You may not be very familiar with Sherri Youngward’s music. But the best kept secret at 5 Minute Walk Records, with the November release of her sophomore album (No More Good-byes), proves that she is definitely a face to watch for, and more importantly, a voice to listen for. Though the Christian music comparison charts that we all love to hate liken her to mainstream artists such as the Indigo Girls and Jewel, Sherri’s acoustic-flavored, folk-tinged rock boasts one big factor that sets her a notch above the girls of Lilith Fair: God.

More than the melodious appeal of a hummable tune or the initial allure of skillfully strummed strings, one cannot help but to be struck by the faith and conviction that dominate Youngward’s music. It is the impassioned voice, the heartfelt words that lend such a personal openness, an invitation that irresistibly draws in her listeners.

"Urgency is a good way to describe it," Sherri elaborates thoughtfully. "The thing that stands out to me about anybody’s music is when I just feel like they have some passion behind it. I mean, I hate to say it, but I’d almost rather hear somebody, a non-Christian singing about something honestly, than a Christian singing about the thing that’s the most intimate thing to me -- the relationship with Christ-- and sound like they’re reading it off a bumper sticker. I think it’s almost an equal sin."

With this in mind, Sherri crafts albums imbued with the intimacy and passion she most admires in music. "Lyrically, I don’t feel like I hide anything, and I never want to," is her immediate characterization of the song-writing process. "As far as my relationship with Christ, I never want to try and cover that up so I can ‘slip into the world.’ I’ve already been there," she adds laughingly. "I don’t really want to go back!"

"But on the other hand," she continues, "I hope to write in such a way that a person could say, ‘Well, I go through that, too, but she’s found some help.’ Because I wasn’t raised in the church, I think I’m very sensitive to what it’s like to be a non-Christian. I mean, seriously I had no church background. So I’ve never gotten the ‘Christian-ese,’ as they call it. I don’t want to be that way. I guess I hoped that somebody could come (to one of my concerts) and bring somebody that’s not a Christian and that at least they would know that whatever I was talking about, I meant and was real in my life. Basically, that’s what drew me. That’s how I became a Christian."

And having lived the first eighteen years of her life hearing little or no mention of God or His love, by the time Sherri came to know the Lord, she had reached a low point.

"I was getting to the point where I was getting pretty dangerous as far as the amount of partying I was doing. And I didn’t care. I mean, as far as life went, I really didn’t care"And it was getting evident in the things that were happening to me."

But under the guidance of a friend’s parents, she began, through the genuineness of their actions and lives, to see Christ for the first time.

"I was actually very drawn to them because they weren’t fake at all. I saw that they had problems, but I also saw a difference in them, Like, if I went over there, I would purposely not be high -- which didn’t happen very often in my life at that point -- because I felt disrespectful. And now I look back and I realize I really believe it was God’s Spirit in that home that was convicting me. But to make a long story short, one day I cut school and I was in talking with her mom in her kitchen, and she was talking to me about Christ, I didn’t really get everything she was talking about. But all I knew was that whoever she was talking about was real to her and that He was in her, And she told me, ‘One day, you’re going to get sick of this life that you live.’ And I practically interrupted her and said, ‘I hate my life. I don’t even want to be alive.’ And she asked me if she could pray with me, When I opened my eyes, I just was cleansed from head to toe. I was a different person. I really knew something happened."

And indeed, something had really happened. Sherri began attending church for the first time in her life, and about a year and a half later, she joined YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and traveled with them throughout Mexico and Central America. But those first eighteen years as a non-Christian still impact her music and ministry to this day.

"I would definitely say so, It’s one of the things that I think of a lot when I start asking myself if this is really a valid ministry -- because it’s easy life, and it matters to me what I do with my life. I remember those first years sitting in church and having somebody just get up there with a guitar and sing. And it really ministered to me. It was like this soothing feeling that I’d never experienced, and I’d been around music a lot. But there was just something so different. I think that just made a difference to me. It kind of showed me that there’s something to this; I guess the newness of it, maybe, and the fact that I hadn’t seen it before. So I think there’s something special when it’s that way. It’s brand new, and you’re just seeing it with an un-jaded view."


And in the end, it would seem that sense of newness, that special sight of child-like simplicity, is the purpose and the force behind Sherri’s music. For there is an unmatched honesty in being "real," in recognizing flaws and difficulties, but greater still, in recognizing that God is Lord over all. And reading the words of Sherri’s very first song, "Peace," unite this concept. As she wrote, "I thank my Heavenly Father who took hold of me years ago in Julie Crowley’s kitchen, and never let me go."

He still holds on today.

From her first album, Faces, Memories, Places

"This is the first song I ever wrote. Simple words, simple chords, simple truth. Written for anyone else like me who needs to be reminded."

Peace be still
Lay all your worries down
Be still, Oh my soul
For our God, is in control

And if God is for us
Then whom shall I fear
And our God is for us
So lay down, be still
He is God
Hallelujah, our God has overcome
Hallelujah, our Lord, Jesus Christ
Has won