How should the music director and minister work together?
Like a producer (minister) and director (music director) of a film or play—hand in hand yet with well-defined roles and with creativity and expression intact. Each should be well-informed of the service’s dynamics. The music director should know the message—what the minister is wanting to convey. The minister should supply the music director with lesson titles (with one or two sentence summary of the lesson and Bible passages and quotes) so the music director can look for appropriate music. Any announcements that may require special staging or background music, special event promotions etc. should be conveyed for creative ideas. Understand that it is very difficult for the music to match perfectly every week to the message. For these occasions there are the “generic message songs” the music director should have ready that fit almost any title. The music director must understand that this is the minister’s “show” (the producer). He/She calls the shots as to final say about the flow of t
