Pastor • Speaker • Magician
I like making big rooms feel a little smaller.
I’m David Wood.
I’m a pastor, speaker, magician, husband, dad, and apparently a person who thought learning card tricks on his honeymoon was a reasonable life decision.
Whether I’m preaching, speaking, performing, or just hanging out after an event, I keep coming back to the same thing.
People matter more than the stage.
The short version
A few things ended up becoming one life.
I didn’t really sit down and design this combination. It just grew.
Ministry
Most of my adult life has been spent serving in the church, preaching, teaching, leading, and working with people.
Magic
What started as curiosity turned into years of practice, performances, weird props, and far too many decks of cards.
Speaking
Eventually the two worlds started overlapping in a way that felt surprisingly natural.
Family
Beth and our kids are the real life behind all of it.
Generation Echo
Missions, calling, and helping people follow Jesus into the places they are needed most have become a major part of my life and ministry.
This was not exactly the plan
I bought a magic book on my honeymoon.
Beth and I were walking through a mall in Escondido when I found a book called The Big Book of Magic Fun.
I bought it.
That sounds innocent enough.
Then came more books. More tricks. More practice. Eventually people started asking me to perform.
The other half of the story
Ministry shaped the way I see a room.
Long before magic became my work, I was a pastor.
I’ve preached, taught, led students and families, trained leaders, sat with people in hard seasons, and spent a lot of time trying to communicate things that actually matter.
Performing taught me how to read a room. Ministry taught me why the room matters in the first place.
And yes, I really do love the tricks
I care a lot about the craft.
The people-first stuff is not an excuse for mediocre magic. I love the practice, the construction of an effect, the moment somebody realizes the impossible thing really just happened.
And I love saying things that matter
Speaking is not an add-on for me.
I’m a pastor. I preach. I teach.
I regularly speak about the gospel, discipleship, evangelism, missions, calling, leadership, and ministry.
Magic gives us a great way to laugh together.
Speaking gives us a chance to talk about what still matters tomorrow.
I don’t want a room to remember only the trick. I want the whole experience to stick.
Just so you know what you’re getting
I’m probably going to make fun of the situation.
Not the person.
Usually the situation.
My humor tends to be dry and improvisational, and I really don’t have a magician character I switch on when I walk onstage.
You’re pretty much getting me. For better or worse.This may be the best way I can explain it
I want it to feel like we all just hung out in somebody’s living room.
Even if there are a thousand people there.
Warm. Personal. Funny. A little unpredictable. People talking back. People participating. Something memorable happening together.
The people who know all the tricks
Beth and our kids are the real life behind all of this.
They’ve lived through rehearsals, ministry schedules, travel, weird props showing up at the house, and me asking questions like, “Does this look impossible?”
Being a husband and dad keeps the stage in perspective.
I’m grateful for that.
Another part of my life
Generation Echo
I also lead Generation Echo, a missions organization focused on helping people explore and pursue long-term missions among unreached people groups.
Missions, calling, evangelism, and the global church are not occasional speaking topics for me. They are a significant part of my life.
At the right event, that part of my world fits naturally. At plenty of other events, it never needs to come up.
Enough about me
Tell me about what you’re planning.
Tell me who will be there, what the room is like, and what you hope happens. I’d love to hear about it.
Tell Me About Your Event