Rich and Beaker officially create the Kid Brothers of St. Frank. Mullins instructed his accountant to grant him only $24,000 a year, the average active person's wage. The relax, he gave away when he found a cause. James Bryan Smith: "Rich lived very simply. He had few possessions; he didn't care about money." Michael W. Smith: "Another person closer to home who challenged me was fellow artist Rich Mullins. Before he died in 1997, we were still becoming friends. While we didn't expend a lot of occasion together because he was rarely home, his lifestyle intrigued me. He could pack up everything he owned into a cosmos the size of half my office. Because of his choice to not let material possessions tie him down, he could live in a tent or on an Indian reservation. I think I envied that a minuscule bit. While his harmony was successful and he touched hundreds of thousands of people with his songs, he took a minimal annual salary and gave away much of what remained. I call to mind asking myself at one time, 'Why am I not doing that?' and 'Should I be doing that?' But that was Rich's path, not mine. I have a family, and while I respect it, I'm not called to that particular lifestyle.
Twenty-five years ago, singer-songwriter Rich Mullins ruined his life in a car accident on his way to a help concert in Kansas. We remember him from hit songs like “Awesome God” and “Sing Your Praise to the Lord.”
At the summit of his career, Mullins turned his back on fame and success to live on a Native American reservation in New Mexico, teaching music to children and sharing his simple desire in the gospel of Jesus.
But who really was the enigmatic performer whose bold honesty ruffled the feathers of the music industry—and his fellow believers?
We get to recognize him better in Rich Mullins: A Ragamuffin’s Legacy. In this documentary, those who knew him best remember his lasting influence and how his thick devotion shaped their lives.
Here are eight things you might not know about Rich Mullins.
1. Affluent Mullins struggled with “fitting in”
Friends said he was a complicated mix of talent and magnetism, piety and mystery. “Every single place he went,” recalled one, “he created community.” Yet those same friends sensed a lingering loneliness, as if he was never fully a part of the communities that grew around his popularity.
2. He was a piano prodigy
He began playing the piano a
A Conversation with Rich Mullins
by ?
CCM Magazine June 1997
The concepts of biblical parables come to life in everyday conversations, The following dialogue is often recounted in concert by Rich Mullins, who befriended a man at a steak house while hiking along the Appalachian trail. As it was getting dark, the man, who we'll call John, offered Rich a ride help to his campsite. As the truck pulled out of town, Rich's new friend spoke up.
John: I probably ought to say you that I'm gay. Rich: I probably ought to tell you that I'm a Christian.
John: Well, do you want to get out of the truck?
Rich: No. It's still getting dark, and [my camp] is still miles up the road.
John: But I thought Christians hated gays.
Rich: That's really weird. My kind of what Christ told us was that Christians were to love. I didn't know there were a lot of parameters set on that.
John: I thought God hated gays.
Rich: That's funny, because I reflection God is love, and He has no choice but to love because that is what He is.
John: Do you believe AIDS is God's punishment on gays?
Rich: Well possibly, in the same sense that presidents are God's pun
Rich Mullins was among the most authoritative Christian musical artists in the 80s and 90s. His songs Awesome God and Step by Step were staples in the early 90s for worship bands in churches with "contemporary" worship services.
His songs have been recorded by artists enjoy Amy Grant, Caedmon's Call, Jars of Clay, and others.
After spending years at the pinnacle of success as a popular Christian artist, Mullins became fed up with the Christian melody industry and evangelical Christianity.
He moved to a Navajo reservation to teach melody to kids and to work on projects near and dear to his heart like his collaboration with like-minded artists in the Ragamuffin Band.
Someone asked him if he moved to the reservation to proselytize the Navajo, and Mullins emphatically told them he wasn't. In fact, he said that he was hoping to find Jesus there among them.
Mullins was tragically killed in 1997 in a car accident on the way to a benefit concert with his companion and musical significant other Mitch McVicker. Both were thrown from the vehicle, but only McVicker survived.
Many years ago, my mother bought me a copy of a col