Only full time church workers should be paid — Pastor Olumide Emmanuel

Founder of Calvary Bible Church, Pastor Olumide Emmanuel, has weighed in on compensating church musicians.

He stressed that roles such as ushering, choir participation, and security should be seen as acts of service to God and should not be financially compensated.

Emmanuel emphasised that volunteering in these areas is a way to serve the church without expecting monetary rewards.

However, the pastor made a distinction between volunteers and full-time staff.

He acknowledged that those who commit to full-time ministry roles, regardless of the department, should be paid a salary for their work.

He explained that while the church values volunteers, it cannot afford to pay every person who volunteers, as doing so would hinder its ability to support other essential activities.

Emmanuel encouraged individuals who feel called to serve in full-time ministry to apply for staff positions, where they would be expected to work from Monday to Friday, attend rehearsals, and participate in church services over the weekends.

The cleric said:

“This is a church of God, and everyone of us comes to serve God as our father and creator and we operate as a family. “

“So as a family, we come into the church, we all look into what needs to be done in the house and whatever we have the ability and giftings to do, we do as part of our contribution to the family. “

“So when people come they join a department, ushering, choir, security, etc. None of them should be paid for serving God. I’m not supposed to pay you because you’re an usher, choir, protocol, or instrumentalist.

“I don’t believe I should pay you to come to church on Sunday morning to worship God and play your part in the church. If everybody begins to collect money we won’t have money to do many things. “

“So as a pastor, I’m also coming to serve God, and I have business I do. But not everybody can do business. So if you’re working in the kingdom, you should be paid.

“So if you’re a musician in church and you want to be a part of the staff, you should be paid. If someone says I want to be a full time music minister, we would pay you. If you are a music minister what are you doing from Monday till Friday. “

“Some of these things are not sustainable. But anyone who thinks he wants to do music ministry full time, we are ready to employ you as a full time staff. But you will come to work Monday to Friday like everybody else and still come to rehearsal on Saturday and Church on Sunday.” [CONTINUE READING HERE]>>>>>