I’m listening to some Rich Mullins music on Napster that was either re-released after his death or was compiled from studio recordings.Â? It’s interesting to listen to him teach songs and to banter with the people.Â? I only really know of him from his music (which describes my faith in ways that nobody else does) and because of his work with the Native American community.Â? He’s been dead for almost 10 years and he left behind an amazing body of work that continues to flourish as if he was still with us.
The most interesting piece is him doing “Praise Ye the Lord” with the audience and telling them that they “sound like Lutherans” when they were being kind of stiff and formal.Â? As much as I hate to admit it, Lutherans can be like that when singing praise songs.Â? I remember my friend Laura and I getting the clapping and hand motions started during Synod Assembly last year — t’was fun and for a moment, it really didn’t matter that people were staring at us like we were crazy.
Hopefully, I have another experience like that again this year.
Love Rich Mullins, and have for a long time. What I always (and still) found incredible was that he had this amazing talent, and we think of his music as his ministry. But he just did the music to fund what he considered his “real” ministry – which was his work with Native Americans.