Sarah Ilger

Hope Chapel Worship Leader

I have always been a musical person.  I’ve been singing since I was 11 or 12 in church and in school choirs and vocal groups, but never had the opportunity to learn an instrument or learn to read music till I was much older.  Even as a very young girl, I had a passion for singing and an insatiable appetite for all types of music.  When I started singing in the Hope Chapel worship team at 16 years of age, I was the youngest person on stage and was often the only female.    Ben Bigler was our worship leader at the time and I learned so much from him as I sang backup for the next 3-4 years.  I learned how to compliment the worship team with my voice and how to create an atmosphere of worship in my church.   I fell in love with worshipping God and was comfortable being more in the background.  The first few years that I led worship was a very difficult time for my family, but I learned to worship in all seasons and lift my praise through the pain.  At 19, after Ben Bigler had moved on to another worship leader position at another church, I was asked to lead worship for Hope Chapel.  I was attending college working towards a degree in Psychology and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I said yes.  The first 6 months of worship leading were terrifying and exhilarating.  God began speaking to me about my path in life and I knew that I was called to a life of full time ministry in worship.  I didn’t play an instrument and couldn’t read music, but I did the best I could and loved every second of it.  I dropped out of college and learned to to play guitar so I could better lead the band which helped tremendously.   At 21, I felt called to go to Hillsong College in Sydney, Australia to study with their famous worship ministry.  I stepped on a plane with almost everything I owned in 2 suitcases and flew to Sydney, where I didn’t know a single person.  I was scared, but excited because I knew that the Lord had called me to this strange land for “such a time as this”.  I spent a year in the program taking classes, participating in ministries, singing in choir and worship bands across the city, and living with beautiful people who loved the Lord and came across the world with the same desire as I had, to learn how to worship.  During this year I learned so much from the Hillsong Worship Team, the college, and the church, but I the most importantly, I learned more about God’s call on my life.  God began to put songs in my heart and it was there in my small apartment in Sydney, Australia that I wrote my first songs.  When I returned to Los Angeles in 2007, I spent 3 years writing songs, working, and saving money before I was asked to be on staff at Hope Chapel full time as an office manager and worship leader.

I recently finished recording my first worship album with Flint Records and Free the Inside ministries.  My producer, Ben Bigler was the same person who led worship at my church when I was 16 and taught me how to be worship leader!  The EP that we recorded is 5 of my original worship songs, 2 of which I wrote in Sydney.  We used other musicians and worship leaders from our church and from other churches around L.A. to record many of the instruments on the album.  It is a beautiful display of God’s faithfulness to complete a work in my life that began at 16 years of age and to complete a work in the life of our church.   I now lead worship at Hope with Todd McCool and I am seeing a revival of worship as I have never seen before in this church.  There is such an atmosphere of desperation to seek the face of God and a humbleness to do whatever it takes to draw closer to the King of Majesty.  To view my blog, check out my website at: www.sarahilger.com. Also, “like”  my music artist page on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Ilger/148190215244507?ref=ts

My favorite verses about worship:

Isaiah 55:6 “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call on Him while He is near”

Psalm 98:4-8 “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; 
make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—shout for joy before the LORD, the King.  Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy…”

1 Samuel 2:1-10  (Hannah’s prayer)

Psalm 42:7 “Deep calls to deep, in the roar of Your waterfalls.  Your waves and breakers have swept over me”

Psalm 42:11 “Why, my soul, are you downcast? 
Why so disturbed within me? 
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”