Paying church musicians

[Lukamu]

Do the musicians who lead worship at your church get paid for their services?

 

[dysert]

Our worship leader is a full-time position, so he does earn a salary. Everyone else who serves (and there are a lot) is a volunteer.

 

[St_Worm2]

Musicians (save our worship leader) are not paid in my new, smaller church (we have about 250 members, incl children), though we have tried to pay our pianist, but she steadfastly refuses. When I was part of a mega-church (we had 5,000+ in attendance every Sunday between our three services), anyone who did 15+ hours of work per week for the church was paid (though many chose not to take it).

And for certain Sundays (Christmas/Easter), as well special concerts, if we needed an entire orchestra, we filled in the missing musicians and/or vocal soloists by hiring professionals who were Christians, and we certainly paid them.

--David

 

[Brian Mcnamee]

Music ministry in many especially larger churches is not just picking up a guitar and leading songs for 20 minutes. Many of leaders also server in the church in other capacities. Too often we go for better talent over greater character. The leader is not just performing but should also be a mature Christian who knows the Bible and the doctrine of the church. The praise of God is a natural response to knowing Him. The worship guys who spend a lot of time preparing are really staff. I have been to some services where the pastor led worship acapella and it could not have been more wonderful. The key to worship in knowing what and why you are singing and to whom you are singing.

 

[seeking.IAM]

Post deleted. I didn't know I was in non-denom. Apologies.

 

[JohnC2]

The ultimate answer is that you have to do what you have to do. Are you happy with what you get for free?

You also have to decide what you want. If you want a professional caliber orchestra to perform at a high level, do multiple services a week + concerts, attend multiple practices per week.... or are you OK with most of the members (including the leader) doing well if they are usually at Sunday morning service and perhaps doing 1 or 2 practices a month because of family and job responsibilities.....

Many churches have fantastic volunteers who do most Sunday mornings with no pay. Many churches have to pay everybody because there is considerable demand in their area for a fairly small pool of worship teams.... Or if they want high caliber professional musicians to bring their A game.....

 

[Lukamu]

The ultimate answer is that you have to do what you have to do. Are you happy with what you get for free?

You also have to decide what you want. If you want a professional caliber orchestra to perform at a high level, do multiple services a week + concerts, attend multiple practices per week.... or are you OK with most of the members (including the leader) doing well if they are usually at Sunday morning service and perhaps doing 1 or 2 practices a month because of family and job responsibilities.....

Many churches have fantastic volunteers who do most Sunday mornings with no pay. Many churches have to pay everybody because there is considerable demand in their area for a fairly small pool of worship teams.... Or if they want high caliber professional musicians to bring their A game.....

I'm asking from the perspective of a non-paid worship leader (me).

 

[aog17]

Do the musicians who lead worship at your church get paid for their services?

Typically Worship Pastors with a major in music at a Christian college will command a salary. Which is justifiable since this is what they pursued as their profession.

Many small evangelical churches do not have formally trained worship leaders. They are all volunteers. But it isn’t uncommon for skilled Worship Pastors to volunteer in a small church for a little while for experience.

 

[JohnC2]

I'm asking from the perspective of a non-paid worship leader (me).

Sorry I can’t give you a better answer than “It depends on the church”.

Realize that taking a paid position always comes with consequences.... Jobifying your passion can be a terrible thing.

“Professional musicians” in churches are the guys who do all the grunt work and grind work behind the scenes to ensure the Volunteer musicians have a good time.

For example - the Professional musician ensures all the music licenses are current. They make sure all the church instruments are tuned, the lights, and sound system works and is properly maintained. They make sure the sound guys are trained and keep up with the technology. They make sure everybody has copies of the music for the next few months and they are the ones who coordinate and wrangle the details with the church over any and all music events there. They also have to lay down the law with Mrs. Jones and her stinky perfume that makes everybody cough. They are probably also responsible for any and all music for youth group and stuff like that.

There is often an expectation of them taking an active role in local (secular) theatre or musical performance groups as an outreach and recruiting tool.

Often as not - paid “music ministers” also have staff administrative responsibilities with the church including doing visitation, shut-in ministry, counseling, and leadership responsibility for some non-music ministries.

It’s worth considering if you really want a career like this or if you are satisfied with your current career/benefits/retirement plan and then letting the music ministry be your service to God....

 

[seeking.IAM]

LOL. Poor Mrs. Jones...or to convince her nicely to sing a little quieter without pointing out the obvious that she can't carry a tune in the first place.

Reminds me of being teenagers sitting on the back row of church holding our eyeglass lenses and watch crystals so they wouldn't shatter by the soloist's shrill. After the benediction, while the rest of the choir processed she made a beeline for the backrow of the church yelling at us giggling, disrespectful teenage boys, "I wasn't singing to you. I was singing to the Lord." I suspect every choir has a Mrs. Jones. God forgive me.

 

[AnnaDeborah]

I've never come across a paid musician in a non denom church, but we do tend to have smaller churches in the UK, so I guess the work isn't as time consuming. I do have a friend in a UK Anglican church who is paid, but she works around 25-30 hours a week, since they are a big city-centre church, have a large choir and put on a lot of concerts as well as the regular weekly services. Most churches I know, even the lead musicians would do a max of 5 hours a week.

 

[Bass4Jesus]

Sorry for the late vote/reply. I serve at, but have no affiliation with, the main location of a 9-site non-denom. None of the musicians at any site is paid unless there's a sudden, dire need to fill a slot, and then the church may throw some cash at a semi-pro to come in. The church has paid staff, though, some of whom serve as worship leaders, singers, or rank-and-file musicians. Those roles will change depending on the specific band lineups for that particular day or evening.