A Movie for All the Ragamuffins

Last night we finally got to watch the DVD of Ragamuffin, the story of Christian singer Rich Mullins. For two-hours and 15-minutes, we sat through the ups and downs of his life. The movie was, from beginning to end, saturated in the unique Rich Mullins sound. I said to my wife, “I’ve probably never listened to the sound of the hammered dulcimer this much ever.”

Her reaction to the music was to be totally impressed that the actor playing Rich did his own vocals for the movie, which added some authenticity.

Rather than replay the story line, let me say this instead: This is a movie for

• Anyone who has ever felt like a misfit; that their history or their calling is simply different from everyone else; that there’s nobody to talk to about what they do because nobody does it, or talk to about how they see the world because nobody else sees the world the same way.
• Someone who has struggled with their relationship, or lack of relationship with their father; with or without perhaps the added burden of thereby trying to comprehend a loving heavenly Father.
• A person who is constantly wrestling their own inner demons; be it some particular pain, or addictive behavior.
• Those who have been let down, disappointed, abandoned, or somehow severed from relationships due to circumstances or even death; whose history seems to be one of people constantly leaving.
• People who feel the core essence of Christ’s teachings isn’t so much about outward conformity to religious standards, but rather a security in the knowledge that God loves us.
• Fans of Christian music who want to see the realities of the industry, warts and all, and how God uses people in spite of their brokenness. 
• Thinkers who want to press further into the idea of grace and how sinners can and do experience the grace of God.
  

And that is just to name a few things this movie touches.

Rich Mullins’ life intersected with other people you know, from Amy Grant to author Brennan Manning. His music, from “Sing Your Praise to the Lord” to “Awesome God” impacted a generation of Christians.

This is a tough movie to watch. Rich’s life is not an ideal; not really a role model we can hold up to today’s Christian youth. It’s a very dark story; not your typical Christian movie. There were also some continuity issues — the conflicting hair length of the actor has confused many reviewers — which interrupted the flow of what was otherwise a beautifully crafted piece of cinema.

But for us, last night, it was must-watching. Knowing a little about Rich Mullins’ life ahead of time, the movie did not disappoint.

You can read more about the movie, and watch a trailer, at an article I wrote in 2014 when Rich was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Wednesday Link List

Promised you last week when we did a feature on Kevin Frank there would be one more panel in it for you (see Genesis 8:20) …

Time once again for things on Christian blogs and news feeds you may have missed and some you’ll now wish you had. Clicking anything below will take you to PARSE, which paid $1,000,000.00 for exclusive rights to this weekly feature, plus a third-round draft pick.

• Though still imprisoned — and now hospitalized — in Iran, Saeed Abedini offered Easter prayers for Christians around the world.
• James MacDonald is joining the ranks of the televangelists.  Walk In The Word Television starts next Sunday.
• By today’s standards, these six people probably don’t qualify as Evangelical.
• Ex-Westboro Baptist member Mark Phelps talks candidly about his father, Fred Phelps and the church.
• Tough one: How does a church minister to a convicted but converted sex offender?
• Sometimes a great story comes through just after deadline; like last week when we learned that Rich Mullins is to be inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
• So now the question is, out of all those Easter visitors you had on Sunday, how many want to come back?
• A publisher with over a hundred books in his catalog offers ten things that go wrong when pastors’ sermons are adapted as books.
• The mother of a young boy talks about her life and her relationship to the family that adopted him.
• The guy who wrote the book on heaven reviews the movie based on the story of the kid who went there…
• …And the family-focused, faith-audience-targeted film fest continues with Moms’ Night Out opening in May. Watch a 3-minute trailer.
• The most important book you can read, after the Bible of course, is the phone book. Well, not that phone book, but otherwise, this writer is dead serious.
• Even though we recently linked to The Voice Bible page, the translation team is often asked how they arrived at using “Eternal One” for “Lord.”
• The next generation of atheists has rejected the agenda of railing against the religious, effectively ending The New Atheism…
• …While overall, faith among Millennials remains constant even as participation in religion declines.
• Shaun Groves’ homeschool family does a unit on generosity, “Because – like art, music and theology – generosity has to be taught.”
• A Mississippi bill gives support to religious freedom, but it’s being spun as being anti-gay.
• The man you know best in the role of Hercule Poirot has completed his NIV audio Bible, which releases Thursday in the UK…
• …Also in the UK, I’m not sure why The Christian Institute posts this tabloid-type story about a 12 year old girl and a 13 year old boy becoming parents; but it does say something about the country’s morality…
• …Which makes this story confusing: As Britain’s Prime Minister found out the hard way, it’s not politically correct to refer to that nation as a “Christian country.”
• The writing in this article serves as a major distraction, but it does raise some issues about the megachurch star system.
• Franklin Graham, Russell D. Moore and Ralph Reed discuss declining numbers of Evangelicals on ABC This Week.
• Our congregation totally loved this Skit Guys video on Sunday.
• The latest offering from Hobby Lobby isn’t for sale in the arts and crafts department, it’s a high school curriculum.
• I don’t care what part of the world you’re reading this in, renting space to hold a church service should never get this complicated.
• Meanwhile, another church we attend when in the Toronto area produced this reversed poem video.
• Essay of the Week: What if, as on TripAdvisor or eBay, there was a rating system of your performance as a Christian?
• Interview of the Week: Author and pastor Adam Hamilton ignores repeated references to Rob Bell.
• First, Tim Challies includes Pope Francis in his “False Teachers” series. Then, this heartfelt response.
• An infographic shows off the countries which have the greatest (and least) degrees of religious diversity.
• Your ‘small’ group can be worldwide when you start a Twitter Bible reading group, like #Luke2Acts.
• Taking coals to Newcastle? Apparently Grand Rapids, Michigan needs one more church.
• D. L. Moody was a big fan of Tennyson, the poet, and was given to poetic forms himself.
• The U.S. stats on deaths from war versus deaths from abortion expressed visually.
• Link to more links: Trevin Wax has indexed all of the items on his blog over the past few weeks that focused on various aspects of the atonement.
• Canada’s foremost Christian male vocalist, Steve Bell, is readying a multi-disc set celebrating 25 years.
• Dry Bones Department: Ken Ham’s Creation Museum has scored some fairly significant dinosaur bones.
• Mention does not imply endorsement: Every once in awhile it’s necessary to remember that articles like this abound online. (Great cure for low blood pressure.)
• Music Video of the Week: Teens Delaney, Zachary and Erika Daves make up the band Daves Highway (no apostrophe!) and a few weeks ago posted this Hillsong United cover with a hint of bluegrass.
• Non-Music Video of the Week: This is perplexing on several levels at once.

WordPress says this is Wednesday Link List number 200, but it doesn’t count the times I typed the word Wednesday in a hurry, or the variety of names it existed under before uniformity set in.

 

We leave you this really simple explanation of how to pray; at least according to one denomination.

Gospel Music Association to Induct Rich Mullins to Hall of Fame

It’s an honor that would have made Rich Mullins blush.

The GMA (Gospel Music Association) will induct Rich Mullins, writer of “Awesome God,” into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame at their inaugural GMA Honors Ceremony to be held on Tuesday, April 29th at Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena. The event celebrates those being inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame as well as individuals and organizations that are impacting our culture globally both past and present. Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant are the first performers announced for the ceremony, with more to be added.

The GMA honor comes on the heels of the Color Green Films Ragamuffin movie inspired by the life and legacy of Mullins whose tour launched earlier this year and is currently screening across the nation.

source: Christian Cinema

The movie has been on a tour of single-night showings across the U.S. since January, due to wrap up at the end of May. A full list of remaining venues is available here. Here is a short trailer:

Mullins left a legacy of great songs — including Our God is an Awesome God — but this will always be my personal favorite:

Another one was the powerful song Creed, a declaration of faith and doctrine which we featured here.

I realize that I may not get to see this until it is released on video, but I would not want to miss this story.

Wednesday Link List

 

A big shout out this week to the people who track me down and submit link suggestions. Weekly deadline is 6:00 PM Eastern on Mondays.  To view clickable links for all that follows, read the Wednesday Link List at Out of Ur.

• Although this movie trailer was posted in May, it was new to me: Coming in January, 2014 a movie about singer/songwriter Rich Mullins, aptly titled Ragamuffin…
• …and a more recently posted trailer for a documentary exploring “the promise of evolutionary Christian spirituality,” with interviews with “a dozen leading theologians and progressive thinkers.” The 7-part DVD series is titled Painting The Stars.
• It’s not just a Catholic problem; a group is actively protesting to push for the ordination of Mormon women.
• Just weeks before his formal installation, the President of the American Bible Society announces that the Board of Trustees has “brought [his] service to a close.”
• “Christians in the Middle East are hostages in the hands of Islamic forces.” “Many of Israel’s Christians feel that their history, culture and heritage have been hijacked by Muslim Arabs in the region.” Read more at this report from a recent conference.
• Sometimes in the quest to free ourselves from the constraints of religion, we discover we’ve simply immersed ourselves in a different form of religion.
• Thanks to Canadian blogger Michael Bell, I was finally able to track down data on megachurches in Canada, a much shorter list than its U.S. counterpart.
• 1-Source, a collaboration of four Christian publishing companies will offer titles by established authors like Bill Myers and Brandilyn Collins, as well as self-publishing.
• David and Goliath becomes the theme of a TED Talk, but this explanation of the story is a little different from the one we know.
• Essay of the Week: From right here at Christianity Today, Andy Crouch on the power we confer to those in church leadership and why it matters.
• Find of the Week: Christian cartoonist Wes Molebash whose adventures with JP and Miles at the fictional Paper City Church make up the comic Insert Image.
• Retort of the Week: Russell D. Moore responds to Pope Francis’ recent interview with an Italian journalist and the danger severing the love of God from the holiness of God…
• …while Shane Claiborne remembers the original Francis.
• There is so much to read at the blog of Samantha Field that it’s hard to just link to one post, but here’s 15 things you shouldn’t say to a recovering Fundamentalist.
• Apologetics in part involves responding to Christianity’s critics, and these are some interesting responses.
• One year ago at this time, I was crusading to get a classic book on the history of teaching about the Holy Spirit put back in print.
• Typology: “So [Mommy/Daddy], [was/is] [name of prominent figure] a good guy or a bad guy?” Sometimes the answer is a bit of both. (Tangent: Check out the blogroll on this one.)
• Not only does a portrait of Jesus have to be removed, but an Ohio school district has to pay the ACLU’s $80,000 in legal costs.
• Ecclesia Church in Houston, Texas is producing a number of quality videos to go along with a dramatic reading of chapters in Genesis.
• I think this was more common in a previous generation, but why not today? Praying for your children’s future spouses.
• In some conservative Christian circles, the phrase “Guard your heart,” has an entirely different spin with consequences the writer of Proverbs never intended.
• Jamie The Very Worst Goodwill Ambassador articulates her ambivalence after a tour with World Vision.
• In the spirit of what’s termed Paul-Timothy relationships, Donald Miller suggests you should take your cues from people notably older than yourself, not your peers.
• She “is a girl, just like you and me, who made a mistake. She knows when you are talking about her. She knows when you are looking at her and judging her.” An insider look at birth-mothers.
• Don’t roll your eyes, but it’s one more Arminianism vs. Calvinism comparison.
• For Italians, the name Simone Saltarelli denotes both a well known motorcyclist and a figure in Catholic church history.
• The 2013 Catalyst Conference, as covered by the hometown newspaper, or more relevant details at Christianity Today.
• Lost Song of the Week: Standin’ in the Need of Prayer by Deitrick Haddon and the Voices of Unity; a flashback to 2004.
• Christianity Meets Culture: A blog featuring “reviews and news on the board gaming industry from a ministry point of view.” Not surprisingly, it’s called Theology of Games.
• And then there’s this graphic which I’m sure you have use for, but I wasn’t sure how to introduce it. (What’s an .svg file anyway?)
• Back on the comic front, nearly seven years and more than 1,100 panels later, the UK’s Jon Birch is still cartooning at ASBO Jesus.
• Finally, a story for which I’ll quote the entire first paragraph, so you know I’m not making this up: “The Robertson clan from A&E’s reality show Duck Dynasty, will release a Christmas album called “Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas” on October 29, featuring several top country stars.”

Link curator Paul Wilkinson blogs daily here and Tweets as inspiration strikes at @PaulW1lk1nson (or is “at @” a redundancy?)

Wednesday Link List

It’s Wednesday again. Did they settle that election thing last night?

• Kicking things off this week with a couple of links to the blog of Brant Hansen, formerly with WAY-FM, and now with AIR-1… First, a piece from mid-September reminding me that it’s been 15 years since singer Rich Mullins left us.
• The next is the second of Brant’s unintended car-accident-victim theme with a great quote from Mike Yaconelli’s book Messy Spirituality.
• First Person Accounts: Gateway Church of Christ is on the ground in Union Beach, NJ, helping out families impacted by Hurricane Sandy.
• Jim Henderson sits down with The Shack author Paul Young whose new title Cross Roads has a one million copy hardcover first printing.
• Yes, there is life after Willow Creek. A former teaching pastor there, Gene Appel, opened a $55M facility in Southern California on Sunday — see photo below — with plans for expansion.
• Dave Ramsey — the finance guy — offers a list of his top ten fave pastor podcasts, and earns some rather heated comments and suggestions.
• Here’s a website I hope nobody needs, but I am sure somebody might: Quivering Daughters: Offering gentle encouragement for women while addressing emotional and spiritual abuse within authoritarian families.
• Spiritual abuse isn’t confined to women. At the website Calvary Chapel Abuse we read about former NBA player Nick VanderLaan, who stood up at a conference and challenged the wisdom of inviting the somewhat controversial Ergun Caner to speak. He was later arrested by Santa Ana police.  (HT: Julie at BGBC Survivors.)
• At the blog A Poor Wretch (love the name) Seth Fuller does a retake on the sometimes burdensome discipline of daily devotions, and is released into a more joy-filled daily discovery in God’s word.
• With the Christian blogosphere ever in mind, Trevin Wax takes a look at six major changes in blogging in the last six years.
• Christianity Today’s Drew Dyck does a double-header interview with Andy Stanley and Timothy Keller on the subject of church. (Allow about 15 minutes for this.)
• Memo to Rachel Held Evans from Doug Wilson: You got the verse wrong, it’s the husband who is supposed to live in the corner of the roof, not you. (Makes a good book cover, though.)
• A professor at Canada’s Redeemer University says that the more a church blends in to the surrounding culture, the less its chances of growth. “…mainline churches that pursue a strategy of accommodating themselves, and either ‘downplayed, loosened, or abandoned’ things which were in conflict with dominant culture tend to lose members.”
• Worship leader Chris Vacher in Canada has compiled a list of what he believes to be the best new modern worship songs of the year, complete with videos.  Part one. Part two. Part three. A few of these songs run nearly eight minutes long. Do you agree with his choices?
• The Christian rock band Pillar is releasing their first new album in four years.
• Faithfully, month after month, Brad Lomenick continues to provide his Young Influencers List, like this one for October.
• About the opening image: If you’re keeping score, this is actually the second time this year that a drum kit has figured into the Wednesday Link List.

Pastor Gene Appel stands in the brand new auditorium at Eastside Christian Church in Anaheim, California; which opened this weekend. (See item 5 above).