By: Rev. Larry
D. Ellis
Rather than limit my discussion to my own personal
thoughts on this subject, I contacted a number of clergy and church
musicians around the country and asked them to share the best reasons for
and not for paying musicians in their churches. The following is a summary
of some of their ideas.
There are many churches in which this question has never
been pondered. Some churches believe that music is a ministry therefore, it
must be done with volunteers. There always seems to be someone available who
will play the organ or direct the choir in the weekly anthem. We expect all
of our congregation to offer their time and talents to the work of ministry
in the church. We don't pay our Sunday School teachers, elders or deacons.
Even our church secretary, treasurer and financial secretary are volunteers.
Many of these people invest at least as many hours a week as the church
musicians.
There are other churches which maintain a prestigious
standard of either classical or pop Christian music. They expect to pay a
salary to maintain the standard repertoire of vocal, choral and organ music.
Often some large churches even employ choral and instrumental arrangers on
their music staff because they do a great deal of original music in their
churches. The music budget is often quite large to make certain that this
great tradition continues. There may be endowments established to help with
the funding. Some even produce recordings and charge admission to concert
series to establish suitable level of income. Not only is a director hired
but also several instrumentalist and choir members are hired to assist
particularly for the demanding music of the annual Easter and Christmas
productions as well as the standard weekly music. These people understand
the scripture about the workman being worthy of his hire and that it's
application is not limited to the preaching pastor. We all understand that
when a person is paid, the church has a right to expect a higher level of
commitment.
In order to answer the question title of this treatise, we
should indeed look at both sides of this issue and formulate our position in
light of our own theology and circumstances.
Pro
When the amount of time needed to do the work exceeds what
is reasonable for a typical church member to give, typically ten to fifteen
hours per week, and the church feels the particular ministry is very
important, many churches choose to pay a person. This will help ensure that
the ministry will not be crowded out due to a busy schedule of a volunteer.
In this case the time often limits their availability for their other
employment.
When we hire someone as a choral director, organist or
choir section leader we are providing leadership to the congregation to
equip them for ministry and not just maintain a program. They bring a
significant historical perspective and vision to our worship. Our music
minister actually is much more than a song leader. He spends considerable
time selecting and music as well as planning our corporate worship. He leads
the worship service. He is an initiator in ministry. Our organist works with
three others who are volunteer helpers. This means we can always have
excellent keyboard support throughout the year. He identifies and frequently
practices with a number of brass and string players in the church, who
volunteer to use their musical talents in our music ministry.
We want to employ a wide spectrum of music in our worship.
We are called to be stewards of God's gifts to us ­ music in particular.
For that reason, we want to have the benefit of people who have prepared
themselves for the ministry of worship and music just as we do in our
preaching pastor with the ministry of the Word. A good church musician is
one who has prepared for many years. The person usually has studied music
privately for ten or fifteen years investing thousands of hours and dollars
in education. Many times they have majored in music in college. Many
churches even require a graduate level degree to be considered for their
part time music staff position. In addition to musical proficiency skills
church, hopefully musicians are expected to operate with a significant
theological perspective congruent with the traditions of their particular
church. Often seminary training is also expected. These prerequisites
require significant personal discipline over years of practicing.
We use all the available people from our church in our
music ministry. However, there are some significant needs that cannot be met
from within our church. Therefore, we supplement our work with professionals
outside our church from time to time. Sometimes we hire orchestral musicians
for certain programs. This actually strengthens our overall ministry and
allows us to attract musicians into our church, who might never otherwise be
a part of our ministry.
Con
We are a small church with a limited budget. We cannot
afford to pay anyone. What is done here must be by a volunteer. We do
provide a great opportunity for someone who would like to test their
spiritual gifts in music.
Our theology of spiritual gifts brings us assurance that
God provides us with all the resources needed to do all that he calls us to
do as a church. Therefore, to go outside the church to hire someone to make
this happen seems to contradict our theology of spiritual gifts.
We aren't looking for a "professional" church musician. We
prefer the old type hymns. We really like a full orchestra for the choir so
we use prerecorded accompaniment tracks. We have invested a fortune in our
great sound system.
Our church has a different emphasis, we concentrate on
social ministries. Because we have significant paid staff in these
ministries, we do not want to add paid musical staff to the church budget.
To us worship is an experience we share together. We want
our musical leader to lead us in that experience. We do not want any choirs
drawing attention to their performance. We do not want music prepared in
advance. Everything we do is led by the Holy Spirit as he leads us.
Coda
There might be no universal answer to the question as to
whether or not the musician should be paid. However, evaluating some of
these ideas in light of your particular situation may assist you in your
decision. If Christian churches hope to develop a celebration of worship,
Christian musicians must be able to spend the time necessary to provide this
leadership. If you want a full-time ministry you should expect to pay a
full-time salary. Such positions pay from 75% to 100% of what the pastor is
paid including benefits of up to four weeks paid vacation, health insurance
and continuing education time and expenses. Part time positions generally
pay a little more per hour, comparable vacation and reduced other benefits.
Volunteers are paid only in satisfaction of their work done. There can be an
additional satisfaction in their sacrifice of money to help bring about a
ministry in a particular venue that would otherwise not be there. For some
people this blessing of being able to minister is fully adequate. For others
financial needs means that they cannot offer ministry to the church as they
would like because they must work other jobs to provide for their financial
needs.
The temple musicians were called by God, gifted, trained
and skilled for their ministry. Hopefully, we desire and will accept no
less.