Geoffrey Durham and the Art of Preaching

I recently visited the Wolverhampton Circle of Magicians. The guest speaker that evening was Geoffrey Durham. He is a highly successful British magician whose career has spanned several decades in television and theatre. He was a compelling speaker and addressed the issue of how to communicate with an audience. Along the way he illustrated his talk with the multiplying Martini Bottles, an excellent rope routine, the biggest hydrostatic glass trick I have ever seen (he had it custom made by finding a glass blower - now that's a sign of a real professional!)

He also presented and explained his Himber ring routine which is fantastic. The thought and attention to detail was a real lesson in planning and care. All these effects though were to illustrate his Seven keys (or principles) to presenting an effective magic show. His emphasis throughout was that it is the personality of the performer which is paramount not the trick which is performed.

As Geoffrey Durham continued to expound his seven principles it really struck me that his principles would equally be effective in improving the communication of preachers. Someone once said that preaching is communicating the Word of God through personality. While I would not steal his talk point by point (You can get his excellent book Professional Secrets for a more detailed discussion of his ideas), I think it is worth exploring some of his ideas in the context of improving the preaching of sermons. As Geoffrey Durham used magic tricks to highlight his principles so I will use Gospel magic tricks for the same purpose. This will be the subject of my next seven blogs. So watch this space.

Derren Brown and Gospel Magic

One ministry I think Christian magicians have is to be a witness to other magicians.

Unfortunately we often give a bad witness when we do give poor quality performances. However we do move in the same circles as other magicians and this is a fantastic privilege. When I worked with other professional magicians in Dubai I met some amazingly talented people. They came from all over the world and it was an awesome privilege to work alongside alongside with entertainers from India, Argentine, Chile, Pakistan and Iran!

Almost inevitable the subject of religion comes up when we are 'resting' between shows and it has proved a reminder to me that although I am dealing with some of the most cynical people in the world when it comes to believing in miracles - these magicians share the same desire as I do in trying to make sense of the world we live in.

Recently I read Derren Brown's book "Tricks of the Mind". It is an excellent read but troubling for me as Derren ( a famous and successful television magician and mentalist) makes no secret of his sceptism of all things religious. Derren is an incredible performer. His television programmes blow the mind and he is very, very good at what he does. As an entertainer his style is compelling, convincing and sometimes outrageous.

In his book, he describes how he converted from Evangelical Christianity to scientific atheism and goes on to express his pity for those who believe in the Biblical accounts of Jesus. His encounters with various Christians and churches are described and it made me cringe - and sadly I can understand his aversion to some forms of religion.

It's not just Christianity he pans though, at the end of the book he aggressively denounces the whole Spiritist movement and exposes the guillible victims of seances and charlatans who seek to contact the dead.

Derren was clearly influenced by the work of Richard Dawkins and refers to him throughout. Dawkins is an unrelenting Biological Determinist from Oxford University who sees the concept of God as a rather sad means to enable humans to justify their existence and make sense of the world. Derren constantly approves of science as the only measuring stick for truth.

My response to his book as a Christian reader is this:

"Derren I am sorry for the graceless way in which some Christians have treated you and for the experience of manipulation you so clearly described in some church services.

But science as the only measure of truth is a seriously limited way of understanding and living life. The whole premise of science is that it seeks to observes visible data and discover the principles which govern our universe. (If our universe is just a random accident - where did these universal scientific principles come from I wonder?) There are some things which science can never measure. For example; it cannot measure my love for my wife and children. The scientific method cannot prove if yesterday ever happened! God cannot be put in a test tube.

Scientific evidence for me builds a convincing case for the existence of a personal creator God and it is interesting to see more and more the number of sceptic scientists coming to that conclusion. A great book to read Derren would be The Case for a Creator by the journalist Lee Strobel. "

As for Gospel magic - it is simply a visual aid for me to teach those who have grown up in a visual culture the astouding reality that 'Truth' is a person - Jesus Christ.

God Bless you Derren Brown.