Music is the church staff role most often paid by the Sunday and worked by the week. A choir director “working three hours” is choosing music, pulling and filing octavos, rehearsing, meeting with the pastor about the service, and playing — and the gap between the stated hours and the real ones is where resentment grows, usually silently, for years. Written here at three sizes, with the hidden hours named.

Job descriptions are approved by SPRC in cooperation with the pastor (¶258.2g.7). Pair with the personnel policy skeleton.

Flag, not answered here: whether this position is exempt or non-exempt. “Director” in the title settles nothing. A part-time musician paid a flat weekly amount is very often non-exempt, which means hours must be tracked and overtime paid. Settle it before the first paycheck.

The template

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.

Adaptation notes

Count the invisible hours. Score study, music selection, ordering and filing, copyright reporting, and meeting with the pastor are the job. A description listing only rehearsal and service time will be read by the church as the whole job, and the musician will know otherwise.

Weddings and funerals need a written policy — who plays, what is paid, by whom, and what happens when the family wants an outside musician. Put it in the job description or the wedding policy, but put it somewhere before the first disagreement.

Copyright is a real obligation. Streaming a service adds a licence requirement beyond the one for printing words in a bulletin. Name who holds and reports the licences.

One person, one supervisor. Music is where “reports to the worship committee” does the most damage, because everyone in the congregation has an opinion about music and a committee will relay all of them.

If the organist and choir director are two people, write two descriptions and say plainly who decides when they disagree. Usually the pastor; say so.

Elsewhere

• American Guild of Organists — professional body for church musicians; publishes compensation guidance by position and church size, which is the most useful thing available when setting a rate.
• The Hymn Society — resources on congregational song, useful when the conversation is about repertoire rather than pay.
• Fact Sheet #17A — DOL — the exempt/non-exempt duties tests.
• Safe Gatherings — screening and training, which this role usually needs because of children’s ensembles.
• Personnel policy skeleton — the employment terms this description leaves out.