Worship leader salaries are some of the most fluid and vague in church ministry. Before anything, it’s important to know what a worship leader position entails:
- hours in service & soundcheck
- rehearsal
- song selection
- administration
- secretarial work (copies, chord charts, etc.)
- maintain equipment
- recruit musicians
- develop worship leaders & musicians
- build team dynamics (fellowship etc.)
- pastoral meetings
- special services
- be anointed, creative, relevant, spiritual, and bring the glory!
Differentiate by checking off which responsibilities your worship leader would have. I wrote these with the assumptions that 1. worship ministry is vital to your church, 2. where you live has a very high cost of living, 3. you have several hundred people in your church, 4. you don’t already have a system that works. From my experience, I’d do something like this:
Worship Leader
10-12 hrs, $300.00 per week
- hours in service (including soundcheck)
- rehearsal
- song selection
- administration
- secretarial work (copies, chord charts, etc.)
I’d do this if you have a smaller church and want some solidarity in your services. This person is a solid worship leader that contributes to your service, but is just that–a worship leader. Don’t expect from this person what you would from the others mentioned later. Many churches have arrangements with an “artist-in-residence” that will lead once a month or so. In those situations, I’d work directly with the artist (who is usually pretty prominent) to work out a suitable arrangement.
Worship Director
20+ hrs, $500.00 per week
All the above and more. A worship director should be able to recruit musicians, develop new worship leaders, and foster team growth. Don’t underestimate how much work this entails. A church will get more than what they pay this person for because this is ministry development. If you are a lead pastor, imagine not having to ever think of these issues. How much is that worth to you? The difference here is 1. oversight and 2. development, which is what a worship director should bring to the table. Conversely, I don’t get this logic:
- $25,000 mixer
- $10,000 in-ear system
- $2,000 drum kit
- $2,000 keyboard
- tons of $300.00 wireless mics
- complain about paying the person who oversees all this??
You can pay this person hourly, but if they show competence you might consider benefits as they devote more time to the job with the potential of going full-time.
Worship Pastor
40 hrs+, $55,000+ annually based on church size
Worship pastors give you all the above and the benefits of full-time access to their anointing and creativity. They’re also involved with the leadership of the entire church, often serving on executive staff. The best ones are essentially pastors in a worship leader’s disguise.
Final Thoughts:
This poll at WorshipLeader.com may help you crunch numbers. As of now, Simply Hired states the median worship leader/pastor salary as $43,000 per year. If your church is in the thousands, pay more. There’s a big jump in talent and ability between someone who can sing in front of tens vs. hundreds vs. thousands. My philosophy is pay a person enough so money is never an excuse.
When I was hired as a worship pastor, the big risk was whether I could handle church staff life or not. I could lead worship, write songs, and was a good candidate for stability and tenure because of my age. All that would have been moot if I couldn’t handle church staff life. It’s the same with whoever you might be considering for a position, so weigh that carefully.
What questions do you have about hiring a worship leader?
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