Sarah Blake LaRose: Preaching, Teaching, and Music Ministry

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Here you will find three things that I offer to the church:

Music

Music can play a crucial role in the life of the church, even if a person is not personally gifted as a musician. Music is everywhere we go., As we hear it, it becomes something we memorize, sometimes without realizing it. Likewise, music is an integral part of our faith. It helps us to learn theological truth. Good, strong theologically based worship music is important. As a songwriter, I feel that music has the ability to bring home the message of Scripture in a way that remains potent and can be recalled easily.

Music taught me to pray in some of the darkest times of my life, to interpret Scripture, and to bless other people. It is because of those things that I love to be a part of bringing others into the presence of God through music, whether through sharing my own compositions or through leading worship.

I have provided programs of music and testimony in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Indiana. I served as a soprano vocalist at North Anderson (Madison Park) Church of God from 1998 to 2006. I currently serve with the worship arts team and in the choir at Park Place Church of God in Anderson, Indiana. My worship demo includes live clips from Park Place Church of God.

If you are interested in a music program for your church or community event, or if you need a worship leader, please send me an email.

Sample Sermons

I am ordained with the Church of God (Anderson, IN) and have provided pulpit supply since 2009. Here are full-length audio and video sermons I have preached. Mostly, I hope they bless you. If you are looking for someone to preach in your pastor’s absence, please send me an email

The God of Long Awaited Promises Park Place Church of God, December 31, 2023

To the Church at Smyrna
Maple Grove Church of God, Anderson, Indiana, January 26, 2020

God’s Call Is Forever
Delivered at Anderson University School of Theology, April 4, 2017; text: Exo. 4:1-16.

I Will Praise the Lord
Delivered at East 16th Street Church of God, Anderson, IN, October 8, 2017; Text: Gen 29:25-35

Worship in Spirit and Truth
Delivered at East 16th Street Church of God, Anderson, IN, March 19, 2017; text: Jn 4:21-26

What Can I Do for You?”
Delivered at Pauline Ave. Church of God, Muncie, IN; text: Lk. 18:35-43

To Seek and Save the Lost
Delivered at Pauline Ave. Church of God, Muncie, IN; text: Lk. 19:1-10

Seminars and Biblical Teaching

In addition to preaching, I provide seminars and biblical teaching in areas of special interest. My areas of specialization include disability and theology; the healing narratives; poverty; and divorce. I have published chapters and monographs concerning Christian higher education, evangelism and discipleship, and meeting special needs in the church. Please see my curriculum vitae for information about these publications.

One of my great desires is to empower the Church and seminary to relate as reconciled communities with people who have disabilities, empowering people with disabilities to fully participate in faith formation and community activities. As a person with a disability who is an ordained minister and seminary professor, I am happy to speak to your group about strategies for welcome, inclusion, and reconciliation.

Clips From Presentations

To schedule me to speak at your church, please send me an email.

Blog

biblical studies – Sarah Blake LaRose


Last feed update: Monday June 5th, 2023 01:30:51 PM

Encountering Jesus in Gethsemane

Friday April 15th, 2022 09:03:48 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
I sat alone in my dorm room, weeping and wondering what I would say if anyone found me and asked what was wrong. The truth would have been that I was upset because my companionship was rejected, and I didn’t feel that I had the right to be upset. I felt that I was simply […]

Doing Exegesis Without Biblical Languages

Sunday December 12th, 2021 09:15:37 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
Someone asked me, “How can I do good exegesis if I don’t know the biblical languages?” This is a good question, especially since many seminaries are no longer teaching biblical languages. I will begin by saying that it is good to recognize that the languages are important, even if you don’t have the opportunity to […]

Book Review: Freedom to Flourish

Friday July 30th, 2021 01:08:34 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
Recently I was gifted a copy of Freedom to Flourish by Elizabeth Garn in exchange for a review (honest of course). Elizabeth and I became friends through a group that connects women who have been to seminary. Our backgrounds and work are somewhat different but it is a joy to fellowship and especially to read […]

On Faith and Prayer

Monday June 14th, 2021 06:18:07 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
I have been having a number of conversations about faith lately. They all come to one center. I can’t live a life of faith in God and at the same time plan as if God might not take care of me. I have wrestled for most of my life with the concept of what it […]

By Faith and Not by Sight

Sunday June 6th, 2021 12:22:14 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
It may be tempting, when seeing this title on a blind person’s blog, to think that this post will be about something inspirational based on life as a blind person. Blindness gives us great opportunities to live by faith since we cannot see, right? Certainly this is a great idea; but it is a misinterpretation […]

Walking on the Water of Grief

Tuesday April 13th, 2021 09:26:51 AM sarah
In Mt. 14:22-36, Jesus comes to the disciples walking on water. This is an amazing thing; for who can actually walk on water! Peter, ever the one who wants to be just like Jesus, wants to try this out. Jesus encourages him to go on and try; and Peter does. But of course he becomes […]

The Heart of Confession

Friday April 2nd, 2021 10:50:13 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
Jesus knew that Peter would deny knowing him… Was it because Jesus had some amazingly prescient knowledge of what was to come? Or did he have wisdom about what humans do when in severe distress? He had been in other situations in which people’s family refused to tell the truth because it meant associating them […]

God My Refuge and the Man Born Blind

Friday March 20th, 2020 10:38:41 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
My introduction to biblical studies did not come gently. My parents did as much as they humanly could to provide me a Bible in a format that I could read; but in the 1980s braille Bibles were costly and hard to store. Individual hard-bound volumes cost $40 each; and 18 of them were required to […]

Breaking the Powers of Silence and Exclusion

Saturday March 7th, 2020 08:19:37 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
This is the audio of my presentation from the 2020 meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society: “Breaking the Powers of Silence and Exclusion: Empowering People with Disabilities for Discipleship”. If you prefer, read the text of the paper. Right click to download breaking the Powers of Silence and Exclusion

Teaching the Holy Spirit and the Church at Smyrna

Sunday September 22nd, 2019 02:27:22 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
I am currently teaching via video to theological students in Pakistan about the theology of the Holy Spirit. They have many questions, and I allow their questions to guide some of the plans I make for the class sessions that I teach. Last week, a student asked about the letters to the seven churches in […]

Technology, Online Language Courses, and Discipline

Sunday September 1st, 2019 02:21:38 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
I have taught biblical language courses online at Anderson University since 2015. During the first week of a first-year language course, I introduce the language writing system and sound correspondence, and I introduce enough words that the students can read a few sentences. I also teach at least as much use of technology as I […]

The Rise of Ancient Language Text Access for People Who Are Blind

Friday July 26th, 2019 09:18:04 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
Recently an article was published on the Anderson University blog and in Signatures Magazine about my work as a braille transcriber. Space is limited in this article, and the author is able to provide limited introduction to my work. The following post is here to give further detail for those who are interested in what […]

Teaching Exegesis Orally Via Distance Learning

Friday November 23rd, 2018 08:31:11 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
I am teaching a live video series on Biblical exegesis for a seminary overseas through a partnership between the Church of God and a church fellowship in the other country. The seminary prepares new pastors to plant churches in their own country and raise their own support. Until now, most of my teaching experience has […]

Sermon: I Will Praise the Lord

Sunday October 8th, 2017 09:40:10 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
“I Will Praise the Lord” is a sermon based on Leah’s response to her circumstances, specifically the fact that even the blessings of God were not enough to make Jacob love her. Sermon text: Gen. 29:15-35: 15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell […]

God’s Call is Forever

Tuesday April 4th, 2017 09:07:33 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
Do you ever feel like asking God why you were the one chosen to do something? Why not send someone else? That is what Moses did. Moses was so persistent that God’s anger burned against him. Here is what came of that interaction. Watch on YouTube. Text is Exo 4:1-16.

Remember and Live by Grace

Wednesday March 22nd, 2017 09:25:07 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
My dear Christian brothers and sisters, I ask that you will read this post and I pray that God will move on your hearts to hear the message here./p> When the Israelites were delivered from slavery, God commanded them concerning their treatment of each other and of aliens living among them. These commands were given […]

Worship in Spirit and Truth

Monday March 20th, 2017 12:30:26 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
The primary text of this sermon is Jn. 4:21-26. Other texts are Ps. 51:16-17, Isa. 58:2-4, Jer. 29:13, and Heb. 4:14-16. This sermon was preached in Muncie, Indiana. Click to listen or right click to download: Worship in Spirit and Truth

“What Can I Do for You?”

Monday February 13th, 2017 12:30:06 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
This is the sermon I preached in Muncie, Indiana, on the text of Lk. 18:35-43. Click to listen or right click to download: What Can I Do for You

To Seek and Save the Lost

Monday September 12th, 2016 12:30:56 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
The text of this sermon is Lk. 19:1-10. The sermon was preached in Muncie, Indiana. Click to listen, or right click to download: To Seek and Save the Lost

Can We Carry the Cross

Friday March 25th, 2016 09:03:29 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
I ran across a post on Facebook today that mentioned people carrying crosses down the road and concluded with a reflection on how different the world would be if we lived each day with awareness of what it was like for Jesus to carry the cross. This reflection made me think about what it in […]

God’s Favor

Monday December 28th, 2015 12:30:04 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
This sermon, preached in Muncie, Indiana, defines God’s favor as it is experienced by Hannah, David, Mary, and Jesus. Click to listen, or right click to download: God’s Favor

Bring Your Bible to School?

Friday September 18th, 2015 10:14:23 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
I read on Facebook that Focus on the Family is sponsoring a “Bring Your Bible to School” day in October. The comments, as I expected, were all in favor. Some people even asked, “Why does everyone else get to show their faith and we have to hide ours?” I was a bit stunned when I […]

when forgiveness matters most

Sunday May 3rd, 2015 08:18:26 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
One of the greatest temptations when working through trauma–or any kind of situation involving hurt–is to hold on to anger as if it is my right to feel it. I have even read comments from some people via books and articles that it isn’t necessary to forgive the person who hurt you. After all, the […]

A Woman Named Salome

Sunday April 5th, 2015 07:47:46 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
While doing my Easter Bible study, I came across a name I had never noticed before. It is the name of one of the women at the tomb. Two of the women were named Mary. That is something I have known for a long time. The third woman’s name is Salome, pronounced Sal-o-may. I decided […]

musings on the healing narratives

Friday August 15th, 2014 01:18:06 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
If a doctor can treat an illness, then why do we need Jesus? Perhaps it is a question worth asking. Is it just a matter of making a statement, of rejecting the world’s system for the Christian one? Or is there really a situation where a miracle can happen? Sometimes, it is both. It is […]

Remember

Thursday July 10th, 2014 07:34:24 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, I have difficulty remembering to make my medical appointments. My husband has been reminding me all week that I have an appointment to make. Sometimes I have asked him to please remind me during the day–after all, I cannot make the appointment in the late evening. Sometimes, during […]

why I don’t say happy birthday Jesus

Wednesday December 25th, 2013 09:05:09 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
As I grow older, I become increasingly irritable when I see so much Americanization and dumbing down of holy things. My parents laugh when I express these signs of my age. But I hope that some of my general disquiet might be worth taking seriously. The current object of my disquiet is the phrase, “Happy […]

biblical languages and scholars who are blind: state of technology

Saturday September 7th, 2013 04:01:44 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
Yesterday, I announced on Facebook that the Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind has released a digital braille format version of Jacob Weingreen’s A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew. This, along with other digital braille files available on their site, may be an important breakthrough for people who are blind and who want to study Hebrew. […]

a note from the chair in the back room

Thursday June 13th, 2013 03:21:20 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
My Facebook posts often say something to the effect of, “Editing Hebrew with some coffee and a purring cat in the chair in the back room…” I thought it might be about time that I gave my readers a glimpse into my Hebrew editing life. I hope that my Hebrew colleagues will indulge me a […]

the dark cloud of limitations

Thursday April 18th, 2013 01:35:21 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
Several years ago, I participated in a guided dialogue via email with a group of people with disabilities. One of our earliest assignments was to describe ourselves in terms of our limitations. Our facilitator said that typically people have difficulty with this assignment; and throughout the time that I knew him, he maintained that he […]

“since” vs. “because”

Friday February 17th, 2012 08:23:30 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
Greek words often have multiple meanings in English. So a clause may be translated either “If [blah blah blah]” or “since [blah blah blah]”. Of course, this distinction is very important when doing biblical translation. But I’m not translating right now. I’m just thinking about life… Think of the difference between saying, “if I am […]

disability studies, touch, and theology

Monday December 12th, 2011 05:12:35 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
I recently read an article in which the author relates an experience in which a male priest makes the sign of the cross on her forehead as he passes her while leaving her niece’s confirmation service. She is offended in part because a man touched her without her permission and in part because she is […]

SBL/AAR conference experience

Wednesday November 30th, 2011 08:55:55 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
The SBL/AAR conference was an extremely positive experience for me. I found some links online to articles for students about how to get the most out of conferences, but I didn’t get much chance to read them ahead of time. So I just threw myself in with abandon and treated it the way I do […]

What are we singing?

Saturday December 11th, 2010 10:08:13 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
It has become fashionable to rewrite the words to songs so that they are gender inclusive or otherwise politically correct. Sometimes this has a fairly neutral effect. Sometimes it destroys a song’s theological meaning; and sometimes it is quite powerful. As a songwriter and a minister, and also as a person who is a member […]

about the call to ministry

Sunday August 15th, 2010 02:14:08 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
Recently a seminary student asked me how I hear God and how I know what I am called to do. I wasn’t surprised by these questions. Many seminary classes open at the beginning of the semester with times of introduction when students share their sense of their call to ministry. In other words, they share […]

meditation on a hymn

Sunday November 22nd, 2009 02:15:43 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
Come Thou Fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, Mount of Thy unchanging love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer; Hither by Thy help […]

holy places

Sunday June 7th, 2009 03:00:04 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
Holy places… I think of these as “places that are holy.” In Hebrew the phrase would be translated literally, “places of the holy.” This implies a slightly different meaning. The place itself is not holy. It is a place where the holy is encountered. Without God’s presence, or without the interaction between God and person, […]

It Is Well

Friday May 29th, 2009 08:53:51 AM Sarah Blake LaRose
Hebrew… The gift that keeps on giving… I love it when that happens! Last week in church, we sang “It Is Well”–all three verses. Singing “My sin, not in part but the whole / Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,” I was deeply moved and thought back to my discussion […]

transgressions

Friday April 3rd, 2009 04:47:18 PM Sarah Blake LaRose
Today in Hebrew, we read in Gen. 50 where Joseph’s brothers tell him that God commands him to “lift up the transgression of your brothers.” I mistranslated it; and this led my professor and me into a discussion of the fact that sacrifices could be offered for sins but not for transgressions (rebellions). The only […]






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2 comments:

  1. Hi, Sally. If your browser has an “add to favorites” option in the menus, that is how you do it. I will see if there is a plugin that will let you use a button on my page to do this automatically. 🙂

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