Top Five Issues Among Church Musicians

This past summer a small group of music directors, choir directors, organists, other musicians, and staff members of The United Methodist Publishing House and Discipleship Ministries gathered in a room at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, as part of the Southeastern Jurisdiction's Music and Liturgical Arts Week sponsored by The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts. The purpose of the gathering was to raise and discuss the major issues of concern to church musicians today. We named many concerns and problems, some shared by only a few of us and some by most of us. I share here the top five issues of concern (not in any particular order). These were generally agreed to be the issues of most concern to the group, and thought to be shared by the larger church. I offer them here only to name them, and to generate some thought and further discussion.

1. Pay, Benefits, Job Security
Not surprisingly, no one present thought that church musicians were being paid a sufficient wage. In The United Methodist Church, it is the local congregation that sets salaries, job description, and benefits, and it is the local congregation that hires and fires. We discussed the AGO guidelines and the fact that many churches consider these to be unrealistically high, hence they largely ignore them. (See www.agohq.org.) Benefits are usually meager if they exist at all. (But see mandatory lay employee retirement benefits from the local church.) There is no security since the salary and even the position itself is up for reconsideration every year at budget time. Nearly everyone could relate a horror story of a musician dismissed when a new pastor or group within the church decided to make a sudden change from one worship style to another. The discrepancy was noted between how the church and the Book of Discipline treats clergy salary, benefits, and job security and how it treats its lay employees. (See " What Does The United Methodist Church's Book Of Discipline (2004) Say About the Employment of Non-Appointed Church Staff?".) One person compared the discrepancy to the US Congress exempting itself from the very laws it passes for the rest of the nation to follow, and to the special and beneficial salary, benefit, and retirement plans it votes for itself alone. Low musician compensation will continue to force musicians to seek primary full-time employment outside the church, resulting in church musicians with limited skills, abilities, and commitment to the church.

2. Declining Church and Music Attendance
Certainly not all UM churches are in decline, with many thriving, growing, and doing important and vital work, but many musicians are aware of declining attendance, membership, and music participation. Some of the reasons we identified included decline of mainline denominations in general; inability or unwillingness to reach out to ethnic, cultural, or indigenous groups; secular competition for our people's time and energies; the fact that people are busier than they once were and see Sunday morning as rest or family time.

3. Changing Demographics in the Church Neighborhood
Churches that once thrived in an urban downtown setting have seen their membership move away, often to be replaced by ethnic or cultural groups very different from what once surrounded the church. The church's staff and leadership are unable or unwilling to make changes to reach out to the new neighborhood and decline continues. Shrinking churches find themselves in financial difficulty and often the building is allowed to go for extended periods without adequate maintenance, to a point where even the building contributes to a decline in ministry and vitality. Older building and sanctuary models are less accommodating to contemporary worship.

4. Lack of Musicians to Lead, Especially Organists
It is becoming more difficult to find qualified persons to lead the church's music, especially organists. Universities are cutting back or discontinuing their organ programs in response to fewer organ students. Contemporary music and worship styles are less dependent upon the traditional organ, and many churches are decreasing the role played by the organ, hence the demand for church organists is decreasing. Fewer children and young people are pursuing organ and piano lessons today than in previous years. Some churches have even removed the organs and changed completely to a praise band accompaniment. Older or well-trained organists are unwilling or unable to study, rehearse, and master newer, contemporary musical styles, or they remain resistant to playing them when called upon to do so.

5. Dead and Dying Youth Choirs
The conditions of the 1950's and 60's that witnessed the explosion of youth choirs no longer exist. While churches and parents may want their youth to sing in the youth choir at church, fewer youth are willing to do so. Many have jobs, cars, friends, school, and other activities that compete with the church. The place of music in the public schools is also in decline, and the culture generally seems to value such participation and experience less than it did in previous generations. For many youth, singing is something to be listened to rather than personally experienced. The group generally agreed that this same trend is beginning to be seen in younger children's music in the church, too.

What do you think?

• Are these the top five issues for United Methodist church musicians today?
• Are there others?
• What should we do?

See related article, Music Musings #49: Congregational Song Issues.