• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bryan Holten

Church Music Made Better

  • Blog
  • Featured
  • Scores
  • About
  • Work with Bryan
You are here: Home / Archives for clergy-musician relations

clergy-musician relations

How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Your Pastor

August 30, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

A better partnership starts with awareness. Here’s how to get there.

two colleagues shaking hands

Pastors and musicians have a history of fraught relationships, but yours doesn’t have to be that way. Everyone has their good and bad days, but no one deserves to be stuck at an impasse forever. Healthy relationships in the church are just as important as anywhere else. Here are a few of my suggestions for how to have a healthy relationship with your pastor. He or she should always be your number one partner in music ministry.

Don’t assume anything.

Too many musicians assume that the pastor is little more than a philosopher with his “head in the clouds.” Likewise, too many pastors assume that musicians are temperamental artists with little concern for the larger work of the church. Don’t make this mistake.

[Read more…] about How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Your Pastor

Filed Under: Philosophy, Technique/How-To Tagged With: clergy-musician relations, relationships, self assessment, self awareness

Six Ways to Make Yourself Indispensable to Your Pastor

August 13, 2018 By Bryan Holten Leave a Comment

woman wearing white top seated at table facing woman wearing blue long sleeved top

In most churches, the pastor (or senior pastor, if there is more than one) is the chief decision maker. This includes decisions about whom to hire and fire. I’ve talked about job security in the church, but not in terms of the pastor-musician relationship. As a church musician, this is the one relationship you can’t afford to ignore. A strong relationship with your pastor is arguably your best source of security. It would be far too painful for a pastor to fire someone who makes their life easier.

To that end, here are six of my ideas for how you can make yourself so valuable to your pastor that s/he would never consider letting you go. [Read more…] about Six Ways to Make Yourself Indispensable to Your Pastor

Filed Under: Philosophy Tagged With: church politics, clergy-musician relations, pastors

Footer

Never miss out on free resources for church musicians.

Join my spam club! I’ll send you an update every time I publish something new. This includes sheet music you can use right away, totally free.

Sign Up Now

Copyright © 2023 Bryan Holten · Contact · Privacy · Terms · Icons by Icons8