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!