Mark DeRaud: "good news for this chaotic moment that we're in.."

As Mark DeRaud wrapped up his chapel message for Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary 
today, he said...well, play the video here below.  It will help to have the end in mind for anything else I quote him as saying throughout his talk:

I think it was recorded, so I will post the audio soon as possible.
 Here are some highlights:

1)A pastors/leader should be 

• coach
• curator
• counselor
• teacher 
• I don't have to tell you which two Mark suggested we haven't emphasized/trained for (:

I want to hear more from Mark about the curator thing!

2)You can see what his scriptural backdrop was..one of his paintings.
His Scriptural backdrop was Isaiah 29: 13-14

The Lord said:

Because these people draw near with their mouths
    and honor me with their lips,
    while their hearts are far from me,
and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote; 
 so I will again do
    wondrous things with this people,
    shocking and amazing.
The wisdom of their wise shall perish,
    and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.

By the time he was done we had a sense that the painting made the same message.
Ask him about it.
As a starter, note the two men reading with no ears or eyes.
One of the curses of the Reformation is that Protestants tend to rely on words only, on not images.

"The  mind is plastic," he maintained.
Even in us older modernity-based focus, the visual/image base of the brain can be restored.
Limbic system  science is clear that new  (old) pathways can be formed..through art.  See these links.

God will do wondrous things through us, as we regain our new mind.

That should leave you

curious. Do check out a

book that has been foundational for Mark's message: "The Reformation of the Image."

And check out these video interviews I did with Mark about the fallout of the Reformation.




3)He spent a good amount of time sharing his experience of being invited to paint murals

at Holy Spirit Catholic church, and the service he was invited to where they were unveiled.
Complete slideshow  of the murals here or here.

I can't believe Mark's classic posts on that experience have been taken down.
Here are the original links, in case someone can find them on the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine page for the original site
I can't.. argggg...they must be there somewhere!):

• Sacred Space: Part One: The Spiritual Language of Beauty 

• Sacred Space Part Two: If These Walls Could Talk

• Sacred Space Part Three:The Barren Cross

 Today, the take home was, as he posted on facebook:

 I was confronted with a body of believers who considered my artistic gift a vocation rather than a curious, useless affliction in the Kingdom of God.
It was the only place or time I was asked, "Did you think the service was beautiful?" A thought my Protestant mind had never considered, let alone would have an opinion.

I was given a position paper on the value of art, written by the Pope. I wept. I wept because I had fought against the call to be an artist, because to be an artist in my Protestant culture was to be, essentially, claimed useless, a non-thing.
The only 'important calling' I understood was to be a book reader and speaker, a preacher. link

He said of the Catholic church,  "their entire place had a language."

--
More:

• Gallery of Mark's art
• Facebook page Mark DeRaud Artist
• all posts on this blog labeled "Mark DeRaud" (see "topical diving" on upper right, or click his name below
• Here is an actual recording of an older  Art N Soul gathering Mark and Wendy facilitated at our church  facility