A Ragamuffin Band

Item: Prayers of a Ragamuffin
Author: Steve Stockman

Prayers of a Ragamuffin

(1999)

Reviewed by Steve Stockman

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Label MyrrhThe Phantom Tollbooth2000

ccm roots rock

When in 1993 Rich Mullins, having read Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning, decided to put together a band, he looked for Ragamuffins. Manning's introduction to his book told us who he was thinking of as a ragamuffin:

"The burdened, the wobbly and weak-kneed, the inconsistent, unsteady disciples, the poor, weak, sinful, the bent and the bruised, the earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay, the smart people who know they are stupid and honest disciples who admit they are scalawags."

Mullins looked around at some of his friends and put together a bunch of outlaws of CCM, self-confessed scalawags who had little place left in that industry. No point in just singing about it. Let us make the ideas flesh. So Mullins brought the likes of Rick Elias and Jimmy Abegg in from the cold and released what is without doubt far and away his best album, A Liturgy, a Legacy and a Ragamuffin Band. Over time, Mark Robertson appeared on tour and Aaron Smith became the fourth Ragamuffin when, after Mullins's death, it was these scalawags who took on the project of recording The Jesus Record.

With the success of the The Jesus Record, and the emotional tour that followed, these Rags were offered another project. It was a very special moment for me when I was told. I was back stage at Greenbelt making that uncomfortable conversation you make when you are backstage post-gig with Jars of Clay, a wee bit embarrassed, but as I booked them, I had to make small talk. I was trying to make my way to the exit and got caught like a wallflower when Myrrh Records' top man, Jim Chaffee, was escorted in to meet the said post-gig adrenaline-rushed Jars. My discomfort was about to soar even higher in the midst of industry introductions and chit chat when Mr. Chaffee walked straight over to me and said, "You're Steve Stockman." He recognized me from the Homeless Man video, made some comment about how they always have a laugh at my accent, and then said that Myrrh was going to give the guys another album. With my mouth open wide, he was then introduced to the ones he doesn't know from Jars of Clay.

I left amazed. Not just that I was recognized by an American I'd never seen in my life but because these ragamuffins had suddenly gone from outlaws to the center stage of the Contemporary Christian Music scene. My goodness, Mr. Mullins, what have you achieved? It is a wizard stroke. Elias, Abegg and Robertson have so much to say, and they say it so incredibly well. But not fitting into that rather squeaky clean front cover image they were underground and wasted. Rich Mullins in his life and through his death has given a voice to those we need to hear.

Of course, Rich didn't leave it there. His pastoral heart for himself, for these wobbly and weakened friends, was that they should spend time in the life of Jesus for a while to make that great album. But of course, it was for much deeper reasons than that. Through the time these guys would spend in the life of the Man of No Reputation they would feel Christ's empathy with them, find themselves affirmed in their shuffling along with feet of clay and realize that he, like them, was an outlaw. It seems to me, looking from a distance with just a little contact with these guys, that The Jesus Record was a spiritual tonic for them. So not only does Rich bring them center stage but he brings them there revived enough but still radical and cutting edge to make an impact now that they are there.

And so to Prayers of a Ragamuffin. Another very focused project on a very central spiritual discipline. A revelation and a blessing. I guess the hint of what was to be was the phenomenal "Hard to Get" from the The Jesus Record. Here were a bunch of guys who had no desire or ability to give us a cliché filled pious lesson on prayer. These guys were vulnerable and honest and earthed in the struggles and wrestling of prayer and the search for answers to them. So we have Robertson's "Bouncing Off the Ceiling" that is "Hard to Get Part 2." It's about trying to break through and about belief and uncertainty in prayer. It's about those times when we think that our prayers are going nowhere but believing that they are going somewhere in spite of that. It's also about the awareness of the selfishness of our prayers, too "And I believe I am forgiven for every vain repetition, every selfish ambition, every foolish petition you endure."

Robertson's other solo writing credit takes on that other issue of what is the point since God knows it all anyway? "Nothing You Don't Know" is a recognition that some of our prayers, like that of Nehemiah, are about telling ourselves things to convince ourselves of who God is and what our salvation is, but our praise and thanks are nothing he doesn't know!

Abegg's songs are more Mullins-related. His "We'll be Together Again" is a song to Rich about memories of Irish coastlands and Mexican shorelines, how a sense of prayer and laughter keeps them somehow still together, and the hope that at the end of the breath that we call life there is a certainty of reunion. "We've been the beggars who ride wishes horses/Living like dreamers I won't deny/ All of our dreaming was only a moment, but we'll be together again."

Abegg's other song is, "Brother Sun, Sister Moon," which was the title of the Zeffirelli movie based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi that Mullins inflicted on anyone he could. I remember my infliction, and it was inspirational enough to make me ride those wishes horses. The song fits perfectly in its hippie early seventies sound and the lyrics are full of flowers, nature, wonder, and praise.

There has been a lot of research done on the discipline and liturgy of prayer. The whole thing starts with Rick Elias's great "Make Me an Instrument," based on a prayer of St Francis, but woven through it is St. Patrick, much in the same way that Rich did with "Creed." Indeed, the big sound of the song nods in that direction.

Elias is the main instigator here, writing three of the songs on his own and co-writing two. His "God Grant Me Tears" and "Help Thou My Unbelief" are firmly rooted in the ragamuffin legacy understanding the frailty of our faith and yet the dream of wings and hopes and visions. "God Grant Me Tears" has trademark harmonica conjuring up memories of the epic "Man of No Reputation" in sound but more like Mullins's "Hard" from Liturgy, Legacy... in theme. It's about the battle to kill off the selfish nature and follow the alternative Kingdom. "Grant me tears of a beggar 'til the fighter begins to sway punch drunk knocked down by grace, God grant me tears I pray." No easy, instant, comfortable holiness expected there. Just the long slow consistent dent of the Spirit's caressing and colliding with the soul of man.

The work that these guys do as individuals has always been impressive, but this collaborative project has simply brought out the best in their writing. Mullins himself takes a co-writing credit on "My Heart Already Knows." Starting out as a joint effort between Rich and Mark Robertson, Rick Elias has come in to tidy it up that Mullins look at the dichotomy of the head and the heart. It's a prayer that the subjective faith within might become an objective and active faith in head and life.

"Faith, Hope and Love" must be the most radio friendly track with its electric riff and rocking, driving and catchy chorus. Again, "Pocket full of trouble and broken dreams, idle minds and shattered hearts," looks upward for that which will change things here and in eternity. A passionate plea to take a ragamuffin faith from ragamuffin tears and do something with it.

This is a devotional album. It's a study. The danger of such things is that the art is lost in the attempt to be biblically sound and the content becomes the focus. Not so here. Maybe better than any other such album these hum-able songs balance teaching and poetry, sermonette and emotive music and melody. Maybe the only person who has been able to serve up such a balance in the past is the man who from beyond the grave must be smirking at the miracle of what this album achieves. I was telling a friend that while Rich was away doing a gig in Houston I found GK Chesterton and Brennan Manning in the book collection of his Wichita home. It has blessed my life. He was hundreds of miles away but influenced me. He is no longer with us, but without him we would not have this fantastic work of spiritual inspiration. Rich Mullins's ragamuffin prayers have been answered.

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