I don't know if you have already thougt in a routine based in john 6:9, to be honest with you, I was with some issues with that.

Until today

I was praticing some routines with the gospel, To write them into my book, and sudently I took my coin shells and all this message overcome to me.

You know I feel great. Until this moment I was using the multiplying cards, but feels good to have two or more routines for the same gospel word.

I have a routine I did awhile back with students over this passage. I went to dollar tree and bought a couple of packages of colored sponges and cut the blue ones into the shape of a fish and the yellow ones into loaves of bread. When I was done I had about 37 sponge fish and bread. I kept 5 loaves and 2 fish and kept the rest in a production box. While telling the story I talk about how some bible scholars believe their could of been around 20000 including the women and children.(they were only counting the 5000 men) I emphasize that the disciples probably had more food than the boy had but they knew that even with their food it wouldn't be enough. They might as well had nothing(show production box empty) All it took was one boy who gave what he had to Jesus and look what happened(put 5 loaves and 2 fish in box) while telling the rest of the story one by one pull all 37 of the sponge loaves and fishes out of production box and pile them on table and slowly fill up 12 bowls with them. When you get to the end talk about how they took 12 baskets of leftover food. Sorry for the grammar I was typing this on my phone. Thought I would share my routine for this before I went to bed.

I would like to question/comment, maybe others can too, but why do you want to do this?

If this was done for children, they may get excited about the magic, but does it add to the message?

Also, I'm not convinced about doing tricks that in effect duplicate the miracles that Jesus did. Can that give the wrong message? (i.e.; the message that Pharaoh's magicians were trying to give?

I'm open to hearing others thoughts on this.

John

@ John: I actually agree with your observation! ANY magic trick used to illustrate a miracle will fail to communicate the magnificence of the actual event. Thus, I refuse to do them. I try to avoid things that are easily imagined or contemplated simply with the spoken word. If it is best conveyed through storytelling, it doesn't need magic to communicate.
Magic doesn't have to say "miraculous!" It can simply be an interesting way of illustrating a story or parable (like puppets or flannel graph: Vital & Necessary? NO! Memorable & entertaining? Yes!)
My favorite reasoning for using magic routines, is for "hard concepts". There are many Theological concepts and attributes of God that make your head hurt when trying to conceptualize (Trinity, Salvation, omniscience, omnipresence, predestination, sanctification, The Word, The God-Man Jesus, Justification, imputed righteousness) As you see, almost an endless list of things that are outside our natural understanding, and beg for something to help us comprehend such a great, loving, God.
Now you come full circle and find magic in its proper place: illustrating something supernatural, something you can't just point to a natural example. Then magic simply becomes the "vehicle" to tell a story, the "special effects" of the movie, if you will.

I have done an effect to this same message in the following manner. Bascially utilizing a chick or dove pan (I used the smaller chick pan) and the load is gold fish crackers and cinnamon toast crunch cereal. I understand the concern with attempting to "duplicate" any of the miracels of Jesus, etc but have found that when displaying the gold fish and cereal, it gets the message across (especially for kids in a storytelling manner) and is FUN plus they get a treat if you want to actually share the snack!

Note: This is not my idea, I think I got it here from someone that shared it years ago.

Glen

I"ve used the six card repeat - with pictures of fish and loafs - (even added acouple card to keep the count) it worked good.

--> Loaves and Fishes Jumbo Repeat (Smoky Mountain Magic / Dan Wolfe).

- Donald

For young children, the ever so neat "Codology" by Kovari Magic- carried by a wide variety of magic dealers. Always wanted Codology for myself (I already have a monkey bar)... maybe someday.

I agree with John...I would be VERY careful about using a magic effect to, in essence, duplicate a miracle of Jesus. Most will likely get that it is an illustration...but you DO run the risk of someone either getting the unintended message that either Jesus' miracles were nothing but tricks, or that you, yourself, have some miraculous power.

I think the Loaves and Fishes Jumbo Repeat is a MUCH better option.

Ditto on what Mike said above. I cannot really remember using a magic trick to discuss a miracle that Jesus did (like changing water to wine) other than using a die box adaptation for the empty tomb illustration: see MagicBob's version of "The Tomb Die Box" found at the 23:38 mark at More Than Magic! #1 found at http://www.ChristianMagician.org

Wow,
I just noticed that the original post was from 2.5 years ago, and he didn't get any response untill recently, and by post count, he's not likely to see any of this.

None the less, I think its good for us to consider why we are doing gospel magic, and the implications of what we are doing.

For myself, if I'm performing for a Christian-friendly audience, I do just one effect that has a message. I'm still not sure of the extent that the magic helps the message - I see myself as still experimenting in that area (and talking Laflin's advice: if you're not a preacher, don't. )

In contrast, when I'm in a nonpaying Christian-unfriendly environment, like a street fair. I have some visual props (e.g. a very large $100 bill) to get their attention. If they stop, I will engage them in a simple effect using the bill (a wonderland effect), and a simple bible based message on money (Mt 6). The intent is to try to engage them in a conversation. I may then do a gospel message w/some colored silk, but my goal is not to entertain them, but to engage them in a conversation about their spiritual beliefs.

John

Confession time for me: I cannot remember when I did "Gospel magic" in any other than a very "Gospel friendly" environment: At a church, Sunday School class, Christian outreach event, FCM convention, homeless shelter, prison, etc.. -Unless you count our homemade cable access programs at http://www.ChristianMagician.org where people can just turn the channel or go to another site.

If I ever do Gospel magic in a basically public setting (which I have not done yet), it would probably be at the end of the "set" combined with my personal story ("testimony" as some would say).

Let's share our ideas at the FCM convention in Nashville, not too far away now for sure- please be sure to introduce yourself- I'd love to meet you all and have dinner or lunch together in the Caféteria.