Dear Church Musicians & Worship Artists,

How are you? No, really. How ARE you?

Although we’ve heard so much recently about clergy burnout and resignation, I know you aren’t well either. Many of you found yourselves saddled with a host of new responsibilities during the pandemic. You became recording artists, audio engineers, video editors, social media managers, and more, and you did all of that while inventing novel ways to provide music and worship ministry to your congregations. You worked so hard learning new skills and devoting extra hours to keep your churches afloat, and you plowed through it all thinking that you’d get a break at the end of this. But now here we are. There is no end and those extra tasks are largely still in your hands while you navigate the challenges of in-person worship and attempt to rebuild your programs. You know this work load isn’t sustainable, and those administrative duties are eating at your creativity and your joy. What’s more, your job description and compensation package likely fail to reflect the reality of all that you do and all that you have done.

I’m worried about you.

Throughout 2020 I helped moderate a series of webinars with The Center for Sacred Music at Virginia Wesleyan University in which you shared how you were serving the church during this crisis. Now I hope you can help me answer another question: How can we serve you so that the next wave of exodus from the church isn’t all of her musicians and worship artists?

Would you please take a moment to respond to our survey to let us know what kind of events, workshops, and other programming would be of use to you? Your input will be invaluable as we try to navigate this new season together.

My best,
Charlotte Elia