If you have noticed during the Mark series there is an intro video that moves pretty quickly. Here are stills of the two main graphics that are being animated in that video.
The idea in the first graphic is that the Bible is like an intentionally arranged library of writings that all tell a consistent story about God and the World that finds its anchor point and purpose in the person and work of Jesus. The headers are like the major plot movements of the entirety of the Bible. It stops each week on Jesus: Suffering Servant and Powerful Savior, which is the overarching message the Gospel of Mark portrays.
Which takes us to the second image. The purple image scans the Gospel of Mark and lands on the section that we are teaching through each Sunday. The headers are the major sections of the Gospel.
The reason we show this video each week is to visually help orient our church to where we are in the Story: Both in the Bible as a whole, and the Gospel of Mark in particular. There are 2 main reasons we wanted to do this and 1 main source of inspiration for it:
Two Main Reasons:
1. One of the reasons we produced this video is because in 2025, The American Bible Society released its annual “State of the Bible” report. While there were some encouraging trends, there is still an overall sense that we are a Bible illiterate culture. Equally daunting are several reports (like Jean Twenge’s devastating research) that highlight how screen addiction is robbing us of critical thinking through long form reading. This video is an attempt at piquing interest and instructing faithfully through culturally acceptable mediums the narrative of Scripture. This helps us take seriously both context and authorial intent in hearing and responding to the Word of God.
2. Art has long been a medium followers of Jesus have used to engage the heart of humans. Creative ventures like the Visual Commentary on Scripture, underscores art’s power to deepen biblical engagement by opening the imagination, evoking emotion, and revealing truths incarnationally. In an age saturated with images but starved for depth, recovering art as a vital medium for teaching Scripture will be critical for the generations current and future—entrusting painting, sculpture, stained glass, and digital media to form us as we see the Word, encounter Christ in color and form, and allow beauty to become a pathway into theological understanding and worship. This video is an attempt at leveraging digital art to do just that.
One Main Source of Inspiration:
So what was the inspiration behind this video? Throughout the last 1300 years, stained glass windows in churches were designed to depict biblical stories, helping to teach the faith to largely illiterate congregations, creating a sense of awe and reverence by filling the sacred space with colorful, symbolic light. Additionally, these carefully crafted windows reflected the glory of God and the beauty of divine truth through art. Recently on a trip to Ireland, we visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. It was a beautiful structure that had lots of art throughout the building teaching, wooing, confronting, radiating. One window stood out though. My wife and I were drawn to it because on it was one of our favorite Scriptures:
We stood there, mesmerized by the colors, meditating on the verse, swelling with hope. As the beauty of the art worked on us, we could feel God working in us, reminding us that far more than merely educating our minds about truth, the Bible is an overwhelmingly compelling story of God’s love wooing rebels to himself, forgiving, winning, saving and then filling them with his Spirit so that we could live as Christ did in the world.
The Bible unfolds a single, redemptive storyline—spanning Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration—that provides the necessary framework for understanding our lives and God’s unfolding mission in history. When we forget this story, we lose sight of our original purpose in God’s good creation and our future hope in its renewal, which diminishes the fullness of our identity and calling. Hearing Scripture as one coherent story equips us to live as transformed characters within God’s drama, aligning our daily decisions with His overarching mission. This video is a small attempt at this great adventure.
Credit:
Josh Reed – Ideation
Finn Johnston – Production
JP Penrod – Animator