What Matters to You?



One of the most memorable sermons I ever heard was about what matters to people. The preacher explained that there is one are two simple measuring sticks: a person's calendar and their checkbook register. (You can tell it was a long time ago...now both of those things are "your pda."

The point was, how anybody spends their time and money defines their priorities. Not one in isolation, but both of them together. Time and money kind of go together like the oft-sung horse and carriage. (Want a newer reference? How about Imogen Heap: "What matters to you, doesn't matter to me..." [you'll need to wait almost to the end to get the context].)

The same holds in ministry. Your (and your church's) calendar and budget say a lot about your ministry priorities.

Where am I going with this? Worship and Music matter. They matter a lot. The latter is a very significant component of the former, and the former is the single activity that the whole congregation does together (unless you have multiple worship services...then they worship together in smaller increments...which is why but that's a different article...)

Yet the rule of thumb seems to be that a "healthy" church aims to spend "about" 10% of its budget on music. Not Often that figure means including salaries. I expect you are doing the math in your head right now...and, if you are like me, wondering why that number is so small...

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