April 8, 2026

By Darcy Fargo
Editor

After bullying led her to hide her gift of song from others in her childhood, Sarah Kroger, a GMA Dove Award-nominated Catholic musician who will be performing at Highway to Heaven on May 16 in Massena, said she now loves sharing her love of Christ through music, especially at events centered around the Eucharist.

“I’ve always been around music,” Kroger said. “My parents were both music ministers. Growing up, I was always voluntold to be in the children’s choir. Music was always infused into our lives.”

While she loved music and singing as a child, Kroger said she experienced bullying, and that experience led her to confine her musical expression behind closed doors.

“I didn’t want that part of me torn down,” she said. “So, I did it only in private.”

That changed after a profound experience at a youth conference that included praise and worship music, Kroger said.

“It opened my eyes to a language I could use to communicate with God in a way I never had before, but in a way that felt very familiar,” she said.

Later in the youth conference, one of the speakers said something that spoke to Kroger’s heart.

“He was speaking to a whole room, but it felt like he was speaking directly to me,” Kroger said. “He said, ‘If you have a gift from God and you’re not using it, you’re denying the glory of God within you.’ I knew the love I have for music was a gift he had given me, a gift that was meant to serve him. I started cantoring at church. I was terrified people would judge me or bully me, but it was exactly the opposite. I was affirmed. That was a foundational time. I started leading praise and worship for our youth group. Then the youth group down the street asked me to lead praise and worship for them.”

Kroger said she then had an opportunity to meet another Catholic praise and worship leader, the same one who ministered at the youth conference that changed her life, and her music ministry “snowballed from there.”

“I just keep trying to say yes and put everything in the Lord’s hands,” she said.

The Nashville native now leads worship around the country, and she said she loves opportunities to lead worship at events centered on Christ in the Eucharist, as she will when she participates in Highway to Heaven here in May.

“The Eucharist is everything to me,” she said. “In so many ways, it’s been the tether to my faith and to the Lord. On a personal note, I’ve had many encounters with Jesus, with God through the Eucharist that I can’t explain, that I can’t put into words. Those are tethering points I’m able to look back on when I experience doubt or when I’m feeling dry. It’s one of those things that’s unshakeable. It’s such an honor to be able to lead people in worship in front of the Eucharist and to allow God to work with me and through me to create those moments for others. That’s a special thing, and I don’t take it for granted.”

In addition to the Eucharist keeping her grounded in Christ, when she’s on the road or hard at work collaborating with God and with a team of his people to write songs, Kroger said she makes it a priority to escape all the noise and just listen to the urgings of the Lord.

“I think it’s the way it is with all of us – we’re all busy all the time, and we’re all surrounded by noise,” Kroger said. “We have almost no time just sitting in silence unless we actively pursue it. There’s always noise. The biggest thing has been finding time for silence. The Lord has been redeeming silence for me. For a few years, I felt like silence was a bad thing; it was scary, and I felt like the Lord was almost ignoring me. That’s the interesting thing with relationships – there are ebbs and flows. It shifts over time. I’m learning to embrace silence and enjoy silence. There’s something to be found in silence that I need. Someone once said ‘silence is the language of God.’ To be able to enter into that without an agenda or having to get something out of it, just allowing myself to be and be with the God who says ‘I am who am’ has been really good for me and really grounding through all the craziness.”

To learn more about Kroger, and to experience her music, visit sarahkroger.com. Her music can also be found for purchase on Amazon and for streaming on popular streaming platforms.