Posted by Rick Denney on May 20, 2003 at 21:46:11:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What ever happened to.... posted by Joe Baker on May 19, 2003 at 11:05:59:
It seems reasonable to me that ministers in a church should expect to live in the same neighborhood as the church's members, which means those members should pay him similarly to how they are paid. This also fits with the arithmetic of ten families tithing to pay for the 11th to be their minister.
But there has been a trend in seminaries about warning ministers from doing free work to avoid being taken advantage of. Yet even ministers have both a professional responsibility and a personal responsibility. The church's members have the same duties, after all. Consequently, even ministers should volunteer some of their time just as the unpaid members do.
I suspect the moral in Joe's story was that the music minister of a church has no real justification for looking down his nose at a church that pays its orchestra. I agree, and have no problem with orchestra members being paid. I get a little nervous, though, when church members expect to be paid for playing in the orchestra--unless their volunteer work is in other areas and they were asked to play in addition to their reasonable contributions of time. There are no absolutes here, and each person has to examine their own motives. There's certainly no room for anybody to look down their nose at others.
I also have mixed feelings about hiring musicians just to make the music competent. I'd rather here the joyful noise from congregation hobbyists than polished professional performance from those who do not share the spiritual values of the church. I have different expectations at the symphony hall.
Rick "who lives where churches are WAY too small to have orchestras" Denney