Christian Living

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Pull Quote: "A legacy is something that is passed on to you that you have no control over. I had no say in that my great-grandpa was an alcoholic. I have no say in the fact that my grandpa and grandma moved from Kentucky to Indiana. There are all these things that have shaped me and have some effect on me. There are all kinds of things that are pushed on us and we have no say over, and they shape the way we see everything." – Rich Mullins defining a legacy


In August of 1997, my husband took me to a Rich Mullins concert. I wasn't sure what to expect. As a fairly new Christian, I'd never heard of him. The fact that he took the stage barefoot, long-haired, and clad in jeans and an unkempt-looking sweater didn't do much to infuse me with enthusiasm about the evening.

But by the end of the evening, as Rich Mullins stood on stage with a look of pure bliss on his face when the crowd of over 5,000 crooned a chorus of "All is Well with My Soul" at his request, I was hooked.

Richard Wayne Mullins was born near Richmond, Indiana in 1955. He grew up in a family of five children (one brother, Brian, died when Rich was two years old). His parents, John and Neva, instilled in all of their children a strong faith.

At the age of four, Wayne (as he would be known to his family and close friends all of his life) learned to play the piano. Eventually he added guitar and hammered dulcimer, among other instruments, to his musical repertoire. He took the name Rich Mullins when he began singing professionally, but always insisted that his family call him Wayne. It was his way of keeping his professional identity separate from his family one.

A strong believer in the values of St. Francis of Assisi, who lived frugally and simply in order to give what wealth he had to those less fortunate, Rich lived for much of the time he was a well known Christian artist on an Indian reservation in New Mexico. He taught the children on the reservation for a time between his road trips and lived as simple a life as he possibly could, though he could very well have afforded to live in much more affluent surroundings.

During the concert I saw, Rich talked about his latest labor of love: a musical about the life of St. Francis, told with a Western theme. He and his band, the Ragamuffins, played a few songs from it. "The Canticle of St. Francis" was never completed by Rich, although members of the Ragamuffins have been working on it and it has been presented in its present form in some venues. Unfortunately, the Ragamuffins announced their retirement from touring this summer.

Rich's influence has been felt far and wide not only in the music world, but in the world of community service and charity as well. He has collaborated with such well known contemporary Christian artists as Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant, and his praise and worship songs (among them "Awesome God" and "Sing Your Praise to the Lord") are standards in many contemporary worship services. Compassion International was a favorite charity of Rich's, among others.

On September 19, 1997, just a mere six weeks after I had been blown away by seeing him in concert, Rich Mullins was killed in a car accident near LaSalle, Illinois. Ironically, this isn't too far from where I live. Still reeling from the death of Princess Diana (someone I deeply admired for her charity work) a few weeks earlier, I was shocked yet again by the death of someone who cared so deeply about God and walking the path God had deemed him to walk every day.

"I would rather live on the verge of falling and let my security be in the all sufficiency of the grace of God than in some kind of pietistic illusion of moral excellence," Rich once said. "Not that I don't want to be morally excellent, but my faith isn't in the idea that I'm more moral than anybody else. My faith is in the idea that God and His love are greater than whatever sins any of us commit."

I think it was difficult for Rich Mullins to walk the walk and talk the talk. I think he struggled every day with being a man of God and being a man of the world. But where Rich Mullins differed from so many is that, despite what he wanted to do, he did what God told him to do. He stepped out in faith every day, no matter what the circumstances, knowing it was God's plan and that all would be well.

"The hardest part of being a Christian is surrendering, and that is where the real struggle happens," Rich once told an interviewer. "Once we have overcome our own desires to be elevated, our own desire to be recognized, our own desire to be independent and all those things that we value very much because we are American and we are parent of this American culture – once we have overcome that struggle, then God can use us as a part of His body to accomplish what the body of Christ was left here to accomplish."

Rich Mullins overcame. And his legacy continues to overcome with the founding of conferences such as LegacyFest, sponsored by the Kid Brothers of St. Frank Foundation (http://www.kidbrothers.org). The foundation, founded by Rich's brother, David, and fellow band member and close friend, Beaker, sponsors workshops for Christian leaders and lay persons in many areas, including writing, music, dance, and worship. The conference is held every year in Wichita, Kansas.

As much as Rich was a scholar of the scriptures, his music and his words spoke on a level everyone could understand.

"A spiritual thing is folding your clothes at the end of the day," he once said. "A spiritual thing is making your bed. A spiritual thing is taking cookies to your neighbor who is shut in or raking their front lawn because they are too old to do it. That's spirituality…I think there is nothing more practical than real spirituality."

I left the concert that night feeling a sense of peace I hadn't felt in a long time. Rich's music had spoken volumes to me about serving the Lord in the simplest of ways.

Rich's music leaves us a legacy to live by. His lyrics say, "Sing your praise to the Lord" – and Rich is right: we can do that every day by stepping out in faith and keeping in mind that we are living our lives for the Lord.

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