I understand everybody thoughts but I need everyone to see where Im comming from.We will pay the asking price but look at the structure of the service.2 hours on sunday and 1 hours on sat.Our church is roughly 75 to 100 people.1/3 is youth and the rest is the older crowd.I think I should of explained it better but when your upset with theses SOCALLED Professionals,that comes in and sound like Crap then want all this money.I guess some people never went thru things like this.Not to be rude but some of yall sound like your church is 200 strong.I will NEVER play at a church like that.I like small churches.So you Professional keep up the good work make that money. I rather recieve my blessings from God then big money.
Just for the record, "big money"
is a blessing from God.
And for the record, you can receive [other] blessings from God in addition to receiving big money.
You don't have to choose.
And this is coming from someone who is, and has been for the past umpteen years, the member of a "small church." I'm a consultant for start-up churches, so I'm quite familiar with the woes of building ministry with limited funds, trying to find reliable, skilled and committed musicians, and all that. Yeah, I get it. It all comes down to priorities. I've seen start-up pastors pay $350-$400 for an organist and $150 for a drummer. I have a client now who is less than a year old and pays $1000/wk to his music department. None of them can usually afford to pay out like that comfortably, but they value good music, so they make sacrifices. That "small church" bit is an excuse. People spend money on what they value.
You have plenty of good advice, so at this point, you're just griping, not looking for answers. I mean, that's cool. We all get in gripe mode from time to time. I'm just pointing it out in case you didn't realize it. If you don't like going through all that, train a kid to play or teach yourself, or find a HS or college student who's willing to play for peanuts or *ahem* blessings.
And for crying out loud, don't expect (or demand, which is closer to what you're trying to do) others to do what you do. I work very hard in ministry. In fact, I can't think of a time that I didn't put more hours into ministry than I do into my day job. But because I work primarily with small and start-up churches, I can't think of a time that I've been adequately compensated for my services, either. I do what I do for the love of the work/ministry, and to have another stream of income. But, I don't knock those that make big bucks working in church administration. That's their ministry, this is mine. To each his own. Can you be okay with that?
