Rich Mullins - Biography

Biography

Richard Mullins was born to John Mullins, a tree farmer, and Neva Mullins, a Quaker. Mullins' family called him by his middle name, Wayne, which he went by until college when his friends called him Richard. Mullins grew up attending Arba Friends Meeting, a church in Lynn, Indiana. The Quaker testimonies of peace and social justice later inspired many of his lyrics. Mullins was baptized when he was in the 3rd grade. His great-grandmother had taught him to play hymns in four part harmony when he was very young; he began to study classical piano with a Quaker teacher while in elementary school.

An important part of Rich Mullins' musical talents in Richmond, Indiana was being the piano player, songwriter and vocalist for the New Creations Choir which was started by Tim and Bonnie Cummings in the early 1970s. The choir had a bus, toured several states and even produced a record album. Today New Creations is a church and school for teens and Rich Mullins was a contributing factor in its beginning.

From 1974 to 1978, Mullins attended Cincinnati Bible College. He worked in a parking garage to help pay for his schooling. From 1975 to 1978, he was the Music Director and Youth Director near Cincinnati at Erlanger United Methodist Church, Erlanger, Kentucky.

In the 1980s he moved to Nashville, Tennessee to begin his professional recording career. Mullins was engaged sometime between the late '70's and early '80's and had written the song Doubly Good To You (recorded by Amy Grant on her album Straight Ahead) for the wedding. However, his fiancée broke off the engagement, at which time Mullins wrote Damascus Road.

Years later Rich shared thoughts about his relationships and personal life in a radio interview with Rick Tarrant:

I would always be frustrated with all those relationships even when I was engaged. I had a ten year thing with this girl and I would often wonder why, even in those most intimate moments of our relationship, I would still feel really lonely. And it was just a few years ago that I finally realized that friendship is not a remedy for loneliness. Loneliness is a part of our experience and if we are looking for relief from loneliness in friendship, we are only going to frustrate the friendship. Friendship, camaraderie, intimacy, all those things, and loneliness live together in the same experience...

In 1988, Mullins moved to Wichita, Kansas where, in 1991, he enrolled as a student at Friends University and lived with his best friend, David Strasser (a.k.a. Beaker). He was the director of Worship Ministries at West Evangelical Free Church. In Wichita, he met the other love of his life at Central Christian Church which inspired many of the songs on the Brother's Keeper album. He graduated with a B.A. in Music Education on May 14, 1995. After graduation, he and Mitch McVicker moved to a Navajo reservation in Tse Bonito, New Mexico to teach music to children. They lived in a hogan at the reservation until his death.

The profits from his tours and the sale of each album were entrusted to his church, which divided it up, paid Mullins the average salary in the U.S. for that year, and gave the rest to charity. Mullins was also a major supporter of Compassion International and Compassion USA.

His faith can be understood by a quote he gave at a concert shortly before his death. He stated that:

Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my Savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken....(concert recording cuts off at this moment, losing any further context for this particular quote)