Different Scenarios of Time Management and Expectations

for the Part-time and Full-time Music Minister

Prepared by Don Doss

March 23, 2001

INTRODUCTION

Since I left my last full-time Music Ministry position, I have come across quite a few situations where congregations were considering hiring part-time or interim ministers but didn’t have accurate data in order to make the best choices. I decided to put together some thoughts as an aid for those people who are in the position to direct those personnel decisions. Many factors go into the calculation of how much time the Minister of Music (MOM) needs to complete the expected job. Similarly, the decision of how much to pay the MOM tends to me more of a subjective decision rather than one gained through concrete facts and figures. God expects us, especially his Bride, the Church, to be thorough and fair in paying for work that is done. James 5 has some very stinging comments about being fair in paying employees. For this discussion, I will use my experience in full-time ministry and my time spent with other prominent MOMs throughout the country to hopefully put some kind of reason and order to this subject.

Of course, I must first admit that every MOM situation is different, and every church that pays the MOM does so with different values and expectations. So, even though I am trying my best to be as objective as I can, you need to understand that I am human, and my experiences are mine and belong to no one else. Please use this information as only one ingredient that will be added into the mixture of the information you will need to make your decision.

QUALITY = TIME

In my opinion, the most important ingredient, besides raw talent, in doing a quality job for any person in any job is the time to do it. You simply can’t expect a person to perform a job requiring 4 hours of study to do a good job if they only spend 30 minutes with it. What the general church membership doesn’t understand is that the MOM just can’t walk into a library of music and randomly select a song for the choir to sing. It takes time to do a study of the text meaning, musical difficulty, potential voicing problems with a particular set of singers, and a knowledgeable decision of the chances of seeing the piece successfully performed in the time allotted.

You understand that given more time to construct a meaningful song service, the MOM can weave together a group of songs that work as a unit rather than arbitrarily thumbing through the hymnal and pulling out several hymns. With the advent of contemporary worship, there’s even a greater need to work through the newer choruses that come in many different books to find the right version and key that will complement the other songs in the worship time.

A well-trained professional choral technician can be given a piece of music and immediately begin to successfully rehearse a choir. But to select multiple songs that will be sung over a period of two months, and plan how much time to spend on each piece during a selected weekly rehearsal takes much planning, even for the pro. Add into that the periodic larger work or full musical dramatic production for Easter and Christmas or some other event, you exponentially increase the necessary planning… it doesn’t happen without much thought.

So how much time does it take? Well, based on my experience, I can tell you that on some occasions you can plan successfully in a pretty short time, but more times than not it takes much longer than you actually have to do it. The church and the MOM need to decide what are the priorities of the position… the things that are most important… and then work down from there the individual tasks that need to be accomplished so that the priority is met. On the next page I have listed the different aspects of the MOM’s job, and the average time I would budget to each area. This is a very simplistic table, so once again, realize that every position is different, and that many of the smaller items are dumped into one of the larger ones rather than go into too much detail. For the purpose of this discussion, I have assumed that the MOM is a full-time, 40 hour per week employee.

MOM TIME MANAGEMENT IN HOURS
Item		Year	Quarter	Week
MOM Organizational Planning		572	143	11
	Weekly Newsletter Preparation	156	39	3
	Website Update	52	13	1
	Volunteer Leadership Organization	52	13	1
	Membership Communication	104	26	2
	Calendar Planning	104	26	2
	Staff Meeting	104	26	2
Worship Service Planning		624	156	15
	Topic / Scripture Study	52	13	1
	Song Selection	104	26	2
	Compose / New Song Study	208	52	4
	Praise Team Music Charts	104	26	2
	Instrumental Charts	104	26	2
	Solo/Ensemble/Choir Correlation	52	13	1
	Actual Worship Time	156	39	3
Adult Choir Planning		260	65	9
	Song Selection	52	13	1
	New Anthem Selection	52	13	1
	Library Management	26	6.5	0.5
	Officer Planning/Meeting	52	13	1
	Special Presentation Planning	52	13	1
	Missions Ministry	26	6.5	0.5
	Actual Rehearsals	208	52	4
Youth Choir Planning		208	52	5
	Song Selection	26	6.5	0.5
	New Anthem Selection	26	6.5	0.5
	Library Management	26	6.5	0.5
	Officer Planning/Meeting	26	6.5	0.5
	Special Presentation Planning	52	13	1
	Missions Ministry	52	13	1
	Actual Rehearsal	52	13	1
TOTAL TIME		1664	416	40

I would argue that the organizational end of the MOM position is nearly as important as the worship planning. The bulk of the work of a church’s music ministry is accomplished not by the MOM, but the volunteers that participate in the music program. Otherwise, there would be no choirs – just a solo person. Of the organizational hours spent, most of the time is in communication to the members. No group can function adequately without prompt and quality communication to its members.

In this setting, about 38% of the MOM time is spent in preparation of the worship services. The main task of the congregation of believers is to worship the God of all creation… so it is proper that the biggest piece of the time pie is given to worship planning. I believe that much time should be spent discovering new worship songs as well as finding old songs that can be used again. In my particular case, I wish to write songs so some of that time will be used in writing new material to use in worship. In the ideal situation, the pastor would have already delivered to the MOM his sermon topic or basic premise or scripture so that the entire service can connect together. In either event, the MOM will spend study time to develop a scriptural context for the worship experience.

Few people understand the kind of time it takes to successfully coordinate a choir program. If the MOM doesn’t deliver a quality ‘product’ whenever the choir performs, there will be fewer people wanting to join the group, and morale in the choir will plateau or dwindle away. A choir can grow in vitality and membership when they sing well-planned music that fits their voices and isn’t technically beyond their grasp… but still has movement and meets the needs of the listeners. For this reason, the MOM must take time to carefully choose songs to place in front of the choir. It doesn’t happen by flipping a coin or eenie meenie minie mo. Also, publishing companies send out tons of new anthems and songs that have to be waded through to find the few jewels. There are music conventions across the country that introduce the new material so you can actually see it rehearsed and listen to it, but without that introduction, most MOMs just have to go through the songs one at a time.

The other and very important aspect of developing a choir is the ‘away’ trips that bring the group together into a single unit. I fully believe that every church organization, including each choir, should be active in missions locally as well as long distance. Periodic mission trips to community venues as well as interstate / international locations need to be planned, which also takes much time to nurture volunteer organization and fund-raising. It’s not just for youth, although they tend to be more flexible to do the dirtiest and time-consuming work. Adults, also, need to jump in and find themselves arm in arm helping their community in some obvious and recognizable way that makes a difference in people’s lives.

FULL-TIME VS. PART-TIME

With all of the above time requirements stated, now comes the decision of what parts of the MOM’s position can the church afford to buy? In my last full-time ministry job, I spent over 60 hours a week at work. My family suffered, and there was no one to blame but myself for how much time over 40 hours I put into my work. I wasn’t required to do it, I just wanted to do the best job I could which means spending more time… remember – QUALITY = TIME. The church must be very careful how much time they expect an individual to complete their work or they run the possibility of underpaying the minister… getting more than what they pay for. It’s unfortunate that most churches expect more than what they are willing to pay for, causing the MOM to suffer financially or in family time spent to complete the work. For some reason, the church members that tend to make the decisions about financial support to the music minister are not knowledgeable of the work that must be put in. Let’s be realistic, let’s be biblical… plan for what you want, then be willing to pay the person for that service.

On the next several pages I have outlined a typical MOM schedule for a 40 hour, 20 hour, 10 hour and 5 hour person. Don’t expect a person that you will only pay for 10 hours of work to supply you with a full-time program. That’s unfair and just not pleasing to God – you basically get what you pay for, period. To help illustrate how the amount of time is important to the services provided, I have used the full-time schedule and taken away certain items to cut down to the reduced total.

As it turns out, it’s pretty obvious that the 20 hour person can work with a choir, but the other organizational needs to grow a vital ministry is very much hampered, and that the time to plan for a second choir or Praise Team is virtually non-existent. The ten-hour person has very little time to organize and plan, and what time they have to do the job is not enough so the quality is greatly diminished. All that should be expected of a five-hour person is leading music for two worship services, and the planning for those is almost not at all.

		TYPICAL 40 HOUR MUSIC MINISTER SCHEDULE
	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday Saturday
9:00	Worship	Music	Personal Org		Member
10:00	Preparation	Composition	Staff		Contacts
11:00	WORSHIP	(at home)	Meeting			Average once per month
Noon					Lunch Meet	choir activity…
1:00		Newsletter &			Youth Choir	mission work, trips,
2:00		Update	Worship	Adult Choir	Planning &	retreats, fund raising, etc.
3:00	YC Prep	Website	Planning	Rehearsal	Preparation
4:00	Youth Choir	(at home)		Preparation		Time will be offset from
5:00	Rehearsal					regular schedule through
6:00	WORSHIP		Praise	WORSHIP		the year as needed.
7:00			Team	Adult Choir
8:00			Rehearsal	Rehearsal
9:00
	7 hours	7 hours	10 hours	8 hours	8 hours

		TYPICAL 20 HOUR MUSIC MINISTER SCHEDULE
	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday Saturday
9:00	Worship
10:00	Preparation
11:00	WORSHIP					Average every other
Noon						month choir activity…
1:00						mission work, trips,
2:00						retreats, fund raising, etc.
3:00	Praise Team
4:00	or					Time will be offset from
5:00	Youth Choir					regular schedule through
6:00	WORSHIP		Adult Choir	WORSHIP		the year as needed.
7:00		Worship Plan	Rehearsal	Adult Choir	Newsletter &
8:00		(at home)	Preparation	Rehearsal	Website
9:00					(at home)
	7 hours	4 hours	3 hours	3 hours	3 hours

		TYPICAL 10 HOUR MUSIC MINISTER SCHEDULE
	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday Saturday
9:00	Worship
10:00	Preparation
11:00	WORSHIP
Noon
1:00
2:00
3:00
4:00	Adult Choir
5:00	Planning
6:00	WORSHIP			WORSHIP
7:00		Worship Plan		Adult Choir
8:00		(at home)
9:00
	6 hours	2 hours		2 hours

		TYPICAL 5 HOUR MUSIC MINISTER SCHEDULE
	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday Saturday
9:00
10:00	Worship Prep
11:00	WORSHIP
Noon
1:00
2:00
3:00
4:00
5:00
6:00	WORSHIP
7:00		Worship Plan
8:00		(at home)
9:00
	3 hours	2 hours

SO HOW MUCH?

It doesn’t take rocket science to determine what a MOM is worth in terms of an hourly rate. There are only a few determining factors, and those are basically in talent and experience. Talent not only in vocal, choral and instrumental music skills, but also in management and volunteer relationship skills. Experience not only in how many times they have stood up in front of a congregation to direct hymns, but also in knowledge of instrumentation, travel arrangements, sound engineers, electronic and musical equipment, computer usage and much, much more.

Just to make it easy, I’ve come up with three levels of people in an MOM position. The first is someone with little experience and some talent… someone like you would hire around minimum wage, say around $7.50 an hour. MOM#2 has some experience and some talent, probably even degreed in music. They can read music and can hold their own in front of a choir, but their experience is limited. This person would probably be at the same professional position as an entry-level teacher making around $22,000 per year. Number 3 is professional – having served in positions with over ten years experience with Master’s level degree or training. This person would respect a position at the same level with other professionals in other work areas like personnel, accounting or management bringing home $40,000 per year. Now with these three individuals, let’s see how the expectations and pay scale shape up.

	WEEKLY PAY COMPARISON
	MOM #1 $7.50 p/hr	MOM #2 $10.52 p/hr	MOM #3 $19.23 p/hr
5 Hours per Week	$ 37.50	$ 52.88	$ 96.15
(per year)	$ 1,950.00	$ 2,750.00	$ 5,000.00
10 Hours per Week	$ 75.00	$ 105.77	$ 192.31
(per year)	$ 3,900.00	$ 5,500.00	$ 10,000.00
20 Hours per Week	$ 150.00	$ 211.54	$ 384.62
(per year)	$ 7,800.00	$ 11,000.00	$ 20,000.00
40 Hours per Week	$ 300.00	$ 423.08	$ 769.23
(per year)	$ 15,600.00	$ 22,000.00	$ 40,000.00

Now the trick is to match up what kind of MOM you are looking for, and decide what services you want for this person to perform for the church. Keep in mind that the more experience they have, the more they can do just because they know what they’re doing. That fact can skew the totals quite a bit in favor of the higher qualified individual. It for sure brings home the idea of getting more bang for the buck!

CONCLUSION

The old idiom holds true… “You get what you pay for.” Smaller churches can easily get caught up in a catch-22 where the decision makers don’t understand that the church has to make an investment to see a successful music ministry develop. Short-range thinkers see the outlay of money rather than see the return on the investment. With a quality music ministry brought about by a professional MOM that knows what they’re doing, a church which has previously suffered at the hands of inexperience will see a membership and giving boost that will more than pay for the added position expense. If a congregation can never get over the hump of paying for quality, the membership will level off and see no appreciable gain over the period of time.

The biggest gains in membership can be seen in a quality music program for youth. Students are the fastest at joining in where there is something pretty cool. I can tell you first hand that two steady years of hard work more than double the size of the choir. Parents soon follow as they come and see the musical programs their kids are performing. As the parents come, so come the elementary children and larger families. As families get more involved, they tell their neighbors and word of mouth spreads the news that something’s happening over at the neighborhood church. The bigger the choirs grow, the better the quality becomes and the more they are seen in the community as they venture out on concert trips. Quality music programs make exciting churches. But to have a quality program, you have to bring a quality MOM… and there’s no getting around the fact that good MOM’s go where they are fairly compensated. Don’t think of how much can you get for the money… think of how much money you should to invest to build a quality program.