This may be VERY controversial to some people......
.....however.....
An online friend of mine told me the drummer is being paid 100 dollars a Sunday. He's being paid 500, but he's the organist/plays boards, and is the MoM.
....Cool.
The Pastor get's paid 3000 a Sunday. I'm so sorry, but is that really necessary? Imagine if he took a pay cut ... and had to [begin sarcasm]settle[/end sarcasm] for 2500 per week, the drummer the drummer could paid more than a MEASLEY 100 dollars!
I know what some of you are thinking,*cues Theological Seminary Graduate/T.D. Jakes-esque voice* "But that's the man of God!"
Great. Sweet. Perfection. However, I don't know what it's like up NORTH, but down south, if you don't have a good music department, you don't have a church. Heck, I know people who will be all into the service while the music is going, but will turn their ears OFF when the Pastor is teaching/preaching.
My point?
I'm not saying that the musicians are more important than the pastor, in theory .... but, if you want to keep it REALLY real....you can preach the angels out of heaven, but great musicians/choir tends to draw the crowds. Of course, you'll find it difficult gettin' people to admit that.
Before you say, 'Well my church ain't like that!", I'm not saying EVERY church is like this - however, I've been around, and I know what I've been seeing all my life.
To summarize: The weaker the music department, the smaller the congregation, from my experience. Lastly, the message SHOULD be most important, however many people don't treat it as such. People can tell you what the choir sang, but not what the Pastor taught.
Soooo, let's stop treating musicians like red-headed step children. As far as I'm concerned, musicians are being under-paid.