Should INSTRUMENTALIST be paid ?
Instrumentalist should not demand or bill church for money if they have other means of making money or earning money. It's okay for the church to give them HONORARIUM or Gifts but not okay to bargain price or money to pay them .
Music ministry in the Church is not different from other ministries such as pastoral, evangelistic or prophetic. The confusion comes when clarifications are not made. Just like the five-fold offices, a music minister may also be either full-time or part-time.
It is perfectly in order for full-time instrumentalists to be paid by the Church. In the Old Testament, that was the practice. Today, the Anglican and Methodist are among Churches that maintain the practice. The Baptist has the best model today, in which case they have on their payroll, the Church Minister and a Music Minister over a parish.
Secondly, there are instrumentalists who are gainfully employed outside the Church who now serve God with their skills, such may not take money from the Church, just as Honorary or Associate Pastors do not get money from the Church.
However, there are few instrumentalists that are indigent students that Churches should support financially. Sometimes, Churches have failed woefully in this welfare aspect and have not only lost talented musicians but has also pushed prospective great church musicians to the secular hip-hop world. Note that many worldly musicians started from the Church.
On the other hand, it is pertinent to state that many instrumentalists now place emphasis on monetary gains, this is not ideal either. If everything we do for God in His house is for monetary gains, where would our worship for Christ be? Instrumentalists should know that the voice of highly trained singers is also a musical instrument. Should soloists also demand for money?
Let me now conclude my clarifications with my own case. In my Church, we have instrumentalists worshipping God on their instruments without expecting any money. However, some other churches have student organist that are paid salary in the Church because that is what they use to sustain themself in the University.
So it is not correct to say outrightly that any musical instrumentalist that takes money from the Church is a thief; it depends on the context! And Note, such people didn't demand for it, the church Administrators seems it necessary.
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