Paid to lead worship?
This is a private post, so if your name isn't Luke Juras then please don't read on.
I don't put in a ton of time leading worship each week. On a regular week, when I'm playing all by myself, I go on Sunday from 4:45 to 6:00, so just over an hour. I also spend at the very least half an hour picking music and getting it ready for worship. That means choosing 3-4 songs and what order to sing them in, maybe picking which verses to do for longer hymns, and then creating a document with all of the lyrics on one page for performance. I used to print copies for the congregation too, but now I communicate the songs with the pastor and tech guy, and it gets put up on the screen.
That's bare minimum. Some weeks it is more difficult to pick songs and it takes me an hour just to get the right ones in the right order. Sometimes I have a request and/or decide to learn a new song. So then I'm spending an hour or two picking the music, plus an hour on Sundays performing, so three hours per week.
Then there's the plan of increasing my responsibility to include organizing a team of people and getting them all together to practice every week. When that takes place, I will probably spend about 15-30 minutes communicating with various people, then an extra hour or two rehearsing with them, so somewhere around five hours per week. That's a lot! Assuming that it's a professional position that requires certain skills, it's not unreasonable to ask for $15 an hour, or $75 per week. But if I'm being paid, then the musicians also need to be paid for their time. Montana minimum wage is $8.30/hr, so $20 a week would cover about 2 and a half hours of practice and performance time. Let's say that we meet one night per week for an hour and 15 minutes, then perform on Sunday and arrive 15 minutes early... that is a reasonable plan.
If there are people playing guitar, piano, bass guitar, drums, and singing, that would be $100/week for five musicians, or $155/week if I am one of the five. At the very least, I could play guitar and sing, someone could play piano, someone on drums, and someone on bass guitar, which would be $135/week, times 52 weeks in a year would be $7,020 per year towards music. For myself, it would be $75 times 52 weeks = $3,900 per year for leading worship at the church.
That seems like a lot of money, but at the same time, that seems like a fair amount of money to pay for the services that I provide. It's $325 a month, which isn't a lot to ask for. I'd be willing to negotiate, also. If I went with a rate of $10/hr, it would be 50/week or about $215/month, or $2,580 a year. So somewhere between $2,580 and $3,900 is what I would expect to make for the work that I do. At 50/week, plus 3 other musicians at 20/week, it would be 110/week, times 52 for $5720/year that the church would pay for worship music. With 4 other musicians, it would be 130/week for $6,760/year.
The church could keep records of who practiced/performed each week and then send paychecks at the end of each month. The musicians could be given the option of volunteering their time also or just donate the checks back to the church at the end of each month.
With all of the number-crunching out of the way, let me take five minutes to express why I am thinking of this in the first place.
First of all, this is not some new feeling. This has been on my heart for quite a long time, even for a few years. In fact, it even goes back further to when I first started leading worship. I guess I never felt this way at the Assembly of God church in Glasgow, but then I wasn't really the "leader" of the group, just the person with the microphone and guitar, but everyone was part of the "team." But at Valley in Great Falls, I became the "leader" who was ultimately responsible for picking music and getting everyone organized and not just part of the process. After a few months of leading worship at Valley, it began to feel more like a job than worship. I began to resent the time that I needed to spend at the church to get everyone ready for Sunday, and it began feeling more like going through the motions than actual worship, especially when I wasn't really getting anything from the sermons, and having to perform for two separate services and so forth. In Glasgow, I probably wouldn't have accepted money for being part of the worship team. In Great Falls and now here in Dutton, I feel like there needs to be some kind of compensation for the work that I'm doing. Who knows? Maybe it has to do with having a family to support and wanting to spend my time elsewhere.
Secondly is this: I'm not really doing a good job because I'm not really motivated to do a good job. In Glasgow, there was this established culture of having great, powerful worship sessions every week. At Valley and Harvest, it just seems like we sing music because that's what we're supposed to do, even though there are a few people who get into it like at Glasgow. So I'm not really motivated to put a bunch of time and effort into having these great worship sessions. Maybe it's because I just don't "feel the spirit" during worship like I used to at Glasgow. It seems more like we worship at Harvest because that's the routine: sing one song, greet, sing another song, sermon, sing last song, goodbye. Like, if you took out the music part, it doesn't seem like there would spiritually be much missing. So I'm not motivated because it's too much work to try and change that culture, and I've been doing this for the last what, six years now, and I've gotten pretty tired and hardened, I guess. So there's no internal motivation anymore, only external motivation. One of those motivations is the duty to the community. I told Reid that I would play music when they first started the church. I am motivated to fulfill that duty, but sometimes it almost creates a resentment for the duty because it's something that I have to do, not something that I want to do. The other motivation is social pressure. I guess people just expect me to play because I can. Brian says that I have a gift, so I feel pressure to continue using it - not because I want to, but because I don't want to waste it. It's not a great feeling! I wish that I could say that I'm motivated to do it because I know it's what God would want me to do, but I'm just not there. I also wish that I could say that I'm motivated to do it because spiritually I get something out of it, but also that's not true. Those are intrinsic motivations, and they just aren't there.
So basically what I'm saying is that leading worship used to be spiritually fulfilling, and now it's not. When it was spiritually fulfilling, I never would have asked to be paid financially because I was being paid spiritually, if that makes sense. Being part of the worship team nourished my soul, and that was worth infinitely more than money. It is no longer soul-nourishing, and I don't exactly know why. So because I'm not getting any spiritual benefits, it feels like I'm being taken advantage of. I'm working and receiving no benefits from it, and maybe that's why I've been thinking about asking to be paid. Maybe if I start getting paid for it, I will be more motivated to do a good job with it. And who knows? If I start doing a better job with it, it might become spiritually nourishing again, and then I won't need to be paid for it to be fulfilling anymore. I'm not ready to ask yet. I want to talk to some people who I trust and figure out more first.
I don't put in a ton of time leading worship each week. On a regular week, when I'm playing all by myself, I go on Sunday from 4:45 to 6:00, so just over an hour. I also spend at the very least half an hour picking music and getting it ready for worship. That means choosing 3-4 songs and what order to sing them in, maybe picking which verses to do for longer hymns, and then creating a document with all of the lyrics on one page for performance. I used to print copies for the congregation too, but now I communicate the songs with the pastor and tech guy, and it gets put up on the screen.
That's bare minimum. Some weeks it is more difficult to pick songs and it takes me an hour just to get the right ones in the right order. Sometimes I have a request and/or decide to learn a new song. So then I'm spending an hour or two picking the music, plus an hour on Sundays performing, so three hours per week.
Then there's the plan of increasing my responsibility to include organizing a team of people and getting them all together to practice every week. When that takes place, I will probably spend about 15-30 minutes communicating with various people, then an extra hour or two rehearsing with them, so somewhere around five hours per week. That's a lot! Assuming that it's a professional position that requires certain skills, it's not unreasonable to ask for $15 an hour, or $75 per week. But if I'm being paid, then the musicians also need to be paid for their time. Montana minimum wage is $8.30/hr, so $20 a week would cover about 2 and a half hours of practice and performance time. Let's say that we meet one night per week for an hour and 15 minutes, then perform on Sunday and arrive 15 minutes early... that is a reasonable plan.
If there are people playing guitar, piano, bass guitar, drums, and singing, that would be $100/week for five musicians, or $155/week if I am one of the five. At the very least, I could play guitar and sing, someone could play piano, someone on drums, and someone on bass guitar, which would be $135/week, times 52 weeks in a year would be $7,020 per year towards music. For myself, it would be $75 times 52 weeks = $3,900 per year for leading worship at the church.
That seems like a lot of money, but at the same time, that seems like a fair amount of money to pay for the services that I provide. It's $325 a month, which isn't a lot to ask for. I'd be willing to negotiate, also. If I went with a rate of $10/hr, it would be 50/week or about $215/month, or $2,580 a year. So somewhere between $2,580 and $3,900 is what I would expect to make for the work that I do. At 50/week, plus 3 other musicians at 20/week, it would be 110/week, times 52 for $5720/year that the church would pay for worship music. With 4 other musicians, it would be 130/week for $6,760/year.
The church could keep records of who practiced/performed each week and then send paychecks at the end of each month. The musicians could be given the option of volunteering their time also or just donate the checks back to the church at the end of each month.
With all of the number-crunching out of the way, let me take five minutes to express why I am thinking of this in the first place.
First of all, this is not some new feeling. This has been on my heart for quite a long time, even for a few years. In fact, it even goes back further to when I first started leading worship. I guess I never felt this way at the Assembly of God church in Glasgow, but then I wasn't really the "leader" of the group, just the person with the microphone and guitar, but everyone was part of the "team." But at Valley in Great Falls, I became the "leader" who was ultimately responsible for picking music and getting everyone organized and not just part of the process. After a few months of leading worship at Valley, it began to feel more like a job than worship. I began to resent the time that I needed to spend at the church to get everyone ready for Sunday, and it began feeling more like going through the motions than actual worship, especially when I wasn't really getting anything from the sermons, and having to perform for two separate services and so forth. In Glasgow, I probably wouldn't have accepted money for being part of the worship team. In Great Falls and now here in Dutton, I feel like there needs to be some kind of compensation for the work that I'm doing. Who knows? Maybe it has to do with having a family to support and wanting to spend my time elsewhere.
Secondly is this: I'm not really doing a good job because I'm not really motivated to do a good job. In Glasgow, there was this established culture of having great, powerful worship sessions every week. At Valley and Harvest, it just seems like we sing music because that's what we're supposed to do, even though there are a few people who get into it like at Glasgow. So I'm not really motivated to put a bunch of time and effort into having these great worship sessions. Maybe it's because I just don't "feel the spirit" during worship like I used to at Glasgow. It seems more like we worship at Harvest because that's the routine: sing one song, greet, sing another song, sermon, sing last song, goodbye. Like, if you took out the music part, it doesn't seem like there would spiritually be much missing. So I'm not motivated because it's too much work to try and change that culture, and I've been doing this for the last what, six years now, and I've gotten pretty tired and hardened, I guess. So there's no internal motivation anymore, only external motivation. One of those motivations is the duty to the community. I told Reid that I would play music when they first started the church. I am motivated to fulfill that duty, but sometimes it almost creates a resentment for the duty because it's something that I have to do, not something that I want to do. The other motivation is social pressure. I guess people just expect me to play because I can. Brian says that I have a gift, so I feel pressure to continue using it - not because I want to, but because I don't want to waste it. It's not a great feeling! I wish that I could say that I'm motivated to do it because I know it's what God would want me to do, but I'm just not there. I also wish that I could say that I'm motivated to do it because spiritually I get something out of it, but also that's not true. Those are intrinsic motivations, and they just aren't there.
So basically what I'm saying is that leading worship used to be spiritually fulfilling, and now it's not. When it was spiritually fulfilling, I never would have asked to be paid financially because I was being paid spiritually, if that makes sense. Being part of the worship team nourished my soul, and that was worth infinitely more than money. It is no longer soul-nourishing, and I don't exactly know why. So because I'm not getting any spiritual benefits, it feels like I'm being taken advantage of. I'm working and receiving no benefits from it, and maybe that's why I've been thinking about asking to be paid. Maybe if I start getting paid for it, I will be more motivated to do a good job with it. And who knows? If I start doing a better job with it, it might become spiritually nourishing again, and then I won't need to be paid for it to be fulfilling anymore. I'm not ready to ask yet. I want to talk to some people who I trust and figure out more first.
Comments
Post a Comment