Thom Granger went to Youngstown, Ohio to talk to gifted singer/songwriter RICH MULLINS.

Rich had started doing retreats with a couple of guys, all over the country. Enter Beaker, the one-name wonder kid who originally saw Mullins in his first group, Zion, when he was a kid at a youth retreat in Cincinnati. "But," says Beaker, "I was a weenie then." Beaker had been profoundly affected by a youth pastor in his ninth grade who, he says, showed him the love of Christ for the first time, in a way that got through.

"At the end of my tenth grade, I asked God to break my heart, and He really gave me the desire to minister to kids, which at that time were my peers. I went to Cincinnati Bible College (which Mullins had also attended years before), and moved to Indiana to be a youth pastor, at a church located about 20 minutes from where Rich grew up. We formally met at a Christ in Youth conference in Adrian, Michigan, and hit it off really well. He asked me for my phone number, and called me when he came to Indiana. We talked about hiking the Appalachian Trail together. Anyway, I ended up being a roadie for him on the Winds Of Heaven tour, and this retreat in Wichita, Kansas just kinda changed everything."

Rich says it's one of those things he can't explain. But when they did the retreat at Central Christian Church, he felt like he belonged there. "They were ordinary kids, but they knew the Scriptures, which was cool. We were only there once, but those kids were constantly on my mind. Then we were in Oklahoma, and a couple of the youth sponsors from Wichita came down and joined us there. They just wanted to support us, and I had never had that kind of support before. I also had a tremendous amount of respect for one of the ministers, Morris Howard. Anyway, after a lot of prayer and thought, I decided to move to Wichita, because I wanted to be involved in this church. The ironic thing is that Morris died of a heart attack right after I got there. And people aren't terribly impressed with what I do, but they love me and support me and give me assignments and I'm accountable."

Doug Ingmire is a staff minister at Central Christian, who works with Rich and Beaker, and remembers when Rich approached the church elders, "He asked that he be put under the authority of the elders in three areas; to be accountable for his ministry and lifestyle, to be sent out officially by the church, and to be discipled by an elder, as a covering for him. This affords Rich more freedom, so he can be single-minded and focussed in his ministry. We're not a hideout that he can run to every time he does something stupid, but we want to help him be responsible in public. It also gives him a structure for what he is doing. He also leads worship at the church here for us, and he and Beaker share often on Sundays. We want them to be at home here, and I think they feel that way."

Rich did feel at home there, but there was still something more he wanted, a deeper commitment. "I think I would like to be a monk, I really considered Catholicism a few years ago, but there were some things that I just couldn't reconcile. But I thought. "Why can't we have a religious order just because we're not Catholic? It's hard to recruit people to a religious order, though. But Beaker and I pooled our resources and have set a salary for ourselves, and whatever comes in beyond that we give back to the kingdom of God. We have a lot in common, a lot of things we don't particularly like about ourselves, but we help each other to stay in line and are a good support system for each other."

Beaker agrees. "I've always hated authority. I hated Bible College. But Rich has really been a great influence for me because he really believes in the Church," Thus was born The Kid Brothers of St. Frank as in Francis, but more, uh, contemporary. It's the Kid Brothers who are ministering at the BYF Convention in Ohio, and it's all they do throughout the spring and fall. Summer will include more of a traditional artist-oriented tour. But it's all present reality, 'cause Rich Mullins wants to be a missionary, and his recent travels to Guatemala, Thailand, Japan and Korea have led to his decision to go back to school to get his masters in music education. "Yeah, I was one of those kids who loved the missionary who'd come to VBS and show slides. I loved the slides. Tony Campolo also had a big impact on me about missions. Anyone who's really interested in missions should go to the colleges, because there are many foreign students who've never heard about Jesus, and they can take Him back to their country when they return.

"Your concern has to be for people, though, and if you're not doing something for other people right now where you're at, you're not going to become more interested because you go to another country." Beaker quoted Mother Teresa saying, "There are no great things done. Only small things with a big love. 'Don't try and do great things for God. You don't need a recording contract, just do it. Go to old folks homes, boys ranches, go hug the kid who smells bad. Just do it."

Beaker is also back at school, getting his Master of Arts at the University of Wichita. He wants to teach literature and writing. Rich wants to be "the best music teacher a Third World ever had, so he can start learning, and once you start learning, you never want to stop. I'm interested in learning how to deal with the limitations of teaching in those environments. A lot of Third World countries will want you if you have a degree from an American University, so I hope in six years to be in the mission field, I think that's where I'm being led, and I'm going to be ready in case that's the case."

This article first appeared in the May 1990 issue of C.C.M. magazine.