Friday, January 11, 2008

Rich Mullins

My favorite musician of all time is without a doubt Rich Mullins. Although he passed away just over 10 years ago his music still ministers to me and to countless others.

For those who do not know much about Rich, he was a passionate and extraordinarily gifted musician who radically loved Jesus. Rich could have been very wealthy because of his music, but he was not by choice. He chose rather to take the average salary of an American (I think about $26,000 at the time) and he assigned a board to oversee the rest of his money which was used to support many worthwhile causes. He lived on an Indian reservation in New Mexico and spent lots of his time teaching music to and serving the native Americans.

I thought I'd do my best to highlight his musical gifting for your enjoyment - just in case you're not familiar with him. Here are some of my favorite albums of his. You can click on the links to listen to song samples from amazon.com:


A liturgy a legacy & a ragamuffin band











Songs











Songs 2







The world as best as I can remember it Vol. 1











The world as best as I can remember it Vol. 2











The Jesus Record
- This was Rich's last recording. This album consists of 2 CDs; 1 of Rich (rough & awesome audio - not recorded in studio) and 1 of his group and other recording artist friends of his playing his songs from this album. Rich died in a car accident (1997) only a few days after recording these songs.





It is an amazing thing to me that one can love someone so much that they have never even met. I'm astounded at the impact that this man whom I never met has had on me. I was about 14 years old when I first I began listening to Rich. 15 years later his music is still ministering to me, and no doubt many others as well. I have often thought that Rich will be one of the first people I want to meet when I get to heaven. I look forward to singing worship songs with him.

Thank you Lord for the gift of Rich Mullins.

A Rich quote:
"We walk by faith and not by sight - not because we are blind, but because faith gives us the courage to face our fears and puts those fears in a context that makes them less frightful. We walk by faith and not by sight because there are places to go that cannot be seen and the scope of our vision is too small for our strides. Faith is not a denial of facts - it is a broadening of focus."

It is my sincere hope that you may enjoy the music ministry of Rich Mullins as much as I have.

Enjoy!

2 comments:

mwh said...

I've been meaning for some time to pick up a couple of his CDs. Thanks for the reminder.

Is Rich the one who sings the "geneology" song? I heard that on the radio the other--got to love it!

Unbreakable Joy said...

No I think that was Andrew Peterson (who is also a big Rich fan). That song can be found on Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" album - awesome!