Rich and the Indian Children

Michael W. Smith had this to say about his friend Rich Mullins: “Rich’s life and music have impacted me more than anyone I know….Nobody on this planet wrote songs like he did, and I feel we’ve lost one of the only true poets in our industry. I love Rich Mullins. No one will ever know how much I’ll miss him.”

 Would you like to have known the spirit and humility of Rich Mullins? It was manifested one evening in 1995 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. A great crowd had gathered for the opening of the Gospel Music Association’s annual convention. Excitement mounted as the attendees awaited many of the recognizable names in contemporary music. The performers were dressed in their best, and this was to be an evening of worship.

Each person on the program presented his or her musical offering accompanied by beautiful lighting and unusual special effects. After several performances, a man walked onto the stage and took his place at the piano. A choir was behind him. As the lights were going up, Rich Mullins began to play, some thought somewhat prematurely. He was dressed in scruffy jeans and a flannel shirt and was unshaven. He scarcely looked up from the piano. He was presenting his signature song, “Awesome God”. The music ceased, the lights went down, and Mullins slipped away—out of sight. Such was this man’s character.

Before I go any further with this story, I readily admit that I do not have the facts surrounding the writing of Mullins’ song. Rich went home to be with the Lord in September of 1997, before I could get his story. He died in a tragic automobile accident. But my brief story of Mullins’ life is the story behind his song.

Rich was born Richard Wayne Mullins in 1995, in a small community near Richmond, Indiana, into a Quaker home. The people in his community called him Wayne as he grew up, for fear of confusing him with his uncle Richard, who loaned him the money to make his first album. His parents, John and Neva, recognized that he showed a tremendous musical ability early in life.

Rich’s mother said that one day when Rich was about five years of age, he was in the room listening to his older sister, Debbie, practice her piano lesson. She became very frustrated after trying several times to play a song without making mistakes. In desperation, she left the room. Rich climbed onto the piano bench and played the song perfectly. Mrs. Mullins, from another room, complimented Debbie on finally getting it right.

As a youngster attending the Quaker meetings, Rich’s opinion of some of the music of the church was less than complimentary. He thought the poetry and the musical settings were poor. It was not until he saw the effects the music had on people he respected that he changed his mind.

He attended Cincinnati Bible College, and, while there, formed a band called Zion, which played local engagements. Of course, he later became a major recording artist and formed a band to tour with him, which he called the Ragamuffin Band.

Rich loved poor children and spent the earnings from his music for causes that benefitted them. He lived the last two years of his life on the Navajo Indian Reservation near the Arizona-New Mexico border, working among impoverished Native Americans. He believed that music was the language of the soul, and wanted to give this gift to the children.

I also learned from Rich’s uncle that during the last years of his life, although Rich could’ve lived sumptuously, he only allowed himself a yearly wage of $27,000, the average wage for a man in the U.S. Mullins was never married, so his mother is making sure that the money he left behind goes to the causes he loved so dearly—which includes helping children.

“Awesome God” was voted one of the top three songs of the 1990s by the Christian Research Report.

May you and I recognize that in everything, our Heavenly Father is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. His majesty, power, and might are far beyond our ability to comprehend. Yet this great and awesome God invites you and me to fellowship with Him, offering us eternal life through His Son.

© 2008 by Lindsay Terry. Used by permission.

Lindsay Terry has been a song historian for more than 40 years, and has written widely on the background of great hymns and worship songs including the books I Could Sing of Your Love Forever (2008), from which this piece is excerpted, and The Sacrifice of Praise (2002).