At a Glance
What happens when a committed communist finds faith in Christianity? Héctor Ramírez, our special guest, shares his gripping journey from embracing Marxist ideology in his small Colombian hometown to being transformed by Christ. His remarkable story highlights the impact of faith, beauty, and the arts in bridging the gap between truth and today’s postmodern, post-Christian societies. Héctor helps us consider how we might best navigate postmodern thinking as believers. To help us, we discuss the cultural shift from modernity to postmodernity and examine the challenges of a post-truth era, where emotions often overshadow reason and science. This conversation is crucial for understanding how the Church can effectively communicate the Bible in our day. Héctor shares his thoughts on utilizing beauty and art as a vessel for truth, and considers how this can foster spiritual reflection and bring a cultural shift away from postmodernism.
Special Guest
Héctor Ramírez is an actor and theater director. A formerly committed communist, he became a Christian and worked with YWAM for about 11 years in missions in various countries around the world, mainly on the European continent. He has been the director and founder of the Ars Performing Arts Centre in Madrid, Spain for 12 years. He and his wife, Lillie, founded The Ars Vitalis Foundation. With their son, Danny, they have been implementing an arts ministry that aims at reaching and connecting a postmodern, post-Christian society with the gospel message. Hector has been featured numerous times at the blog DarrowMillerandFriends.com.
What You'll Hear
Using the link above, you can read the transcript or listen along while highlighted text follows the podcast audio.
Beauty speaks in nature.
Héctor Ramírez (42:55)
Quotes
Go Deeper
A Call For Balladeers: Pursuing Art and Beauty for the Discipling of Nations
DARROW L. MILLER
Through a biblical lens, Darrow Miller examines what it means to be a Christian artist and the role of beauty in the world. As the First Artist, God created the universe to be beautiful, and set a precedent for all mankind: to create art, not for religious obligation, but simply for the sake of beauty itself.
With scrutiny and honesty, A Call for Balladeers takes a hard look at the faulty perspective toward art and beauty held by many Christians today and uses the Bible to make a case for why the Church should be concerned with the arts. Miller provides a hopeful, liberating outlook for Christians who find themselves caught in a dilemma between their artistic endeavors and their desire to minister to their community.
There is no divide between art, beauty, and the Christian faith. God uses the arts and artists to advance His kingdom of truth, goodness, and beauty on earth as it is in heaven. A Call for Balladeers will help Christians think biblically about art, teach them about historical and modern-day balladeers, and encourage artists to use their God-given talents to minister prophetically, bringing transformation to their communities and nations.
When the principles of the Bible are understood as a comprehensive worldview, it has tremendous power to work transformation in individuals, families, communities, and even nations. Too often, Christians are ineffective because they have absorbed cultural thinking that is not in alignment with truth.
Not all worldviews are equal. Some lead to brokenness and poverty, while the biblical worldview leads to God’s intended flourishing and the blessing of the nations. Our Kingdomizer Training Program can help you understand the biblical worldview and discover areas in your own thinking that need to be transformed by God’s Word.
More than a million people have now been trained in 115 countries. Get started with our completely free Kingdomizer Training Program today!
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