Should musicians be paid to perform in churches? (gospel, bible, Jewish)
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Mayberry's town band is the worst in the state and Mayor Stoner refuses to allow them to go to the state capital to play. It looks like they will have to stay home until Andy gets a little help from Freddy Fleet and his band. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0512595/
I believe my pastor would have reprimanded me for letting an untalented singer solo in the church service. We did not have any such restrictions to sing in the choir or, of course, in the worship service.
I’m familiar with your Andy Griffith references, as that is my all-time favorite TV show.
As music leader, I had to tell some people they couldn’t solo, even though they wanted to. Some took the news in stride and some left the music ministry entirely.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hayle White
Do you believe that's what the God you worship would want you to do?
In this case it's not the decision of God but rather the decision of the music leader. If someone is not up to the task, then they are simply not up to the task. That's just the way it is.
At times, as the one-time worship leader of my church, I had to make such decisions and to perhaps risk hurting feelings. What I would attempt to do would be to involve them in some related task/s such as operating or helping out with the PowerPoint (song lyrics) presentation, setting up the projector and screen, working with someone on the audio mixing console, maintaining sound equipment, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hayle White
This sort of reminds of a couple of Andy Griffith episodes:
Mayberry's town band is the worst in the state and Mayor Stoner refuses to allow them to go to the state capital to play. It looks like they will have to stay home until Andy gets a little help from Freddy Fleet and his band. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0512595/
Just wanted to get people's opinions on this question. Thanks.
Churches typically pay their pastors, office staff and music folks if the church is of any size.
Exceptions to this would be if they are self-sustaining robots that do not need food and you can just put them away in a closet until the next service.
If it's a really small church and you have some volunteers from the congregation then fine but if you expect more professional music and choir etc. etc. then most places aren't lucky enough to have someone that can devote that effort and raise a family etc.
Churches typically pay their pastors, office staff and music folks if the church is of any size.
Exceptions to this would be if they are self-sustaining robots that do not need food and you can just put them away in a closet until the next service.
If it's a really small church and you have some volunteers from the congregation then fine but if you expect more professional music and choir etc. etc. then most places aren't lucky enough to have someone that can devote that effort and raise a family etc.
I wonder at what point in history did churches decide the congregation was so off-key they needed to have paid performers?! It's a major turn-off for me.
I wonder at what point in history did churches decide the congregation was so off-key they needed to have paid performers?! It's a major turn-off for me.
I’ve never belonged to any church that didn’t have members with the gift of music.
I’ve never belonged to any church that didn’t have members with the gift of music.
I'm sorry to say that I have been involved in churches where virtually everyone was musically challenged. As well as churches were this wasn't the case. The difference was pretty clear.
It's really just a numbers game. My childhood church of maybe 40 people just didn't get lucky. I was probably the closest thing they had to someone with musical abilities and trust me they are limited. I had a few years of piano lessons and could sight read well, which was adequate for accompanying congregational singing. But I didn't have a good sense of timing and the song leader had none at all, and the congregation usually sang like they would rather be experiencing a root canal than singing hymns.
Somehow we had been endowed with a grand piano and my only condition for volunteering to play was that they kept it in tune. Even I had standards.
Later on in my late teens, I played a romantically voiced pipe organ in a Lutheran church for a wedding and while I would rate my playing as just okay, I was almost mobbed by the local congregants who had no idea the instrument could produce such tones. I suspect their usual organist had 1 registration involving maybe 2 of the 15 or so ranks of pipes and so they had never heard, e.g., the oboe sound or the strings / celestes and certainly not the celesta or chimes. I say this only to illustrate what a tiny pond I swam in, and how mediocrity was the norm, such that even my below-par abilities were seen as a revelation.
I'm sorry to say that I have been involved in churches where virtually everyone was musically challenged. As well as churches were this wasn't the case. The difference was pretty clear.
It's really just a numbers game. My childhood church of maybe 40 people just didn't get lucky. I was probably the closest thing they had to someone with musical abilities and trust me they are limited. I had a few years of piano lessons and could sight read well, which was adequate for accompanying congregational singing. But I didn't have a good sense of timing and the song leader had none at all, and the congregation usually sang like they would rather be experiencing a root canal than singing hymns.
Somehow we had been endowed with a grand piano and my only condition for volunteering to play was that they kept it in tune. Even I had standards.
Later on in my late teens, I played a romantically voiced pipe organ in a Lutheran church for a wedding and while I would rate my playing as just okay, I was almost mobbed by the local congregants who had no idea the instrument could produce such tones. I suspect their usual organist had 1 registration involving maybe 2 of the 15 or so ranks of pipes and so they had never heard, e.g., the oboe sound or the strings / celestes and certainly not the celesta or chimes. I say this only to illustrate what a tiny pond I swam in, and how mediocrity was the norm, such that even my below-par abilities were seen as a revelation.
In that case, I personally see no problem hiring a musician or two to help out, if the church is able. Sometimes, you can just find a volunteer.
I wonder at what point in history did churches decide the congregation was so off-key they needed to have paid performers?! It's a major turn-off for me.
Haha, that reminds me, ever notice that in a church hymn-singing scene in a TV show or movie, everyone is singing together and on-key? The whole congregation. Obviously some of these directors have never gone to church!
In that case, I personally see no problem hiring a musician or two to help out, if the church is able. Sometimes, you can just find a volunteer.
In our church of some 40 members there was not really enough $ to pay the pastor. Part of his "salary" was free gasoline provided by the local distributor, which one of our members worked for. They even installed his own private gasoline pump and underground tank between the church and the parsonage. And of course he had the parsonage to live in, utilities paid. I think his actual pay was $100 a week which even in early 1970s dollars was not much for he, his wife and two kids to subsist on (and to maintain the car to put the free gas in so he could visit parishioners; it was a town of 750 persons so I'm not sure the gas really helped that much).
So hiring musicians, or even a janitor or secretary for that matter, was out of the question.
I don't think this is that uncommon with rural churches.
Haha, that reminds me, ever notice that in a church hymn-singing scene in a TV show or movie, everyone is singing together and on-key? The whole congregation. Obviously some of these directors have never gone to church!
Yeah sometimes they lay it on thick -- not only is everyone in tune and in time but doing elaborate four part harmonies, like a practiced choir, with some complicated chords beyond the basic ones normally found in hymnals. I suppose that's the dream, lol
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