This is a great subject to discuss, and it comes up regularly in churches of all sizes and denominations. Worship leaders, pastors, elders, and musicians themselves wrestle with this: Do we hire highly skilled, experienced musicians who may or may not attend our church, or do we build our music team strictly from people within the congregation?

It is not a simple question, and it rarely has a simple answer. Both approaches have clear benefits and limitations. Churches tend to lean one way or the other depending on their size, musical expectations, theological philosophy of worship, and the pool of musicians available within the congregation.

Some churches prioritize musical excellence and consistency. They want their worship music to be polished, well-executed, and dependable week after week. If the internal talent pool is small, the most practical way to accomplish that goal may be to hire experienced players from outside the congregation—musicians who can walk in, read charts, follow a worship leader, and deliver a strong musical product with minimal rehearsal. In those situations, the church is essentially bringing in skilled craftsmen to help accomplish a task important to the congregation’s life.

Other churches place a higher value on congregational participation and internal development. Their philosophy is that the worship team should primarily be made up of members of the church body—people who worship, serve, and share life beyond Sunday morning. In this model, the musical excellence may take longer to develop. Still, the ministry aspect is often stronger because the musicians are already part of the congregation’s relational and spiritual life.

Both models are legitimate. Both can work well. And both can fail if handled poorly.

This conversation is not theoretical for me. I have spent more than fifty years involved in church music ministry, and during that time, I have stood on both sides of this fence. I have been a musician in the local church body—playing week after week with people I worshiped with, prayed with, and served alongside. In those situations, the music was not just a performance or a task; it was part of our shared life together as a congregation.

But I have also been the outside musician—the one who was brought in because the church needed a capable player for a particular instrument. In those cases, my role was primarily professional. I showed up prepared, did my best to serve the service musically, and then moved on. There was nothing inherently wrong with that arrangement; it simply functioned differently than being part of a church’s internal worship team.

Because I have lived in both of those worlds, I can see the strengths and weaknesses of each approach more clearly. Neither system is perfect. Neither system is automatically superior. What matters most is that church leaders understand what they stand to gain—and what they may lose—with whichever model they choose.

What follows is my perspective, shaped by decades of experience playing in churches, teaching musicians, working with worship teams, and observing how different congregations approach the role of music in their worship.

Hired Guns

Professionals

These are the tried-and-true professionals—the seasoned musicians who know exactly what they are doing. They require very little supervision, coaching, and rehearsal time compared to less experienced players. They come prepared, read charts well, follow directions, and deliver a polished musical performance. In many cases, they approach the service with a high level of professionalism because it is part of their vocation. Music is what they do for a living, and they treat the assignment with the same seriousness that any skilled craftsman brings to his trade.

These professionals address a very practical reality that many churches face: not every congregation has a deep pool of capable musicians. Some churches do not have enough experienced players to cover the instruments needed for a modern worship team or a traditional service. In those situations, bringing in professional musicians may be the only realistic way to maintain a consistent level of musical quality week after week. I completely understand that.

Good? Bad?

This is not a case of “hired guns bad, home-grown band good.” That kind of simplistic thinking misses the real issue. There is absolutely a place for professional musicians in church ministry, and many congregations depend on them. In fact, churches have been hiring musicians for centuries. Long before the modern worship band existed, churches hired trained organists, pianists, and choir directors. I have friends who are excellent keyboard players who rotate between multiple churches every Sunday morning, playing one service here and another service there. It has been a normal part of church life for a very long time. I know bassists, drummers, and guitarists, as well as vocalists, who are all part of that scene.

But there is a downside to this model that is worth acknowledging. When musicians are hired primarily as professionals rather than developed as members of the congregation, Sunday morning can become just another gig on the calendar. The musician arrives, sets up, plays the music well, packs up, collects the check, and heads out the side door to the next engagement.

That doesn’t mean they are insincere or careless. Quite the opposite—most of them are extremely skilled and take pride in doing the job well. But their connection to the congregation is often limited. They may not be members of the church. They may not attend services there when they are not playing. They may not know the people in the congregation, and the congregation may not know them. Their role is primarily functional: to provide musical services.

In that sense, the relationship between the church and the musician becomes similar to hiring any other skilled professional. When your car breaks down, you hire a qualified mechanic. When a pipe bursts, you call a plumber. You are paying for expertise. In the same way, the church hires the expert musician because they can reliably produce the musical result needed for the service.

Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with that. It is simply a particular model of how church music can function. But like any model, it has strengths and weaknesses, and understanding both sides of it helps churches make thoughtful decisions about how they want their music ministry to work.

Home-Grown

As a church-based music teacher (I teach private lessons in my home church throughout the year), I have the honor of primarily teaching children from our church, as well as from churches around me, guitar, ukulele, Bass, music theory, and music composition. Our church uses only musicians from within our congregation (except that we sometimes hire auxiliary musicians for big events to augment our choir, orchestra, and band). Though our church’s music standards are very high, we have the luxury of putting seasoned, pro-level musicians on the stage every Sunday, all of whom attend our church regularly. People know us by name, and we are part of our church’s life. On Sunday mornings, when we play, we don’t see an audience – we see our friends and loved ones with whom we worship. Many of my students are from this church, and not a Sunday goes by that I don’t see some of them and wave at them. Some of the younger ones come down to the front row to watch me and the other musicians play. Over the years, I have “raised” a crop of musicians who are now scattered throughout the Metro Atlanta area, working in other churches, leading worship, serving as sidemen, etc. 

Before they went out and started “adulting,” they learned the art of being a Christian Musician at our church – lessons from me, and when they were good enough, they took a spot in our worship community as part of the worship band, orchestra, or vocalists. And the little guys who come down front to watch me worship and play are in awe when a student begins to play with the band. Currently, there is a 20+ year-old former girl student of mine who can play guitar, mandolin, keys, or bass anywhere in our church. She has been able to hang with ALL of us oldsters since she was 14. On Sundays when SHE plays, some of my current students are watching her worship and play, many of them dreaming of one day being where she is. And THAT demonstrates the cycle (in our church) of worship musicians. We train them to play; they join us on stage for a season to learn the art of being a worship musician, and then they are released to take their skills and heart for worship elsewhere. Some stay, some move on. 

I currently have students who are worship pastors, sidemen – some of them that are the “hired guns” we spoke of above – and even Christian secular musicians (one of our former youngster church musicians made it a long way in the American Idol competition).

I am currently on the cusp of moving some more young musicians into the worship community of our church – the cycle continues. 

Summary

In summary, the “hired gun approach” looks at the music as a tool to move us through the service – and I find nothing wrong with that.

Find the best musicians and pay them to play well. 

The “home-grown” approach looks at music as not ONLY part of the worship service, but takes it one step further – realizing that music can, in and of itself, be a ministry that reaches beyond the weekly service, aimed at a very particular sub-group within that church – musicians. In other words,

“We need to find the musicians in our congregation and train them, utilizing the Sunday services as our framework for developing the final product – a skilled Christian player capable of playing anywhere”.

The former (Hired Guns) meets the immediate need (we need music). The latter (Home-Grown) takes a long-view approach.

There is no win/lose here. Just options.

 

Mr G

“In the Beginning… coffee. And Lo, it was VERY good!”