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Churches that are associated with Seventh-day Adventists'
extensive parochial school system's boarding academies, colleges, and universities usually rely on the schools'
music programs for their choral music. Churches that are not the Adventist academy or college churches generally have
not designated the resources to support an on-going choral music program.
This situation exists primarily because of the financial
structure of the Adventist church. Rather than congregational control of finances, all tithes and many of the offerings are
sent to the Conference, the Division, and General Conference, from where the monies are redistributed.
The good consequence of this policy is that all clergy
members are paid a fairly equal wage regardless of the size of their individual churches, and the church is able to
support a variety of world-wide missions. The not-so-good consequence is that the churches must find additional funds
to support local projects and ministries--including music ministry.
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The current music policy is the result of the early
days of the Seventh-day Adventist church when many of the churches and companies met in rented facilities or people's
homes. During those early years, dedicated Adventist volunteer musicians provided all the music. Possibly due to the rapidly
expanding membership, and the continued volunteer musical contributions, the need for hiring professional musicians in
local churches was bypassed until the world-wide church was so large that changing the financial structure of the church
would have been extremely difficult. At almost 13 million members world-wide, changing this financial structure now would
be even more difficult.
Volunteer musicians still provide music in all but the largest
and most affluent Seventh-day Adventist Churches.
Many small churches depend on volunteer musicians. For an interview
with a volunteer pianist for a Methodist church click here: Why I Volunteer.
This explanation by
producer,
with some information
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