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ORIGINAL: BenHarris

I have heard the phrase "Stepping out on faith" I suppose far too many times. I have a great deal of faith in God, and what He can do, it is faith with mere mortals where my faith begins to wane. For our group Southern Sound to travel, we have fixed expense for insurance, maintance, fuel per mile, food costs, lodging, etc. NOt long ago a nice lady from Iowa called and asked us to do a concert at their church. When we finally got around to talking money (which I simply detest doing) she said it would be a love offering and that their offerings usually ran $250-$275. The distance was about 550 miles, so at 6 miles per gallon of diesel at about $2.60 per gallon, we would spend about $240 just getting there. And this does not include the trip home, insurance, lodging, food nor a single dime for our guys to be away from families for that length of time. This is one of the main reasons we went to a booking agent (Dominion Agency). They have no qualms at all telling a promoter or pastor what is required. Lets be clear, if I never received one single dime to sing Southern Gospel, I would still be REQUIRED to do so, as it is my calling, and I would not be right doing anything else. However, I am glad that God said a "Workmen is worthy of his hire" Now, if we could just get more pastors and promoters to read that same passage we would be all better off. A pastor friend of mine in Florida asked me sometime back to list all of our expenses incurred in travel to his church. Which we did. He paid the expenses plus a love offering. I asked him about that and he said, "Until the expenses are met, there is no such thing as a love offering." Enough said!

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"Until the expenses are met, there is no such thing as a love offering."

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ORIGINAL: HigherNote4U

There is one man in gospel music that has it figured out....Bill Gaither. I can guarantee you that he absolutely refuses to do a concert for a love offering. Why work for free when you could be spending time at home if you ain't making nothing? Ernie Haas is practicing the same things. Remember the story in the Singing News about Signature Sound where it talked about doing less concerts and holding out for bigger concerts?....which translates to getting what you require to make it long term.

I know this is a touchy subject with a LOT of people, and I'm not trying to upset people. People ask what it will take to turn this industry around and going in the right direction. It is called paying a man his worth.