# Job Description: Director of Music
### [Church Name] · Approved by SPRC [date] · Reviewed [date]

**Reports to:** the pastor
**Works with:** [worship committee / accompanist / AV team]
**Classification:** [full-time / part-time] · [exempt / non-exempt — see above]
**Hours:** [ ] per week, including rehearsal and Sunday
**Compensation:** [rate], reviewed annually with the budget
**Additional services:** weddings and funerals are compensated separately at
$[ ] per service `[state whether the church or the family pays, and whether the
director has right of first refusal]`

### Purpose

To lead the congregation's sung worship, in partnership with the pastor, so that
the music serves the liturgy rather than competing with it.

### Core responsibilities — **FULL TIME (30–40 hrs)**

**Worship**
- Plan music with the pastor on a stated cycle `[weekly / monthly / seasonally]`,
  in keeping with the lectionary or the church's planning practice.
- Play and/or direct at [ ] weekly services.
- Select, purchase, and manage music within the approved budget.
- Maintain the music library, licensing, and copyright compliance.

**Ensembles**
- Direct the chancel choir: [ ] rehearsals weekly, plus seasonal preparation.
- Develop and direct [handbells / children's choir / praise team / instrumentalists].
- Recruit and retain singers and players — this is a year-round pastoral task, not
  an August one.

**Instruments and equipment**
- Oversee tuning and maintenance of organ and pianos; recommend a schedule and
  budget to the trustees.
- Coordinate with the AV/sound team.

**Seasonal**
- Plan and prepare Advent/Christmas and Lent/Holy Week/Easter, including any
  additional services and rehearsals.

### At **HALF TIME (15–20 hrs)** — what changes

Keep: Sunday worship, one weekly rehearsal, planning with the pastor, the music
library and licensing, seasonal preparation.

Cut or move: additional ensembles reduce to one; children's choir becomes a
seasonal project or moves to a volunteer; instrument maintenance coordination moves
to trustees; recruiting becomes shared with the worship committee.

Write down the **weekly rehearsal night** and hold it. It is the first thing other
church activities colonize.

### At **QUARTER TIME (8–10 hrs)** — what changes

Realistically: Sunday morning, plus planning and preparation time. That is it.

Keep only: playing/leading Sunday worship, selecting music, and personal
preparation time — **which must be counted**. An organist does not sight-read a
prelude; if the church counts only the time it can see, it is paying for about half
the work.

Everything else moves: no weekly ensemble unless separately compensated, licensing
and library to the administrator, instrument maintenance to trustees, seasonal
services negotiated individually with additional pay.

At this size be explicit about **Advent and Holy Week**: they are not absorbed. Say
now whether extra services are additional pay or scheduled comp time.

### Qualifications

- Keyboard and/or choral competence appropriate to the church's music
  `[be honest about the instrument — a tracker organ and a praise band need
  different people]`.
- Ability to work collaboratively with clergy and volunteers of mixed ability.
- [CHOOSE: degree or equivalent experience; membership is generally *not* required
  — decide deliberately.]

### Screening

Background check required. `[Add Safe Gatherings-type training if the role includes
directing children's or youth ensembles — it usually does, and this is routinely
overlooked because the role reads as musical rather than as youth work.]`

### Working conditions

Sunday mornings, weekly evening rehearsal, additional services in Advent and Holy
Week, and occasional weddings and funerals at short notice.

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**This is a starting point, not legal advice.** Employment law varies by state, and your annual conference may have policies that go beyond the Discipline. Before you rely on anything here for a hiring, firing, or compensation decision, run it past your conference office or chancellor.

Paragraph references are to the 2020/2024 Book of Discipline. This document paraphrases; for the binding text, see the Discipline itself.

From Itineracy Commons — https://itineracy.app/commons/jobs/music-director/
Licensed CC BY 4.0. Adapt it freely; keep the attribution.
Last updated 2026-07-22.