Rich Mullins

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Image:Rich Mullins.jpg Richard Wayne Mullins (October 21, 1955 – September 19, 1997) was an American singer/songwriter born in Richmond, Indiana. Starting in 1986, he was a well-known Christian music artist until his untimely death in an automobile accident in 1997. He is best-known for his praise choruses "Awesome God" and "Step by Step", which have been embraced as modern classics by many Christians. Two of his albums are considered among Christian music's best: Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth (1986) and A Liturgy, A Legacy, & A Ragamuffin Band (1993). His songs have been covered by the likes of Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Third Day, Caedmon's Call, and Jars of Clay but his influence on his colleagues in the music business reaches further.

In addition to his music, Rich Mullins is also remembered for his sincere devotion to the Christian faith. He often called St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) his hero, and modelled his life after him by having great compassion for the poor and adhering to a vow of poverty. In 1997, he composed a musical about the life of St Francis (set in the Old West) called Canticle of the Plains.

Mullins was seen as an enigma to the Christian music industry. Often barefoot, unshaven and badly in need of a haircut, he did not look like the average American gospel music writer. Although he achieved a good amount of success on Christian radio, he never received a GMA Music Award until after he died.

Unlike most artists in Contemporary Christian music, Mullins did not consider his music as his primary ministry, but rather as a means to pay his bills. Instead, his ministry was the way he treated his neighbors, family and enemies. Taking a vow of poverty, he accepted a small church salary and spent the last years of his life on a Navajo reservation teaching music to children.

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History

Rich grew up attending Arba Friends Meeting, a Quaker church in Lynn, Indiana [1]. The Quaker testimonies of peace and social justice inspired many of his lyrics.

Mullins began his musical career with Zion Ministries in the late 1970s, where he wrote music and performed with a band called Zion. Zion released one album in 1981 entitled Behold the Man. While working for this ministry, Mullins penned a song called "Sing Your Praise To The Lord", which was recorded by singer Amy Grant in 1982 and became an immediate hit on Christian Radio.

In 1975, Mullins attended Cincinnati Bible College, where he became close friends with Sam Howard, the son of minister Maurice Howard [2].

In 1983, Debby Boone recorded Mullins' "O Come All Ye Faithful" for her Surrender album. In 1984, the song was also featured in a TV movie called Sins of the Past.

Mullins became a songwriter in the Contemporary Christian music industry by 1984, penning songs for Pam Mark Hall, and a second song for Amy Grant. Grant would go on to record yet another of Mullins' songs for her 1985 album, Unguarded, entitled "Love Of Another Kind".

By 1986, Mullins recorded his first, self-titled, solo project, and followed it with a second solo album in 1987 called Pictures in the Sky. Neither album had sold very well and it looked as though Pictures might be his last, until Mullins wrote a song called "Awesome God". Mullins recorded that song and released it on his third album, Winds of Heaven... Stuff of Earth and it quickly became a hit on Christian radio and a modern-day praise chorus sung in churches around the world to this day.

The Winds of Heaven... Stuff of Earth album also introduced fans to the hammered dulcimer, an instrument that would become a Rich Mullins trademark.

In 1988, Mullins moved to Wichita, Kansas to be part of Rev. Maurice Howard's congregation at Central Christian Church.

In the early 1990s, Mullins released a pair of albums entitled The World As Best As I Remember It, volumes 1 & 2. These albums featured more of a stripped-back, acoustic feel than his earlier work, with nods to Irish music. Step By Step, a song written by good friend Beaker and included on both volumes, became an instant hit on Christian Radio, and, like "Awesome God", with worship leaders.

In 1991, Mullins enrolled at Friends University. He would later draw inspiration from a lecture at Friends by author Brennan Manning. This is also where he met Jim Smith (his posthumous biographer), and Mitch McVicker.

In 1993, Mullins assembled a group of Nashville musicians (including Jimmy Abegg, Beaker, Phil Madeira, Rick Elias, Aaron Smith) to form A Ragamuffin Band, which was named after The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. The band recorded A Liturgy, A Legacy, & A Ragamuffin Band, which was later named the #3 Best Christian Album of All time by CCM Magazine. The band got together again in 1995 to record Brother's Keeper.

Mullins graduated with a B.A. in Music Education from Friends University on May 14, 1995 [3]. After graduation, he and Mitch McVicker moved to a reservation in Tse Bonito, NM near the capitol of the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, Arizona to teach music to children. They lived in a hogan at the reservation until his death.

In 1997, Mullins teamed up with Beaker and Mitch McVicker to write a musical based on the life of St Francis of Assisi, entitled The Canticle of the Plains. Mullins had great respect for St Francis, and even formed "the Kid Brothers of St Frank" in the late 1980s with several friends, each taking a vow of poverty. Mullins was never really aware of how well his records sold, because the profits from his tours and the sale of each album went to his church, which divided it up, paid Mullins a small salary, and gave the rest to charity. Mullins was also a major supporter of Compassion International and Compassion USA.

Mullins was killed in a car accident on September 19, 1997. He and his friend Mitch McVicker were travelling on I-39 outside Peoria, Illinois to a benefit concert in Wichita, Kansas when his Jeep flipped over. Neither man wore a seat belt, and both were thrown from the vehicle. A passing tractor-trailer swerving to avoid the Jeep killed Mullins. McVicker was badly injured, but survived.

Shortly before his death, Mullins had made a rough tape of songs for what would have been his next album on Myrrh Records; he was going to call the album "Ten Songs About Jesus." This rough microcassette recording became the basis for "The Jesus Record," which A Ragamuffin Band recorded after Mullins' death. Mullins and McVicker had also recorded what would become Mitch's first true solo album (aside from lead vocals on four songs on the Canticle of the Plains album).

Furthermore, the family founded The Legacy Of A Kid Brother Of St. Frank to continue his mission to develop programmes of art, drama and music camps for Native American youth and provide a traveling music school serving remote areas of the reservations. It is administered by his brother David and sister-in-law Robin.

"My Deliverer" was named "Song of the Year" at the 1999 GMA Music Awards, the presenters were GMAMA winner Kathy Troccoli, the first artist signed to Reunion Records in 1982 (Rich was on Reunion until 1996, then signed with Word's Myrrh Records in 1997), and three-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip.

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Awards

GMA Music Awards (All were posthumously awarded)

  • 1998 - Artist of the Year
  • 1999 - Song of the Year, "My Deliverer" (with Mitch McVicker)

Both awards were accepted by Mullins' brother David. Mr. McVicker joined David Mullins for the Song of the Year presentation.

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Quotes


  • "Never forget what Jesus did for you. Never take lightly what it cost Him. And never assume that if it cost Him His very life, that it won't also cost you yours."
  • "So go out and live real good and I promise you'll get beat up real bad. But, in a little while after you're dead, you'll be rotted away anyway. It's not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn't live."
  • "It's so funny being a Christian musician. It always scares me when people think so highly of Christian music, Contemporary Christian music especially. Because I kinda go, I know a lot of us, and we don't know jack about anything. Not that I don't want you to buy our records and come to our concerts. I sure do. But you should come for entertainment. If you really want spiritual nourishment, you should go to church...you should read the Scriptures."
  • "We do not find happiness by being assertive. We don't find happiness by running over people because we see what we want and they are in the way of that happiness so we either abandon them or we smash them. The Scriptures don't teach us to be assertive. The Scriptures teach us—and this is remarkable—the Scriptures teach us to be submissive. This is not a popular idea."
  • "I had a prof one time... He said, 'Class, you will forget almost everything I will teach you in here, so please remember this: that God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and He has been speaking through asses ever since. So, if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself. And, if on meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway'."
  • "I think if we were given the Scriptures, it was not so that we could prove that we were right about everything. If we were given the Scriptures, it was to humble us into realizing that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing."
  • "Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in your beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken."
  • "Bear in mind, children, that they listen to you because you are kids—not because you are right. That's how our Father listens to us."
  • "We never understand what we're praying, and God, in His mercy, does not answer our prayers according to our understanding, but according to His wisdom."
  • "Yes, it's embarrassing to be born again, but imagine how embarrassing it must have been to be born the first time. At least this time you get to wear clothes!"
  • "We are not saved because we're good. We're good because we're saved. Never forget what Jesus did for you."
  • "If you've ever known the love of God, you know it's nothing but reckless and it's nothing but raging. Sometimes it hurts to be loved, and if it doesn't hurt it's probably not love, may be infatuation. I think a lot of American people are infatuated with God, but we don't really love Him, and they don't really let Him love them. Being loved by God is one of the most painful things in the world, it's also the only thing that can bring us salvation and it's like everything else that is really wonderful, there's a little bit of pain in it, little bit of hurt."
  • "It's just that for so many people that I know, Christianity's this matter of ... it has everything to do with morals. Christianity is a religion about morals. And they will even talk about Jesus. And they will say kids need to know about Jesus so they won't smoke, drink, or dance, or go with girls that do, and all that kind of thing. And I kinda go, 'That's not why people need to know about Jesus. The only reason—the only possible excuse for talking about Jesus is because we need a Savior.'"
  • "I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity to me, but because there were people willing to be nuts and bolts."
  • "If you want a religion that makes sense, go somewhere else. But if you want a religion that makes life, choose Christianity."
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Discography

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With the Kid Brothers of St. Frank

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Compilations

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Greatest Hits

  • Elijah, 1986
  • Verge Of A Miracle, 1987
  • Screen Door, 1987
  • Be With You, 1987
  • Awesome God, 1988
  • If I Stand, 1988
  • Home, 1988
  • Ready For The Storm, 1988
  • My One Thing, 1989
  • While The Nations Rage, 1989
  • Alrightokuhuhamen, 1989
  • Somewhere, 1989
  • I Will Sing, 1989
  • Hope To Carry On, 1989
  • Bound To Come Some Trouble, 1989
  • The Love Of God, 1989
  • Boy Like Me, Man Like You, 1991
  • Where You Are, 1991
  • Step By Step, 1991
  • Calling Out Your Name, 1991
  • I See You, 1991
  • Sometimes By Step, 1992
  • The Just Shall Live, 1992
  • Growing Young, 1992
  • Creed, 1993
  • Hold Me Jesus, 1993
  • Peace, 1993
  • Here In America, 1993
  • Let Mercy Lead, 1995
  • Brother's Keeper, 1995
  • Sing Your Praise To The Lord, 1996
  • We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are, 1996
  • My Deliverer, 1997
  • Nothing Is Beyond You, 1997
  • Heaven In His Eyes, 1997
  • That Where I Am, There You May Also Be, 1997
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Literature

  • Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Embracing the Unconditional Love of God (Multnomah, July, 1990)(ISBN 0880706317)
  • James Bryan Smith, Rich Mullins: His Life and Legacy: An Arrow Pointing To Heaven (Broadman and Holman, September, 2000) (ISBN 0805421351)
  • Rich Mullins, Ben Pearson The World As I Remember It: Through the Eyes of a Ragamuffin (Multnomah, March, 2004) (ISBN 1590523687)
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External links

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