By Zack Ball
Recently, I had a conversation with a friend about former Christian musical artist, Keith Green. From a young age, he was considered an enormous talent who, after a professionally successful, but troubling, start to his career, experienced the Lord in a way that changed his heart forever, leading him to become a fruitful and innovative Christian songwriter. My friend spoke of Green’s music as inspired by the Holy Spirit and life-changing, indicating the significant impact that Green’s songs had on him. Unfortunately, in 1982, Keith Green was killed in a plane crash, at just twenty-eight years of age, leaving many people wondering what could have been for such a gifted musician using his talents entirely for the Lord.
My friend’s recollection of Green led me to, then, reminiscence about the Sunday morning church service in 1997 when our senior pastor announced to the congregation that famed Christian artist Rich Mullins had been killed in a car accident in the previous week. My church, at that time, was in Mullins’ hometown of Richmond, Indiana, so the news came as a devastating shock to the area, especially considering how influential his music had become for Sunday morning worship in so many churches. At 41 years, Mullins’ death, likewise, left people asking how much more was left to give, especially on behalf of the Lord.
As death usually leads to intro ...
