mechanism which allowed a drawn face to become animated. I had to improvise and do something completely non magical.

What are your stories of Gospel Magic going wrong?

theology of gospel magic

For a direct link to a free down book on the Theology of Gospel Magic. Click

http://www.gospelemagic.com/gmtheology.pdf

This deals with a Biblical approach to presenting Gospel Magic which may be helpful to those of you who are under pressure to come up with a hermeneutic for why you are using Gospel Magic in your ministry.

Hope it is helpful

Blessings

revq8

great free downloads on gospel magic here

Dear All

One great site for those of you who are into children or youth ministry is www.kidology.org

They have loads of sections and resources including a newsletter. But for you Gospel magicians out there, there is a section with free down loadable gospel magic tricks which you can check out without having to sign up to anything. Check it out.

Blessings

magic in Arabia

The whole experiment of blogging is new to me and I am learning fast as to why people use it for marketing and conveying information. I live in Kuwait where blogging is very popular. It is used as a way of communicating views and opinions on local politics and religion which can get a bit scary as there are certain taboos which are illegal.

One area in the Islamic world which can be misunderstood is the entertainment form called magic. Witchcraft, sorcery and black magic are illegal in the Middle East and you can actually go to jail on the charge of sorcery. In fact in Saudi Arabia someone was excuted last week on the charge of witchcraft. So for you magical entertainers who do card tricks and sleight of hand - you have been warned.

See freedownload on http://www.gospelemagic.com/ all about origins on Gospel magic.

Free downloads

The most widely used word in search engines seems to be the word free. This is a great marketing tool and I find it is the top word used in locating my website on Gospel magic. See www.gospelemagic.com

There is a free downloadable ebook on why Christians can use Gospel magic as a tool for preaching and teaching the Christian message. Watch out for more downloads soon.