Inhabited's Sara Acker: Soldiering On
02-22-2008
by Kevan Breitinger
I’ve found in the past years of interviewing Christian artists that they generally minister and perform for a variety of reasons, most of them very good. But in all my interactions I don’t know that I’ve ever spoken to an artist more motivated by her heart for her audience than Sara Acker of Inhabited. Our Learning Curve Feature often covers the story of an artist overcoming odds or hardship, but this month we will take a look at an exciting and passion-driven artist who is simply letting her heart for God spill over into her connections with her audience in a truly significant way.
It was probably a year ago or more when I first stumbled upon Sara’s journal on the old Inhabited website, and I was instantly caught up in her journal entries. From what I could tell Sara had vigorous interactions with a number of her fans whose inner sorrows and agonies were leading them to engage in self-destructive behaviors. I first contacted Sara for the purpose of discussing her ministry to cutters, but the more I read and heard of her ministry, I began to understand that her connection with the fans was not limited to only one area. A year later our conversation covered a great deal of caring, all of it very thoughtful.
My first question to Sara was the one most obvious to me: where did she get this huge heart for the hurting? 
“Looking back at it over the course of my life,” she replied easily, “I remember always wanting to tell people Jesus loved them, way back to when I saw them in stores at the age of 6 years old or so. I don’t know why, but I always wanted people to know that they were loved. When I was like 12 was the first time I remember being extremely compelled to do something more about it.”
“I was watching a show on TV, an interview with teenage girls from Russia. They were talking about what their dream was when they grew up, and they both said they wanted to be prostitutes. I was blown away, thinking, if I could just go find those girls and tell them that they were loved! I wanted to go there, and I told my parents. They kind of laughed and said you need to pray for Russia. You don’t need to go.”
“Finally when I was 16, I went to Russia with Teen Mania ministries. It was kind of the beginning of my journey to what I’m doing now,” Sara continues. “It really prepared me. When I was younger, I always prayed that God would give me his heart. I can’t say that I always have his heart,” she adds laughing. “I’m sure enough bratty sometimes. But it’s definitely a God-given thing because it’s not something I can take credit for, that’s for sure.”
Sara cleared things up for me when I asked her if she was involved in a special ministry to cutters. “No,” she replied. “It’s just that I’ve been in enough shows where people would come up to me and maybe pull up their sleeves, or share their story with me, and I realized that there was a real issue with cutting. As I asked questions and went deeper with some, I realized that a lot of the people who were cutting were often people who had also been abused. Sometimes their behavior was coupled with an eating disorder; a lot of times those go together.” Sara’s heart is revealed as she shares, “I have a passion and a rage at the same time about abuse. I want to help those kids who are sitting in silence, dominated by fear, in their abuse. Depression drives different people to different things. Every time they cut themselves, their blood represents their life. I just want to help.”
I knew from reading about her that Sara and her brother Marcus, together the founders of Inhabited, had grown up in a Christian home, so I wondered how well she could relate to issues like abuse. I should have known that her sensitivity and intelligence would have prepared her for such a question. “Everybody goes through points in their life where they make mistakes that send them spiraling into questioning God’s grace for their own life,” Sara responds, “and so have I. It’s easy to tell other people, you know, Jesus loves you, and He has a plan for your life. But when it comes down to you personally, if you’ve ever done something that you feel is bad enough to make God not love you, it’s a huge weight to carry around. Especially growing up in a Christian home,” she adds, “there are all the expectations that are put on Christians. Maybe it’s one of the reasons I feel so passionately about this, but I know there are a lot of young people who go to church every Sunday and hate it. They don’t feel like they can be real or say that they’ve ever struggled or ever been tempted because they’ll be looked down upon. And I hate that.”
“I hate it that kids don’t feel safe at church. They feel like they’ll be judged instead of helped a lot of times. We get the general sense sometimes from our audience and our fans that they feel that way. It’s those expectations of perfection that come with being a Christian. I think that’s what sends people running from church instead of running to it,” she adds regretfully.
So Sara’s ministry has become a one-on-one, heart to heart work. She has earned a reputation of an artist who lingers long after the last set, talking and praying with kids after the show. The upside of that is that the kids she cares so much for know that in her they have found a safe place to share. The downside is that such a sincere ministry can quickly become overwhelming in terms of numbers.
“It’s definitely becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with,” Sara says honestly. “I used to be able to manage it all but now my inbox is always full; I’m always trying to catch up. People who come to our show have no idea of the impact they have on us. When we talk to fans at the show, one may say something that sticks in my head while we drive another ten hours. While we’re on the road, I’m replaying those words over and over until its message is impacting my life. Their words often encourage me to keep doing what I’m doing even when I’m completely tired of doing it. We’re there for the fans,” she shares, “but the fans also have such a huge impact on me.”
It is this reality that is leading Sara to craft a solution that will work for her and for the fans. “I’m putting together a team of people I trust with my fans” she tells me. “I’ve tried to gather up people who have a heart to reach out, whose own testimonies can make an impact. Two of the girls on it are actually fans I’ve met and become friends with, who have moved from their own personal desperation to completely changing their entire lives. They are now are in full pursuit of God and want to do something for Him. Now they can be a part of reaching people through what our music ministry.” 
I’m not at all surprised when Sara shares with me the name of this upcoming arm of her ministry. “Love Soldiers” seems completely appropriate for the young singer with the enormous heart. To find out more about Inhabited and Sara Acker’s passion-driven work with her young fans, please visit www.inhabitedtheband.com . And read the CMCentral review of Inhabited’s new album here, entitled appropriately, Love.
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