Evangelist and comedian Mark Ritchie takes to Edinburgh Fringe

One minute he will have you crying with laughter, the next you’ll be stunned to silence as he talks about Christ.

Now, evangelist and comedian Mark Ritchie is taking the gospel into the heart of one of Britain’s most renowned cultural festivals. Ben Hampshire caught up with him.

Come August every year the Scottish capital of Edinburgh comes to life as a hub of creativity and performance with the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The month-long arts extravaganza features a wide range of entertainers and after debuting as a comedian last year Mark Ritchie is returning to his native Scotland to perform again, only this time, he’s going bigger and better.

Mark, originally from Musselburgh, was so overwhelmed by the success of his 2015 show ‘For The Love Of God, that he is heading back to the Fringe with a brand new show, ‘God Only Knows’.

“The Edinburgh Festival really is the good, the bad and the ugly,” he tells iBelieve in our August issue. “You get amazing, phenomenal, excellent shows and then you get other stuff that is a bit ropey.

“There is just an incredible vibe of creativity around the city. It is an absolute hot spot for creativity and I feel like for us as Christians, we know the Creator, the ultimate creative who is God, and we need to be in that space because we have the creativity of God flowing in us.

“I pray a prayer frequently and that is, ‘Father, fill me with your creativity that I may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission.’

“I just don’t think it’s good enough for churches to do things not quite as well as everybody else. I don’t think it’s good that a lot of stuff is average and ordinary, and what places like the Edinburgh Festival teach me is the power of creativity.

“I’ve had a joke with some people who have asked about my content and I said, ‘God only knows.’”

Read the full interview with Mark in the August 2016 issue of iBelieve Magazine.