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.
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