TUESDAY THOUGHTS: PAY TO PLAY

A friend conducted an internet survey, which asked whether or not church musicians and singers should be paid for their services. 

Over 50% of the people surveyed responded with an emphatic "no", and left no room for extenuating circumstances. 

The whole money issue surrounding music ministry is not new. 

When I found myself in a position to be compensated for singing, I have to admit it was a little unnerving. I had to re-evaluate my own opinions and beliefs, and because of seeds that were sown early on, my thoughts were not on the side of being paid.

The first time a substantial check was placed into my hands for singing, I asked, "What is this for?"

I remember a sympathetic Jackie Ruffin shaking her head and asking, "You have to eat, don't you?"

Someone told me that I really should stop saying "I would sing for nothing, just because I love it so". 

More than once someone joked, "Well, I'll take your check if you don't want it". 

Receiving compensation, for singing professionally at events, where someone, or some business is making a profit, is one thing. 

But what about singing at church? 

I belong to the "reasonable service" generation, and, for a very long time, the money subject has been a sticky one.

For years, I simply don't remember anyone getting paid to do anything at church. I don't remember anyone expecting to be paid. 

Church music and church were inseparable in my mind. How can you dare expect to be paid for singing songs about God?

 

There was always talk at church about which person or another could probably make a living doing what they did, but no one seemed to have professional aspirations. (Bro. Richardson could have made a killing off of his cornbread dressing). 

Whatever task was undertaken at church was a delight; an honor. 

One's 9 to 5 employment away from the church was headache inspiring duty, which made one look forward to Sunday morning, and happy to do whatever one could do to help.

From my youthful perspective, it seemed that people who labored at church were just glad to lend whatever their helping hands could deliver. 

Everyone who did anything was a member, and every member did something based on their available time, individual skill and ability. 

 There was certainly enough work to do, and individual talents that could benefit the whole body, were encouraged. 

It was the collective effort of everyone which maintained the fellowship. Everyone knew everyone else, and there was nothing "mega" about church. 

Today, there are tasks that have to be done, and no time to check the roll and attendance records, or interrogate people about their salvation before giving them a job.

Music is only one aspect, but in so many places, it takes a veritable army to make "church" run smoothly--and that requires money. 

It's always interesting to see which soldiers exit with checks in their pockets or purses. The check-cashing soldiers are sometimes the ones preaching the loudest about commitment, loyalty, and sacrifice. 

The check cashing soldiers are usually making the most demands of others, and often bemoaning the hours they have to spend doing this or that. Did they forget that the work they so often complain about is their job? 

Those who have been given authority are regularly stressed out because someone with greater responsibility is fully expecting them to extract excellence from a volunteer army. When people willingly volunteer to do anything, it's usually a heart matter, but they don't take kindly to being mistreated, used, demeaned or abused. Their time is valuable, and they can sense when it is being wasted by someone who is an employee. Some people, however, can swallow a little abuse if there's compensation involved.

It's amazing what we place value upon. We always want good music at every event, and we will pay the baker, the caterer, the venue owner, the tailor and seamstress, the limo driver, the printer and the custodian, but we will--with a straight face-- tell the musicians "Thank You", and offer them gas money, a plate of hot wings, meatballs, and a cup of red church juice--oh yeah, and a corsage. 

I challenge anyone to attempt to pay their bills with a hug, a handshake, and a two-piece with a side of red beans and rice.

I remember being asked to sing at a wedding. After the bride-to-be ran down the long list of Billboard hits she wanted me to sing "just like the record", she informed me that "everyone will be donating their services". I suggested that, since she really wanted to hear Barbra, Aretha, Chaka, Diane, Gladys and Stevie, that perhaps she'd consider playing their CD's at the ceremony. My response surprised even me. 

It made me think back to my childhood. 

I'd never had even a random thought about being paid to sing, nor did I aspire to sing professionally. To this very day, I still feel that uncomfortable twinge when someone asks, "Do you have a fee?" What I know only too well today, is that if people are allowed to use you, they will. If you call them on it, or even mention money, don't be surprised if they say that you are not "all that", "could use the exposure", or were not their first choice anyway. 

That's when you find out that their first choice had already traveled your road, and refused to take the phone call. They couldn't afford their first choice even after they got 9 other friends to pitch in. Their first choice had sense enough to smell a rat, and was smart enough to enlist the services of an inflexible manager and booking agent. Their first choice would never be backed into a corner by a manipulating friend, or cheated by an unscrupulous promoter ever again.

It never ceases to amaze me how often people want something for nothing. Some people obviously think that your utilities are paid by the Utility Fairy. People whose contracts demand a deposit and immediate payment in full, are extremely good at saying, "I can't pay you, but..." or "The check is in the mail..." or "We didn't meet our budget". 

Sadly, the worst offenders are musical folk who really should endeavor to treat others, whom they enlist to participate in their projects and programs, with the same regard, and offer the same reasonable compensation that they expect and demand for themselves.

In spite of our anti-Christian propensity for sneaking tape recorders into concerts, and purchasing writable CD's to burn endless copies of copyrighted projects, we still want good music. 

We complain when live music is not satisfactory, and we criticize--and even demonize and alienate singers and musicians who make a living utilizing their talents outside of the church. 

Outside of the church we expect and get musical excellence, and everything it takes to achieve it. Inside the church, we are often heard saying, "That's fine", when we know darn well that it isn't. 

We will spend more time talking about what colors to wear than perfecting a song. We apply the adage "Anything worth doing, is worth doing well", everywhere except in the church. 

It's sad that the whole world places extreme value on the gifts and talents of people we label as "sell-outs" and "compromising". 

Who, however, is showing up at church expecting to make it their place of employment, or launchpad into super stardom? 

The church is not a showplace, nor should it be a den of thieves, users or deadbeats. Funny how the words 'deacons', 'ushers', 'nurses', 'ministers' and 'trustees' are never used in a sentence next to the phrase, "are a dime a dozen".

For every singer and musician who leaves the church for supposedly greener pastures, there are millions waiting to replace them. 

I've said it before, and I'll type it here. The church should be the example that the world follows. The operations of the church should be the standard. Sadly, we busy ourselves trying to make the church more appealing by incorporating the world. We play recorded music because we don't have the confidence that the music ministry can deliver as excellent a sound. They could, if we would only invest in them. Imagine if, in every church, you could hear every instrument that was mentioned prior to the verse, "Let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord"?

It is regularly forgotten that what singers and musicians do, involve their bodies. Plans are made without consideration for the health of the individuals who make up music ministries. People are not machines. Ministries fly in, transport, accommodate, and lay out a feast for the guest singer/preacher-- complete with juice, fruit, finger food, and all the hot tea that they can drink in preparation for their A and B selection or 30 minute sermon, but the home choir can stand and sing until sweat renders their clothing stinky and transparent, and their hairdos destroyed, but no one thinks to offer them a cup of water.

We want the choir to sound like the CD's we buy, fill the choir stand to overflowing, and be on duty every time the church doors swing open, but we have no consideration for their daily lives, families, or obligations after they leave the choir stand. We are up in arms when they sing the same songs 2 weeks in a row. We settle for mediocrity, and even applaud it, because we refuse to acknowledge the worth of skilled musicians. We deem anyone who is skilled as "professional" and we say it with disdain. Display any proficiency, and you may be accused of being worldly, prideful, conceited, full of yourself, or arrogant-- as if God's house is the last place where we want to witness people who actually know what they're doing. 

Jealousy, envy and covetousness keep unity at a distance, and it is no wonder that most of the contentious and destructive activity within a ministry can be found where the music abides. We'd rather listen to a so-called "humble" mess, clap for said mess, and subject the congregation to noise. We aren't truthful enough to suggest that individuals check out the usher board, or another ministry more suitable to their individual skill, so the choir becomes over-populated with non-singers which makes the minister of music's job more frustrating---and then we wonder why, with 200 people present, we are only able to hear 10. Those overused 10 begin to think themselves special, elite, superior, indispensable, and an entity in and of itself --with no direct connection to the rest of the music department. 

Their voices are the ones that are heard during televised and internet broadcasts, and they often become so consumed with how they look, that they forget how they sound. The pampered 10 are called upon more frequently, and are tasked with carrying the sound of an entire aggregation---an aggregation that eventually stops singing, and resorts to lip-synching because, of course, they are not miked. 

They conclude that there's no use in them straining their voices, because no one can hear them anyway. 

With the introduction of praise teams, a formerly unified body has suddenly sprouted an extra head. The choir members see the treatment the praise team gets, and either despise them, or desire to join them. There's a lot of animosity brewing in a shared space, and there's little "team" in the work. 

What did the originator of the "praise team" have in mind when he or she singled out a few people to do, what it was assumed, that everyone in the congregation came to do? It is no surprise that a spirit of competition hovers over the music ministry. 

I have never watched an athletic game where the two teams on the same field are not opposing one another. That's what congregants see from their pews so often--blatantly obvious opposition. 

The minister of music is accused of spending more time with the praise team than the choir. It no longer matters if the choir perfects it's parts. The praise team will drown them out. Individual choir members soon find out that the praise team is a closed, by-invitation-only society, harder to infiltrate than Fort Knox . They are the loved, and the hated. Now, don't let the choir find out that they get PAID, too.....Yes, I'm being facetious...a little. 

Mommy always said that one should not be paid for what one is supposed to do, but who determines exactly what that is?

And that's the problem. That's it. We have decided, based on some weird unwritten statute, that church singers and musicians are supposed to entertain us because their talents are not a result of their own labor, but a gift from God. 

We have decided what they are to do with their possession. 

We have decided that their abilities indeed have value, but they are not for sale. We will pay people to teach them, accompany them on instruments, direct them, sing in front of them, record them, photograph them, dress them, feed them, drive them, and assess them, but we won't pay THEM. 

Funny, but when our favorite secular artist comes to town, we pay whatever Ticketmaster is asking--plus tax--and then, when it's over, we brag that the guy or girl at church could sing circles around the superstar, or that the church band could have done a much better job.
We are appalled at the prospect of paying church singers and musicians. "They ought to be anxious and willing to use their talents for the Lord!", we cry. 

It's easy for others to say that, since they don't ever consider that their own respective jobs could be done with God in mind. We want singers and musicians to get REAL day jobs, and when they are finished laboring there, we expect them to hurry to the church to spend randomly scheduled evenings at long rehearsals in preparation for multiple Sabbath services. We expect all of this while we are chilling at home.

Many people simply do not consider the activities of the music department "work". Perhaps the local church Levites seem to be having too much fun. Maybe people are too busy comparing the apple that is their personal job, with the orange that is a musician's job. 

We never want to feel that someone is getting more than we are getting for doing less work. Imagine, though, what music ministries would be like if ALL of the skilled musicians and singers, identified within a ministry, had nothing else to do except prayerfully prepare for, and serve at weekly convocations? What if it was their sole means of employment? Why are singers and musicians the ONLY people in the congregation whose tithe, praise, AND time is mandatory? 

Why is the music ministry the only auxiliary which feels it necessary to institute the payment of dues-- a member-maintained source of ready cash-flow within the auspices of a non-profit organization? 

(I wonder what the IRS would have to say about choir dues?) 

Why are the singers and musicians the only people who have actual, recognized professions, but are expected to work for no compensation? Could it be because the musicians' profession is still lacking respect within the walls of the church? 

Is being a singer or musician still looked upon as a pastime or hobby? If the Children of Israel felt like many do today, the tribe of Levi would have starved to death, and there would be no Psalms to sing. So, here's a thought. Let's equalize the situation.

Since singers and musicians are expected to work for no pay, why not require that EVERY doctor, lawyer, teacher, mechanic, plumber, policeman, accountant, electrician, carpenter, engineer, designer, florist, gardener, chef, babysitter, clerk, dentist, beautician, cashier, barber, writer, driver, contractor, business owner, and every other person with any kind of skill, for which they receive a paycheck, be required, and expected to offer free services to their fellow church members? What if the total time that the praise team, choir and musicians prepare and serve is tallied, and EVERYONE in the congregation had to donate that SAME amount of time each week? Just think. From 7 PM to 10 PM on Wednesdays, Fridays, and, or Saturdays; from 6 AM to whenever on Sundays, and any time there is a special event ( or whenever the pastor has an outside engagement), anyone could get free services for whatever one needed. Imagine if, every time you saw the singers and musicians in place, you knew that, somewhere else in the building, a veritable professional services center was in full swing. if everyone in the body was serving according to each person's skill, there would be no lack. 

Unfortunately, church is often a spectator sport where the many assemble to see the few perform, and they want the few to perform flawlessly, consistently and for free. Fact is that there are singers and musicians who wouldn't dare accept a dime from their churches, and are honored to serve.

It is very wise to remember the scripture:
"Whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord". 

If one is working to obtain the congratulations, compensation or appreciation of men, remember, at least 50% of people will tell you, "Don't hold your breath". 

You've got to know for whom you are working, and your expectations can't overrule their actions.