Screen Door' Rich Mullins Live Performance

What a blast from the past! This video shows a live performance of Rich Mullins singing his song ‘Screen Door’.

“It's about as useless as
A screen door on a submarine
Faith without works baby
It just ain't happenin'
One is your left hand
One is your right
It'll take two strong arms
To hold on tight
Some folks cut off their nose
Just to spite their face
I think you need some works to show
For your alleged faith”

This song challenges professing Christians to live out God’s Word as opposed to just listening to it. The song is based off of verses from the Bible including Matthew 7:15-20, Hebrews 6:9-10, and James 2:14-26.

‘Screen Door’ is a catchy song that Rich Mullins would perform with the Ragamuffin Band. Mullins assembled this group of Nashville musicians in 1993, and it included Jimmy Abegg, Billy Crockett, Phil Madeira, Rick Elias, and Aaron Smith. The name of their group was inspired by the Christian book The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning.

When performing this song, Rich and the Ragamuffin Band would bring out a table on stage and sing the song while using cups to play this game and keep a beat, like is seen in this video. In fact, ‘Screen Door’ is also known as ‘The Cup Song,’ and it was popular well before Anna Kendrick and the movie Pitch Perfect made their own “cup song” version.

As a talented performer and songwriter, Rich Mullins was known for song lyrics that usually employed elaborate metaphors. Some of the worship songs that he is best known for is ‘Awesome God’ and ‘Step by Step.’

Mullins passed away in September 1997, and he was inducted into the Gospel Musical Hall of Fame in April 2014. His brother, David, was there to accept the award on behalf of the family.

What a blessing Rich’s music was to the Church, and his songs are still well-known and being played today!