ArticleBlog | Stand up for Jesus SEVEN THINGS PREACHERS CAN LEARN FROM STAND-UP COMICS
Stand up for Jesus SEVEN THINGS PREACHERS CAN LEARN FROM STAND-UP COMICS
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 13.09.16
My father was a hospital chaplain. My school friends always assumed he was strict. This wasn’t true at all. When CD players came out, he bought us one and we’d dance around it all evening. On special days he let us turn it on. OK, joke over. In all seriousness, my father was falsely assumed to be dull, grey and boring whereas in reality he was the opposite. Why was this? Who or what has made the priest’s image humourless? What has got lost in translation?
Comedy is a language: a language that lightens the atmosphere, creates rapport, reduces tension, drives home points, and infuses the communicative process with joy, happiness and satisfaction. Laughter can move you physically and mentally. It’s memorable, uplifting and healing. Humour is also a spiritual tool. Apart from that it’s useless. It’s my belief that the message of Christ is too important not to use humour. Having grown up in the household of a priest, I have met every type of vicar you can imagine. Humour was so evident in these people’s lives when they came to dinner and social events but generally their funny muscles were not flexed at all in their pulpit.
