Choosing Between Gas and Choir

American drivers are reeling from gasoline price increases. Mid-June average prices for regular unleaded gas in the U.S.A. have risen from $1.63 in 2000 to $4.03 in 2008. Gas prices are one dollar per gallon higher today than a year ago. The news today is filled with reports of the impact of rising gasoline prices on other costs: food, housing, clothing -- the necessities of life, as well as on the extras, such as summer vacations. And airlines are now charging extra if you want to check a bag, enjoy a snack or soft drink, or sit in an aisle or window seat, blaming the cost of fuel.

The church is also affected by the gasoline prices its members must pay. (See "Rising Gas Prices vs. Worship: How Worship Can Still Win" by Taylor Burton-Edwards.) Members who drive to church may have to choose between paying for the gasoline to put in their cars to come to church or paying for food. Higher gas prices and the larger portion of take-home pay commanded by those prices may force church members to look at their church participation as just one item on a list of activities and commodities that they must choose.

I live fifteen miles from my church, a thirty-mile roundtrip drive each time I go to church. On an average week, I may make three roundtrips to church for worship, choir, and a meeting. That's ninety miles of driving a week. If I get twenty miles per gallon on my car, that's 4.5 gallons of gas a week. At today's average of $4.03 per gallon, that means I'm paying $18.14 for gas to go to church. If you drive an SUV, have to use a higher grade of gas, live further away from your church, or go to church more often (think children's, youth, and bell choirs), you may pay substantially more than I do. If you pay $18.14 per week for gas, that comes to just under $75 per month just to go to church; and if gas goes to $5.00 a gallon by the end of summer as is predicted by some, that's $90 per month.

For some members of your church, $75 or $90 a month (or more) to go to church is a sizeable amount of money, perhaps even enough to keep them from attending. The article linked above outlines some of the actions some members might take because of the cost, including missing meetings, missing choir rehearsals, dropping out of choir, attending worship less often, reducing the amount they give to the church, even finding a new church to attend that is closer to home.

What can we do? What can they do? As church musicians, are there things we can do to help our choir members and faithful musicians not have to choose between gas or church? Let us recognize that there are some factors in all of this that we cannot change: the distance between home and church; the kind of car that members drive; and the mileage that they get. Nor can we affect the amount of their take-home pay or how they spend it. Having acknowledged that, however, there are some things we can do. Not all these suggestions may be feasible for all churches, programs, or members, but here are ten suggestions to consider:

1. Arrange rehearsals so that all children's or youth rehearsals are on the same day. Schedule singing and bell choirs for the same age group on the same day.
2. Schedule adult handbells and singing choirs on the same evening.
3. Pull as many rehearsals together on one evening as possible. Arrange for a catered meal served family style (not a pot luck).
4. Rehearse every other week for an extended rehearsal.
5. Schedule rehearsals immediately before or after Sunday morning worship.
6. Divide a one-hour Sunday school period into half-hour Sunday school and half-hour children's choirs.
7. Give your regular choirs a vacation during the summer and schedule soloists, instrumentalists, duets and small ensembles, Sunday school class choirs, Boy or Girl Scout choir, church staff choir, and so on.
8. Encourage and facilitate car pooling by hanging a map of your city or area on the choir room wall and show the location of your choir members with pins. Do the same for your entire church membership in a highly visible and accessible location, such as the wall where you have coffee, fellowship, or near the main entrance.
9. If your church has a van or a bus, use it to pick up children after school for their choir rehearsals. In some communities, you might even be able to run a route to deliver many of them to their homes after rehearsal. Ask the church to subsidize this by funding it in the annual budget.
10. Promote car pooling from children's schools to the church and then back home again. Ask parents to take turns driving one week at a time. Publish and distribute a weekly schedule for car pooling just as you may already do for choir snacks.

Finally, let your people know that you understand and appreciate the challenges and hardships that result from higher gas costs and tell them that you are seeking ways to ease their burden. Ask for their suggestions and then discuss them. Implement them when you can. Above all, celebrate and give thanks for the faithfulness and commitment of your members who may be struggling with these problems. The problems, frustrations, and challenges experienced by your people are likely to only increase with time, right along with the cost of gasoline.