As has been mentioned before, all of us are big Rich Mullins fans. So when we started this blog last spring we were settled on calling it “Screen Door” after one of Rich’s early songs. It was a catchy name(or so we thought) and could handle a lot of different meanings as we fleshed out what we wanted to with out blog. Problem was that there were no domain names available that would work with what we had chosen. Too bad because I’m sure that name would have skyrocketed us to the top of the blogosphere.

Anyway, when I ran across this video I just had to share it with you guys. It’s a lot of fun so I hope you enjoy it!

By the way, I’m going to try to make these “Weekend Video” posts a regular thing. It could be anything from my kids doing a little disco to something even more exciting - especially if the other guys get involved as well.

Growing up in the CofC gives you a peculiar view of scripture. Besides learning all the different reasons the Baptists down the road were going to Hell, I was also learning how to apply the two major rules for Biblical interpretation :

This may sound innocuous on the surface but what it leads to is using Eph 5:19 as “proof” that instrumental music is verboten or using 1 Cor 16:1-2 as incontrovertible evidence that we are required to gather on every Sunday.

Here’s something from Rubel Shelly that may shed some more light on how this works :

Authority is established by example. Consider the observance of the Lord’s Supper. The Scripture records the command of Jesus to the effect that his followers must remember him by eating the Lord’s Supper. (I Cor. 11:24-25). But the commandment does not instruct us as to when this memorial is to be observed. We learn of the time of its observance from an examination of the actions of the earliest Christians. Their example serves to instruct us. Acts 20:7 is the first New Testament passage to specify a day on which the church gathered to eat the supper. If the day of this observance was unimportant, why did Luke take the trouble to mention it? Furthermore, his Greek construction (with the definite article) implies habitual action. Therefore this was a regular assembly, the stated purpose of which was to eat the Lord’s Supper. There can be no reasonable doubt that this passage definitely links the Lord’s Supper to the Lord’s Day. From this example of the early church we have divine authority for Sunday observance of the Lord’s Supper and for Sunday observance only. We have no authority to observe this memorial on Tuesday night or daily. Our authority is for Sunday observance and to go beyond what is authorized is to commit sin.

What this approach does is make the Bible into a kind of divine concordance that we are required to cross-reference in order to figure out the correct pattern to follow. It minimizes, if not destroys, the contextual backdrop of any particular passage. In fact, context can be as granular as one word - linking words like “truth” or “light” across multiple passages to create doctrine that was never there. And perhaps most onerous, the scripture becomes about me and what I need to do rather than about God and what He has done through his Son.

So what causes someone to break out of this mindset? I’ll save that for next time.

Note : The quote from Rubel Shelly is from 1972. I’m almost positive he’s changed his position since then.

In lieu of deep theological insights I give you S2 gettin’ his groove on. Watch it more than once and you’ll be dancing too.

Winner of the “Worst Church Sign I’ve Seen in a Long While” award:

“Read the Bible: It’ll scare the hell out of you!”

Consolation prize: “God has no hands; only ours.”
(I wonder if we can get those printed on a t-shirt?)  ;)

My last post went over like a lead balloon so let’s flip the mirror around and see what other people are saying…

“Orthodoxy is existentially defined, by many evangelicals, as being afraid of the right things.” - IMonk

“I want expository preaching and deeply heartfelt worship and beautiful architecture and pipe organs and liturgy and spontaneity and unadorned simplicity and lay pastors and ordained clergy and formality and informality and ancientness and newness…” - Rebecca (yeah, me too)

“I’d suggest even more errant Jesuses propagated by American evangelicalism — Success Guru Jesus, Mystical Experience Jesus, Politically Correct Jesus, Fundamentalist Jesus, Patriotic Jesus, Co-Pilot Buddy Jesus, Tony Robbins Jesus, Personal ATM Jesus, and last but certainly not least My Own “Personal” Jesus.” - Jared

“It cannot be stressed too much that to confuse the gospel with certain important things that go hand in hand with it is to invite theological, hermeneutical and spiritual confusion.” - Graeme Goldsworthy via Dan

I don’t want to self-absorb so the short of it is that I was having a very bad day one afternoon a week or so ago. Got mad at the kids, said some not nice things, then realized what a jerk I was and proceeded to uhhhh, well, get a little emotional. I cried, ok? Happy now?

Here’s the cool part…

A7, one of the aforementioned yell-ees, comes over to me all concerned and shaky-voiced and says “Daddy, you’re making me cry too”. I tell her that I’m sorry and she puts her arms around my neck, says “It’s gonna be ok”, and cries along with me.

Suffer the little children indeed. There are times when I’m not sure who’s supposed to be learning from whom. But what I guess I take comfort in is that God is drawing us all to himself and He ministers through all of us. I have a role and responsibilities but I am not the star to which our wagon is hitched. That would be Jesus. And for me there is great freedom in that. It gives me more freedom to be real, to admit my faults, to show that life can be hard but we follow Jesus all the more because of it. Sometimes it takes a 7yo to really bring that home.