Posted by Joe S. on April 17, 2001 at 21:05:48:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Easter Gig Stories? posted by Joe Baker on April 17, 2001 at 18:32:07:
If a minister only makes $500 per Sunday, he/she is receiving a poverty-level (assuming a family with kids, college expenses, a mortgage, etc.) salary of $26,000 per year. (I'm quite certain that the preachers in the church that hired me make a regular salary NOT of $500 per Sunday, but $500 every two or three days (pssst: just like I did, and not on "any ol' two days" at their church - but rather on THE day of the year that THEY REALLY wanted me to be there).
Yep, the preacher does lots of other stuff during the week too - some of which is just "expected" and not necessarily compensated, but so does the musician...the big rehearsal, a lot of routine practicing, and (further) perhaps it IS best that top-drawer brass players charge "market" prices on Easter Sunday to discourage churches from hiring them, since, as you believe, this might be a bad thing for churches to do.
Churches that believe paying musicians is bad should not do so, just as churches that believe paying preachers is bad should also not do so.
I thought it quite ironic that (now discussing another church here in Memphis) the HIRED orchestra director at that church was criticizing another large church in town because the other church hired their every-Sunday orchestra and HIS orchestra was all volunteer. His quote, I believe, was, "They (the OTHER church) are depriving the church members of a blessing." (ie: the opportunity to "give") Standing there saying that, he didn't even realize that he was speaking about HIMSELF, since he was PAID. Further, the other church's congregation DID offer a "blessing" by PURCHASING beautiful music for their worship services every Sunday. Purchasing music is not just as much a sacrifice as playing the music (however it would end up sounding) themselves? If BUYING the music is NOT a sacrifice, where did the money come from??? Finally, sometimes when people come in my store and want to do something nice for a mutual friend, I will pipe up and offer to do it for free or at least subsidize their gift. The person will then remind me (in a way such as) "No thank-you, let me PAY you your regular price. I want this gift to be from ME." *** By paying me $500 to play music better than anyone in their congregation could play, the gift of the beautiful music that I am playing is not MY gift. Rather, it is the gift of the congregation...and that is their choice. Once I receive my payment of $500, I can THEN decide what portion of that (just as every member of that congregation did with THEIR personal incomes) to give to something in the name of God...That becomes MY gift, and not someone elses...(???)
As another tangental dimension to this discussion, what are your opinions regarding what the GOVERNMENT does with the TAXES that your PREACHER pays on HIS income (govt. funded abortions, National Endowment for the Arts funding "artistic" Crucifixes in urine, etc., etc., etc.)?
Joe "I'd be delighted to do stuff that I do professionally for free, as long as other professionals did the same for my family." S... and let's lay off the "true Christian" crap. Every time I hear that term, those who Pharasitically use it eventually prove to me that they are excluded from that group...