One Musician (Organist) every Sunday or different ones each Sunday?

[churchyreal]

Which do you think is better? Having one lead musician play every Sunday or having a different organist/keyboardist for every Sunday or one for two Sundays and another one for the other two Sundays?

Do you also think that the choirs should be able to determine who their musician is or is that a decision left up to the minister of music, pastor and/or leadership board (Deacons, Trustees, etc.)

[momuzik]

With one musician, the choir and the musicians learn to "read" or respond to each other. The preacher tends to know how he'll be backed while preaching. Things may flow a little more consistant with one musician.
Different musicians may bring more variety to the table but it also sounds like it could be confusing to the praise team/ choir - having to "adjust" to different styles.
It also could cause some division within the choir with things like "I like the way he/ she plays" or "I'll only sing when my favorite musician plays", etc...
Seems like one musician would be better.

[churchyreal]

Anybody else wanna help me understand? 

[LaylaMonroe]

At the moment, I can't think of very many reasons to have more than one organist for a church.  The only reasons I can come up with for why it might be feasible to have alternate organists are:

1. The church has a "seniors" choir that sings mostly traditional material, and the church has an organist that knows traditional music better than the house organist.

2. The church has a teenager who is capable of playing for the youth choir.  I can see allowing him to play on Youth Sunday for the youth choir... not necessarily for the entire service, though.

Other than those exceptions, I don't think it's a good idea for a church to have different organists each Sabbath/Sunday.

To answer your second question, my former choir director used to tell us the only thing we get to decide is what color underwear to wear.    Seriously, I don't think the choir should decide who their musician is... that's just crazy.  That's the MOM's job.

[vtguy84]

At the moment, I can't think of very many reasons to have more than one organist for a church.  The only reasons I can come up with for why it might be feasible to have alternate organists are:

1. The church has a "seniors" choir that sings mostly traditional material, and the church has an organist that knows traditional music better than the house organist.

2. The church has a teenager who is capable of playing for the youth choir.  I can see allowing him to play on Youth Sunday for the youth choir... not necessarily for the entire service, though.

Other than those exceptions, I don't think it's a good idea for a church to have different organists each Sabbath/Sunday.

To answer your second question, my former choir director used to tell us the only thing we get to decide is what color underwear to wear.    Seriously, I don't think the choir should decide who their musician is... that's just crazy.  That's the MOM's job.

What she said.  Good points, LaRue.

[churchyreal]

At the moment, I can't think of very many reasons to have more than one organist for a church.  The only reasons I can come up with for why it might be feasible to have alternate organists are:

1. The church has a "seniors" choir that sings mostly traditional material, and the church has an organist that knows traditional music better than the house organist.

2. The church has a teenager who is capable of playing for the youth choir.  I can see allowing him to play on Youth Sunday for the youth choir... not necessarily for the entire service, though.

Other than those exceptions, I don't think it's a good idea for a church to have different organists each Sabbath/Sunday.

To answer your second question, my former choir director used to tell us the only thing we get to decide is what color underwear to wear.    Seriously, I don't think the choir should decide who their musician is... that's just crazy.  That's the MOM's job.

What she said.  Good points, LaRue.

My biggest concern is the musician not having alternatives just in case they get sick or have other obligations. I think it's fine to have one musician if they are making music ministry a career but I just don't see why the church can't have more than one musician to help the main musician so that the main musician can get time off.

The thing my Pastor said is that he believes in consistency. He believes in having one organist so that the flow of worship can go smoothly because musicians coming in and out can disturb the flow of the worship service. I just don't see this as essential.

Somebody comment on that for me WITHOUT biting my head off! 

[vtguy84]

I didn't see any head biting. 

There's nothing wrong with having more than one musician to help the main musician, but you do need someone to hold the main position.  If you just have multiple musicians of equal levels, it doesn't make anyone mainly responsible.

[LaylaMonroe]

What she said.  Good points, LaRue.

Thank you darlin.

My biggest concern is the musician not having alternatives just in case they get sick or have other obligations. I think it's fine to have one musician if they are making music ministry a career but I just don't see why the church can't have more than one musician to help the main musician so that the main musician can get time off.

The thing my Pastor said is that he believes in consistency. He believes in having one organist so that the flow of worship can go smoothly because musicians coming in and out can disturb the flow of the worship service. I just don't see this as essential.

Somebody comment on that for me WITHOUT biting my head off! 

Stop being so sensitive, darlin.  No one is biting any heads off. 

Back to the subject... I get calls from clients and/or acquaintances all the time looking for a replacement musician for one day (or a couple of days) because their musician needs a day off for one reason or another.  That's not a big deal.  Despite the fact that many church musicians are flighty, one thing I can say about all the ones I know of here, is that they will show up to work, even if they're sick.  They may quit without notice... lol... but, they won't just leave you on a Sabbath/Sunday morning without a musician at all.

And usually, they'll find a replacement themselves if they're only going to be out for one week (and that should be written into their contracts).

I gotta side with your pastor on this one.

A fair compromise would be to train someone else to be an "on-call" back up in case of emergency, if that will help you sleep better at night.  But, other than that, it's really not that serious.

[churchyreal]

I'm sorry but I'm a very sensitive person. I can't stand people talking to me in certain ways. 

[sjonathan02]

One musician is best. When that musician is sick or needs time off, find a replacement for that time. Basically, this is a long-winded COSIGN!!

[churchyreal]

My pastor has also connected the issue of one organist when it comes to spiritual community. He says that you really can't build community and relationships if you are just going in and out of the church and my pastor is very big about community (myself included). Do you agree with that?

Also, do you think it matters whether the musician is making a career or not in the philosophy of having just one musician or is the emphasis just one musician.....PERIOD!?

[sjonathan02]

My pastor has also connected the issue of one organist when it comes to spiritual community. He says that you really can't build community and relationships if you are just going in and out of the church and my pastor is very big about community (myself included). Do you agree with that?

Also, do you think it matters whether the musician is making a career or not in the philosophy of having just one musician or is the emphasis just one musician.....PERIOD!?

In reverse order, I have NO idea what you're talking about. VT, I'm tempted to ask that question, again. It should be one musician, period.

Community is what church is SUPPOSED to be about in the first place.

[vtguy84]

Shhhhhh Jonathan.

[momuzik]

My pastor has also connected the issue of one organist when it comes to spiritual community. He says that you really can't build community and relationships if you are just going in and out of the church and my pastor is very big about community (myself included). Do you agree with that?

Also, do you think it matters whether the musician is making a career or not in the philosophy of having just one musician or is the emphasis just one musician.....PERIOD!?

It shouldn't matter if the musician is making a career out of it or not.
...But as far as two musicians...what I have seen before is two musicians who play together (usually one on piano and one on the organ). So if one was absent for any reason, the other would pick up the slack.
I'm the MOM at my church (just one of my hats) and when I'm not there (which is rarely) they'll sing along with CD's. My pastor doesn't like the idea of a stranger coming in "ministering" without knowing anything about the person.

[CRYCHI]

I support the lead musician, but with appropriate back-ups.

In our church, our main organist work schedule doesn't allow him to attend afternoon or other services outside of regular worship.  we do have someone we can consider as a back-up.  They sometimes switch up during the service (the main musician will play the chor selections, while the back-up will play during offerings or prayer.)

However, our back-up second musician is not as confident a player, so he doesn't like to play for the choir - he prefers the keyboard, bass guitar or drums.

As I am the person that usually has to arrange for a replacement musician; until our organists work schedule changes, I would love to have at least 3 musicians available, who can play anything.... so we can keep things interesting and moving forward; someone may have an affinity for playing worship songs, while another can handle more contemporary stuff...

[jlewis]

Well,

We got 3 regular keyboard/piano players.   3 drummers,   and a guitar/bass player.

We basically cover each other when neccessary.  If the church is doing a concert or engagement,  then we  all sit in as a band.

Jlewis

[PianoWizard]

Currently we rotate keyboard and drum players each Sunday due to our other commitments that can conflict like work or a request for one of us to play at another church. We have two keyboard/piano players one of which is me and I alternate with the regular paid musician.

The consistent musicians are the bass and guitar players, we have about three or four people in our church that can play the drums, but there are about two who play regularly. We are extremely blessed with quite a few people in our church who can play instruments quite well so there is always a person to stand in the gap.

PianoWiz...