Singer/songwriter Derek Webb, who spent significant time with Mullins early in his own career, finds ongoing inspiration in his example. “Prophets are never popular,” Webb says simply. “What makes the stories of Rich Mullins and Keith Green so special isn’t just that they were men with tremendously prophetic messages and unyielding devotion to God's people, but that God lifted them up the way that He did. It’s no small thing to have men such as these welcomed into the largest of churches to sing their songs and bring their messages, considering how potentially disruptive those messages were.”
By the time of his death in a highway accident in September 1997, Mullins had offered 10 albums and more than a hundred songs to the collective library of the Christian community. But beyond his musical work, it was the example of his life that resounds loudest in his legacy. His devotion to the poor and his lifestyle of selfimposed personal poverty were shocking in an age and culture of excess and accumulation.
The hole Mullins’ death left is still felt by his fans and fellow artists. Even today, his influence is palpable, and his spirit lives on in the work and music of like-minded artists. Singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson, long enthusiastic about the impact Mullins had on his music and ministry, doubts the world will see another soul like his. “I have sung Rich’s songs and read his writings and visited his grave and am convinced that in his barefoot, quirky, grace-filled wake he left a pair of shoes that no one will ever fill.” Caedmon’s Call’s Cliff Young agrees. “People ask me all the time what Rich was like,” he says. “I have a picture of him on my wall that pretty well sums it up for me. He was in Ireland in 1996. His arms are open wide, and his face is turned upward. His music and his writing reflected that posture, and it causes me to do the same.” (Visit kidbrothers.net for more info.)
John J. Thompson has at various times previous, and is occasionally now an artist, author, pastor, music journalist and industry veteran. He founded True Tunes and Gyroscope Arts and recently moved his family to Nashville. myCCM.org/JJT