Magic and Ministry Evaluation Advice

I am a bit of a magic geek. I’m not a performer in any way but I enjoy watching magic performed. The illusionists who are at the top of the craft are artists of the highest caliber.  I suppose the reason I enjoy magic so much is both the excellence of the performance but also the challenge of trying to figure out how they do it. Even when you know how they did it, which for me is very rare, it is delightful to see the artistry of the performer.  I especially enjoy the show Fool Us that features the great magic team of “Penn and Teller”.  As two of the world’s leading magicians not a lot of people can fool them by performing the trick while keeping the process secret.  Those that do are genuinely magnificent performers.

One of the things I do as I watch a trick is to remember that the reality at the end of the trick has been the reality all the way through the performance; the performer was simply making it look like something else.   If the rope is authentically a loop at the end, it was always a loop, but there was an illusion that it was something else.  If the playing card with the torn corner is genuinely sealed in a solid block of acrylic at the end of the performance it was always sealed in a solid block of acrylic.  The laws of physics that govern the universe were not set aside by slight of hand.  These are not miracles they are tricks.  What you have to focus on is the state of being at the end.  During the trick the objective is to miss lead us.  Do not trust your judgment while the trick is going on; your perception is not reliable.

That is what Paul is saying in I Corinthians 4:5.  “…do not go on passing judgments before the time…” We have a terrible tendency to look at what is going on in Christianity at the moment, in our churches, and in ourselves and offer authoritative judgments.  Often times in so doing we are wrong.  I am not that old, but in my lifetime I have seen churches and leaders all excited about programs, initiatives, ministries, gimmicks and plans that were going to “change the world,” all of which are now little more than memories, some of which are embarrassing. 

Just for fun let’s take a walk down memory lane.

• Bus Ministry: certainly bus ministry had its moments but it did not change the face of American Christianity the way we were told it would. 
• Puppet Ministry: I knew a college so committed to the life changing impact of church ministry that it offered upper level 4 credit hour classes on puppets.
• Drama Ministry: The arts of acting were to make Christianity understandable to those who grew up with television.
• Promise Keepers: I loved PK and attended several events including “Stand In the Gap” at the capitol.  We were told we are on the verge of a dynamic revival.  But the excitement of those moments did not match the following reality.
• Seeker Sensitive/Driven Ministry: This model of ministry was so dynamic that new organizations began doing specials about the changing power of the new face of Christianity. 
• Christian Role Play Games:  This was or is if it still exists a Christian version of Dungeons and Dragons.  The person I talked to offered the pitch that people would play the game and it would bleed over into their daily life.

I do not mean to be cynical, except for the Christian D&D, all of these efforts had some value and accomplished some good and filled some needs.  What I am saying is that we need to be a bit more prudent about our pronouncements that the latest and greatest thing in church is actually all that great.  It might be a bit of a flash in the pan.

Rather, let us do two things: love and live.  If Jesus has any authority it would seem that loving God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves is the place to start.  How that applies to daily life is what brother Paul said in Romans 12:2.  Holy living is the life of a living sacrifice.  When we get to the end of our days and we find something was a temporary tool we need not be surprised, it was a temporary tool all along.  We are better off never having defined it as the end-all-be-all of Christian history.