If your music ministry is going to grow and thrive, it’s going to take adequate money in the parish budget. It’s a good idea to make friends and communicate effectively with the pastor and the members of the finance committee.

This means getting used to quantifying everything and presenting costs in ways that non-musicians can relate to. If your parish seriously needs a new hymnal or missal, figure out the yearly costs—then break those down into monthly and weekly expenditures per capita! That’s right: how much would it cost every week, per person, to facilitate congregational participation?

Learn to read a financial statement so that your questions are pertinent, accurate and thoughtful. The question is always: what’s most helpful for the community’s expression of their faith? I was recently at a funeral in a parish that no longer provides worship aids for funerals; the end result was that no one who wasn’t a member of the parish could sing the Mass parts, curtailing their participation. That’s definitely not very pastoral.

Is there money in the budget for continuing education—not only for you but for members of the music ministry? Can you offer a reasonable stipend for an accomplished accompanist to work with your accompanists to improve their skills? What about cantor workshops? Sight training for singers? Presenters may say exactly the same things you’ve been saying, but hearing it from someone else can spark a lot of “aha!” moments.

More on this next week.