CONNECTED WORSHIP

Here are some thoughts I had in regards to Cole NeSmith’s blog post about volunteers and paid positions in the church. Read his post.

I am a filmmaker, this is what I have gone to school for. I am a musician, this is a gift God has graciously given me. I am a worship leader at my church and I love it with a passion. I also work full-time as a director for a media production firm.

The point of saying all that is this…When I was asked to work at my job, they told me up front it was paid. When I was asked to be a worship leader they told me it wasn’t paid. In both instances I sought the Lord and accepted these positions with gratitude.

I will agree that we as leaders need to value the skills people have with our money. Our money goes where we put value. A budget is designed to assign value to certain areas of our life or business (paraphrased from Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace DVD course). So, some churches believe that certain positions are volunteer and others are paid. If a person accepts a position as a musician, leader, welder, painter, secretary and so forth as a volunteer, they know from the beginning that they are being asked to give their gift as an offering to God without “monetary” compensation. I believe that through faith we can receive compensation and treasure that is beyond what money can provide.

I will not agree that a church should ask a person to make that position their vocation/career and not pay them for it. That is the point a volunteer becomes a wage earner. Many musicians are playing music and gigs and writing songs and if they are lucky, selling them. If that is where they spend the time to earn a wage and feed their family, duh, they should be getting paid. The same is true in the church. Ask a guy to give his life to be a worship pastor and commit his time to the church and pay him nothing, you’re kidding me. Similarly, if you employ a individual or a company to use their vocation to provide a product or service to a church, just like a consumer would have to pay for the service, the church should also expect to pay fair market value (unless the business decides on their own to donate or volunteer all or part of their services).

I have a career which takes a lot of time, I lead worship which takes a lot of time too. I am glad to give my time to the church and God’s people. Should the church ask me to give up my day job to serve, I would expect them to compensate me for the work I do for the sake of my family and our financial future.

Basically what I am saying is, when a church position becomes a vocation, you should no longer be considered a volunteer. But, up to that point, this is the leadership’s discretion and with budgetary and spiritual considerations taken into account. Hopefully, the conviction in the heart of the leaders will lead them to a Godly action, even if that differs from congregation to congregation.

So, for the most part, I am going to agree with Cole that churches need to stop thinking, from a leadership standpoint, of trying to get stuff for free. Why do we think we are exempt from the principles of economics? Eternally we live by higher principles, yes. But we live in this world and must abide by the principles set in place (I don’t break the speed limit just because I am a christian). Whatever happens, we must keep our hearts right before God, keep our consciences clean and realize that we are all part of the body of Christ that will worship God in heaven together someday soon.