To Pay or Not To Pay
How cliche is that title? sheesh… lets take a worn out Shakespeare quote and manipulate to fit my content.. yah, that’s never been done before…
I know a handful of worship leaders have me on their feed reader, so i’m curious your thoughts on paying musicians a small stipend for their efforts… Or perhaps even bringing in outside musicians in order to ensure quality musicianship?
Here’s the thing, i’ve never been against the first necessarily. I do believe you should recruit from within rather than “hiring” from outside, but lately i’ve been contemplating whether I’m even on board with a small stipend. There are a few problems I’m starting to see with this:
* Potential to develop a sense of entitlement in the musicians. This is not always the case, but as a musician, I can see how this could creep in to a artist’s heart. Time to move to a new church, no problem… “I’m a good enough musician to be paid. Lets find a paying church rather than one where God really needs me to serve.” The heart of a service is not one of entitlement or expectations; it is one of sacrifice and humility found within the willingness to allow God to use the talents He has given you.
* Potentially develops a superiority/inferiority complex amoung volunteers. Think about it. If a church pays the supporting musicians of the main service, but not the ushers, greeting team, children’s workers, youth volunteers, or student worship team then the church’s “org chart” is set. The musicians instantly are far more important to the leadership of the church than any other set of volunteers that are not paid. In fact by definition, the musicians are no longer volunteers at all. Churches avoid the inferior feeling other volunteers may experience by keeping the lid on the fact that the musicians are paid. And if someone does approach leadership about it, they explain the importance of music as it relates to the visitors / de-churched individuals. I’d like to know how a visitor with kids would feel if they heard great music but couldn’t enjoy it because they were busy taking care of their 3 year old daughter and 6 year old son on their own.
* Creates potential logistic issues. Do you pay fill in musicians who volunteer in other areas or choose not to pay so they are ignorant to the practice? When do you begin paying musicians? At the onset? only when the church is financially stable? And then if the church falls into financial hardship do you cut pay? Let those who expendable go in favor of new true volunteer musicians while still paying for the less expendable musicians?
I’m sure there are positives to this, but –and i’m saying this as a worship leader– perhaps we’re putting a little too much emphasis on music and not enough emphasis on servanthood and those who make the church work… The divorced middle-aged woman who greets visitors with a smile… the nurturing empty-nester who watches our kids… the blue-collar-50-hour-per-work-week family man who opens his home to host a lifegroup… the struggling young married couple who are 30 minutes early and leave 30 minutes late to every youth event and spend their gas money lugging teens around just for the sake of building relationships…
Am I missing something here?
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My personal feelings/thoughts: I don’t have a problem with those churches who do pay, but I do agree that the potential for the problems you brought up greatly increases. I personally don’t think I will ever come to the point that I would pay my musicians, unless their contribution became so great and “necessary” that both they and the church came to see their role as more part-time/full-time “job” then voluntary service.
It’s the same reason that don’t beg or cajole people into choir. I do a fair amount of recruiting and encouragement, but I don’t go beyond that. I want people in the choir who WANT to be their and lift their voices, not someone I’ve strong-armed/shamed/bribed to be there. Same thing goes with my worship musicians, I would rather they had a desire to use heart/hands/feet as an act of worship and service and not as a “job.”
I always hold up as example a dear lady we have in our church who recently “retired” from teaching a girl’s Sunday school after serving for over 53 years. That’s the kind of servant we should all strive to be.
Besides, if I were to start paying my musicians, I owe my wife a massive amount of back-pay for the 13+ years she’s played piano for me!
Yeah, I don’t pay my musicians currently but I reward them. I do find a huge difference in my ‘volunteer musicians’ who give up their Thursday nights for rehearsals, their Sunday mornings, and countless time during the week as they practice honing their craft compared to say the warm and fuzzy volunteer that shows up to pass out bulletins and greets people and gets there a half hour early to the church. Is that person necessary? Sure! They help set the tone and atmosphere for our visitors and pass out important information and create a warm tone in the gathering area. But, I see a huge difference here.
Like I said, I don’t pay but I reward. I buy sticks, strings, breakfast, take them out to lunch, CDs, etc. I’ve had this conversation countless times with other worship leaders and also with our staff (which I think is equally important!) I have guest musicians come but I don’t pay them. I even tell them that if they can’t make the practice night then I’d rather schedule them another week to play. Not only do I want their talent but I want their community. It’s as equally important to me.
I do pay Worship Leaders who fill in for me when I am out. That person however, chooses songs, prepares lead sheets, arrives earlier than the band to check set-up, comes to our worship planning meeting, AND learns to play and sing the songs for the week. I think there should be some monetary reward to that kind of time commitment.
Great questions/thoughts!! Let me preface this by saying I am NOT a worship leader, nor do I serve in this capacity…I’m the guy out in the pew. So, if I’m out in left field, shrug me off and let me play with the dandelions some more.
I think one of the tough aspects within this issue is that we value MONEY…it tends to be what we toil and sweat for…and therefore, in our trying to make the worship team feel appreciated we “reward” them with $$. Great intentions, just maybe not the best way to thank/reward them?
Personally, I think our society pays for performances, so if that is what we want out of the worship team, then $$ is the track we are on. That is why we pay pastors…for pulpit performances…okay, just messing around there. I don’t think this is where we should be. Where would we draw the line of those who are “just” serving God in church and those who should be paid? I tend to think of those who are paid as providing a service and again, I don’t think that is a helpful way of viewing the worship team. This is a great place for people to serve God and the community with the gifts He has given…I would hate to think we pay people for them to exercise God’s gifts. All of this said, I am fine with either practice…I just prefer one over the other. After all, my community pays its worship team…
thanks for the thoughts so far guys.
Connor, I like your method, mainly because it is coming from your pocket (either personal pocket or your ministry pocket) not something that has to be worked into the budget. I’m all for rewarding from within… where the ministry leads reward their volunteers / servants… heck, they let me have a pack of reece’s PB Cups and a dr pepper after each worship set…
And i would agree that musicians generally have to put more time throughout the week than some other volunteer positions (though not all). But Money show importance and value… read any church’s key to visitor retention and at or near the top of the list will be “inviting / welcoming atmosphere, friendly people, etc” … and parents would certainly put the kids ministry / worker friendliness right at the top as well…
Jeff, your wife is paid with love!
Hey..what if we pay all the people who “go and make diciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of that Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that [Jesus] has commanded.” (Matt. 28:18-20)
I mean, making diciples is the only imperative that Jesus gave us in the Great Commission..so why don’t we start paying people there? How ’bout that? (sarcastic overtone)
By the way…does this particular church support missionaries?
And….I thought Jesus mentioned saying something about paying us with treasures in heaven?
Last I checked missionaries were paid. At least that’s what the one who came to share at our church said, after we collected an offering for him
Yes, I know missionaries are paid. My wife and I used to serve in the mission field. Are you suggesting that missionaries are the only ones called to be part of the Great Commission?
And there’s a huge difference between actively supporting missionaries (which is a much greater responsibility than a simple financial commitment) and taking a one-time “love offering.”
Gabe,
First thanks for coming out of lurker-ville. Its good to hear from you, lets get together sometime…
Connor,
To clarify, I think gabe’s issue lies with priorities of the church. Money shows your priorities. Some churches will budget roughly 1000$ (assumes 4-5 musicians at 50$ per week, which maybe even low) per month on stage musicians, but give little or nothing in monthly support to outside missionaries.
Missionaries are paid often solely on the support of individuals and churches, where as stage musicians generally have jobs and support themselves. Gabe is questioning priority and motives, which I tend to agree with.
Again, i think it CAN work, but i see too many issues to say that i support it.
I was totally playing Devil’s Advocate back to Gabe and Monica. I meant no disrespect or offense. Again, I’m at a church where we don’t pay musicians. We put more money in the work in our community or in the support a church plant or in foreign missions than we do my worship ministry and I’m behind that 100%. I think that SHOULD go without mention.
I think this goes back to actually having a conversation with your church leadership. What are our priorities right now at our church? What do we have the funds to do? What do we have the talent to do? What can we not do on our own? While I don’t pay our musicians monetarily, I am looking to hire an Audio Technical Director type person. We are lacking the resources internally to be able to consistently do with excellence all that our church wishes to do.