This Christmas 2012

Singapore, where I come from, is a pretty Westernized place.

You can tell from how people in general are fine with celebrating Christmas, even when they are not believers. Many offices have Christmas parties, not worrying about whether they would offend staff who hold different religions. After all, everyone over in Singapore seems to agree that a year-end holiday, presents and parties, are a good thing regardless of what religious beliefs you hold.

In the midst of the happy vibes all over, I just want to remind you that there are people who are not in the festive mood. In fact, the festivities everywhere only alienates them and makes them feel even more left out and alone.

I’m talking about the poor.

Matthew 26:11 (NIV) - The poor you will always have with you…

And when they see people around them celebrating, buying loads of expensive stuff (maybe on credit cards? Not a smart idea!) and partying, and they go home (if they have a home) and pain hits…

Galatians 2:10 (NKJV) - They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.

So as you enjoy the season, celebrate the birth of Jesus (yeah, I know all the stuff about it not being on 25th December and all that), take a while to remember the poor, both those in your church and outside of it. Take a while to remember that they will always need a bit of practical kindness, a little more love shown, especially during a season when they can feel unwanted and left out. Or they may grieve more deeply for loved ones that have left them, like widows and orphans.

1 Timothy 5:5 (NIV) - The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.

Put yourself in this widow’s shoes for a moment, in such a bad situation that she has to pray for help night and day. This verse, by the way, puts paid to a common Word-of-Faith idea that if you trust God for what you pray for, you should ask for it once and after that just thank God in faith. I do practice that, but I see from 1 Timothy 5:5 that we cannot say that anyone who keeps asking does not have faith. The words “to pray” in the above passage is translated as “supplications” in the New King James Version, and the Bible says such a widow trusts in God. So God has no problems with us supplicating him for our needs day and night!

The point of what I am saying, however, is that the poor are amongst us. What are we going to do about it?

And if you are the one who is poor, struggling to pay your rent, put food on the table and still trying to keep your children’s spirits up, let me just tell you that God has not forgotten you. He wants to help, to provide for your needs…

Philippians 4:19 (NIV) - And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

… but he wants you to do your part and trust him. Go out and bless someone else, just as the Philippian churches did with Paul.

Philippians 4:15-16 (NIV) - Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.

So look out for people who need your help. Even if you are poor, there will ALWAYS be something you can do, even if it is just simply turn up for a Christmas service and join in the worship. Sit near the front and encourage the worship leaders by letting them see that you, for one, are appreciating their efforts to lead people into praising God this Christmas. A smile, a phone call to a lonely relative or friend or a random act of kindness will go a long way in reminding your soul that God has made you to be a blessing, regardless of how much or how little you have in your bank account or wallet.
And of course, you can bless your pastor by helping him or her with the Christmas activities around church, or even an encouraging word. Don’t forget your church leaders!
I know this is not the usual email you get from me, about worship ministry matters or spiritual stuff. I guess sometimes we need to remember that we are always in a position to give, and to keep our hearts poised to do so.

2 Corinthians 8:12 (NIV) - For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

May our Lord find the gifts we give this season acceptable and pleasing in his eyes. Be blessed!

 

Paying Your Church Musicians

Once we start on a topic involving money, watch the temperatures rise! People tend to get emotional about this issue. Some musicians see it as a matter of respect, others as a means of making a livelihood. Some church leaders and members may feel think, 'it's a ministry, people should do this entirely on a voluntary basis'.

People can get very confused when discussing this, and end up at cross-purposes with each other just because there is a large spectrum of musicians, work assigned to musicians, and different levels of pay. So here are some questions that will help you clarify the matter and help in your decision making.

Important Note:

All this is written for church leaders and pastors who are in a position to decide on church musician salaries. If you are a musician, don't take my material and use it to try and get yourself paid. That's not what it's meant for!

1) How much work is a musician doing? Is the musician

• Just playing?

• For some services or all?

• Leading the practices and settling the music arrangements for a not-so-musical worship leader/pastor?

• Small group leader (giving some form of pastoral care) for the rest of the musicians?

You will have to decide on how much work should they do before it's justified to pay them. This will be largely based on how much you want from the musicians (demand), how easy it is to find what you want (supply) and how much time it takes to fulfil those duties (price).

I had this conversation once. A member of church staff was asking me how to find and hire a pastor who would be highly qualified, possess a wide range of skills, be willing to go the extra mile especially in terms of working overtime AND do it all for a wage that is lower than the market rate.

I had to tell her that if they do not already have such a church member with such qualifications volunteering in the church, it's nearly impossible to find such a person. I threw the question back at her: if you were highly qualified, widely skilled and habitually go the extra mile for whatever organization you work for, would you rather do it for lower wages or for higher?

And if someone whom you don't know (from another church, perhaps) claims to be highly qualified, widely skilled, willing to go the extra mile and is willing to work at your church for a lower wage, wouldn't you be suspicious? I know I would be!

Some churches bring musicians on staff, but they also give the musicians other duties as well. They may double as administrators, do some pastoral work, lead other musicians or even write songs for the church. Most musicians I know dream of a cushy job where they are paid a good wage for sitting down behind their instruments and doodling all day, but if they ARE good musicians, they will have skills and abilities that carry over to other types of work as well. Consider the precedent we see in this passage of Scripture:

2 Chronicles 34:12-13 (NIV) - … The men did the work faithfully. Over them to direct them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites descended from Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, descended from Kohath. The Levites—all who were skilled in playing musical instruments- had charge of the laborers and supervised all the workers from job to job. Some of the Levites were secretaries, scribes and doorkeepers.

The ability to lead other musicians carries over to the ability to lead other people. The attention to detail that some people bring to playing music is great for admin and accounts work, while the creativity some musicians have carries over to other forms of expression as well (such as writing).

2) Where does your church stand on the performance and participation scale?

If your church is more performance-based (putting up a show to wow people) rather than participation-based (getting worshippers to sing their hearts out), then what you want from your musicians will probably harder to acquire. It can take many years to develop skills suitable for performance, and not everyone with such skills actually enjoys putting up a show week after week, service after service... It will be easier to justify paying musicians for such specialized skills.

But if your church is more participation-based, and your vision is to mobilize a large portion of your congregation to volunteer, then you cannot indiscriminately pay all the volunteers. So you will have to plan out some guidelines, such as those who serve at small group do so on a volunteer basis, while you pay those who serve for the main service. If you come from a small church, start having some idea about it now, so you aren't caught off-guard when your church expands.

What I personally believe is that if your church believes in mobilizing the people for the ministry, especially for the worship ministry, then you will want to pay the musicians who lead and teach the other musicians.

1 Tim 5:17 (NIV) - The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.

But if you want to pay your musicians based on the principles of how you pay church elders, what you require from your church musicians should also be based on what the Bible expects from elders. More on that later…

3) Besides paying musicians, other things you can do for your musicians include just paying for petrol and guitar strings (many musicians appreciate even such small gestures) or making sure they have food if they are playing for an evening service. You may want to sponsor them for a seminar/conference or pay for them to take a couple of months of music lessons.

One church I know gives a stored-value farecard for travelling on the Singapore public transport system to two of their musicians. Those two musicians are foreign students studying in Singapore, and such students usually have a tight budget (Singapore public transport isn't cheap). You can guess how much they appreciate this gesture! Use a bit of creativity in finding ways to show appreciation to your church musicians. And sometimes simple ideas are the best.

4) Finally, ask yourself what are YOUR expectations from the musicians?

If you pay them, what else do you expect from them other than turn up and play? Are they going help you manage the equipment too? Are you expecting their 90% attendance for Sunday services? Evening bible study meetings? Small group fellowships? Will your church expect a certain level of consistency and discipline in their personal prayer and devotional life? And if you pay for their music lessons, are they committed to serving in the church that is investing in them?

And here is the question I do not often hear addressed: when do you stop paying a musician? For example, if you appoint a musician to teach the rest of the team and this musician does not teach effectively, are you going to stop paying him or her? Once you pay musicians a wage, they have a corresponding obligation to your church. And if they agree to that obligation and you find that they are unable to fulfil it, what are you going to do? How will you handle the situation?

More complications that can arise: For example, if you decide to pay only the head musician and not the rest of the band, that could give problems. What if I am one of the musicians and I happen to think the guy in charge is a total incompetent, a waste of church resources, and that the money would be better spent on ME? The same thing applies even if you pay every musician but pay the head musician a bit more.

Yes, money complicates things. Then again, Paul doesn't avoid these issues. In the above passage (1 Tim 5:17), he said the elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor (financially). This opens a can of worms - how will you know if they are doing well? Who decides? What will you do if church members disagree with your assessment? Handling all these worms is part and parcel of a pastor's or church leader's job.

So if you are new to this, I hope this post has helped you anticipate and plan for any problems that might come up, so that you will not be caught off-guard when issues arise. Be blessed!