Rich Mullins

Rich Mullins was a Christian music pioneer, widely regarded for his songwriting and praise music compositions. Rising to prominence during the golden era of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) in the 1990s, Mullins became one of the most distinctive voices in the genre. His songs, including “Awesome God” and “Sometimes by Step,” became defining tracks not just for CCM but for modern worship music as a whole. His music carried a poetic intensity that felt rare in a genre often known more for its polish than its depth.

Born in 1955 in Indiana, Mullins was raised in the Quaker tradition. That heritage emphasized simplicity, inward devotion, and the sacredness of all people shaped much of his later thought and musical expression. His upbringing in rural Indiana fostered a deep love for nature and a contemplative spirit that permeated his lyrics. While many of his CCM peers came from evangelical megachurches or Nashville music circles, Mullins had a different starting point. His worldview was broadened by the humility and silence of Quaker meetings, as well as by his own searching heart.

As a young man, Mullins fell in love with the Beatles and American folk music. He learned piano and guitar, and soon began to write his own songs which were introspective, with story-driven lyrics matched by melodic lines that owed as much to the Beatles as to Baptist hymnody. His early compositions didn’t sound like typical church music, and that was part of the appeal. He wanted to tell the truth and he was determined to create music that sounded honest, whether or not it fit into the genre’s tidy expectations.

Despite his musical gift, Mullins initially struggled to find a place in the music industry. He wrote prolifically but remained largely unknown until Christian pop singer Amy Grant recorded his song “Sing Your Praise to the Lord.” The song became a hit in Christian radio, and it was Mullins’s first breakthrough into the CCM world. Buoyed by this success, he moved to Nashville to explore his own recording opportunities. He was quickly signed to a label, and his first solo album released in 1986. While his early albums saw modest success, his reputation continued to grow thanks to his raw, spiritually rich lyrics and his refusal to conform to industry formulas.

Mullins was never content to stay in one place, geographically or spiritually. After his initial success, he moved around frequently, spending time in Asia and eventually enrolling at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, where he pursued a degree in music education. He was always studying, always growing, and always trying to find his place in a world that often felt too rigid or too shallow. For a time, he served as a youth pastor, and he never stopped ministering to people, whether through music or simple acts of kindness.

Throughout his life, Mullins carried a deep and abiding faith, but it was rarely comfortable or easy. He openly wrestled with God, with doubt, with loneliness, and with the temptations of success. His lyrics reflected that tension: songs that dealt with grace and brokenness, hope and fear, the mystery of faith, and the challenge of surrender. Mullins wanted to write music that resonated with real people facing real struggles. 

In 1993, Mullins formed A Ragamuffin Band, named after Brennan Manning’s The Ragamuffin Gospel, which was a book that deeply influenced him. Manning’s message, that God’s grace is for the broken and outcast, resonated with Mullins’s own experience of spiritual searching. The band became a vehicle for some of his most iconic and moving work, including songs like “Hold Me Jesus” and “Elijah.” With the Ragamuffin Band, Mullins found a group of like-minded musicians who shared his vision for honest, heartfelt worship. Their concerts were not flashy performances but deeply spiritual experiences, which were equal parts singalong and sermon.

Later in life, Mullins was drawn to the life and teachings of St. Francis of Assisi. Fascinated by Francis’s commitment to poverty, humility, and radical discipleship, Mullins began to study Catholic theology and even lived on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico, teaching music to children. He was pursuing the possibility of joining the Catholic Church in the final years of his life. 

Yet Mullins’s life remained filled with tension. He was an artist who battled insecurity and loneliness. He longed for affirmation but mistrusted fame. He wanted to follow Jesus radically but lived with contradictions. These tensions, however, only added to the depth and sincerity of his work. In a Christian music scene that often avoided doubt and complexity, Mullins leaned into them. That’s why his songs still resonate: they come from a man who wasn’t afraid to question, to confess, and to hope.

Tragically, Rich Mullins died in a car accident in September 1997, while traveling to Wichita for a concert. He was only 41 years old. His sudden death shocked the Christian music world and left an unmistakable void. Tributes poured in from fans, fellow musicians, and pastors, many of whom saw him as one of the few voices in Christian music who was truly prophetic, speaking truth to the church, to the culture, and to himself.

His final project, The Jesus Record, was released posthumously. It featured rough demo recordings he had made just days before his death, as well as polished studio versions recorded by his Ragamuffin Band. The raw demos with Mullins alone at a piano, singing his heart out are haunting and beautiful, a fitting epitaph for a man whose greatest gift was his ability to express deep spiritual longing with poetic clarity.

In 2014, Mullins was posthumously inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. His influence on Christian music remains profound. Artists such as Andrew Peterson, Caedmon’s Call, and even mainstream figures like Bono have acknowledged his impact. But more than a musician, Mullins was a modern-day psalmist, someone who used music not just to inspire but to tell the truth about faith in all its glory and grit.

Rich Mullins never set out to be a star. He didn’t dress like one, didn’t talk like one, and didn’t live like one. But he left behind songs that helped people meet Go in the honest places of life. That legacy continues to move listeners, inviting them, like Mullins himself, to see God in the ordinary, to wrestle with questions, and to worship with sincerity and song.

Albums

Here in America (2003)
Songs 2 (1999)
The Jesus Record (1998)
Canticle of the Plains (1997)
Songs (1996)
Brother’s Keeper (1995)
A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band (1993)
The World as Best as I Remember It, Vol. 2 (1992)
The World as Best as I Remember It, Vol. 1 (1991)
Never Picture Perfect (1989)
Winds of Heaven . Stuff of Earth (1988)
Pictures in the Sky (1987)
Rich Mullins (1986)

Please also reference The Legacy Of A Kid Brother Of St. Frank.