I might be in the right place

A lot of churches are moving towards saying that members should not be employees, and I tend to agree when it comes to folk like maintenance or administrators. But I think those of us who work specifically within the community-- musicians and educators-- are in a different category. We are explicitly connected with the belief framework of the church, and also we work nearly every Sunday plus religious holidays; how are we supposed to maintain connection with some other community for our spiritual health?

I had this conversation recently with my new pastor, though I am not necessarily ready to move my membership (I have even pondered just withdrawing my membership entirely). He admitted to leaning towards the "no member/employees" side but listened well. To my surprise, yesterday he told me that he went to the regional denominational authority, and they told him "with a person for whom membership is meaningful, it can be fine" (with one suggestion for minimizing potential conflict of interest). Then he went to the church ruling body and discussed it-- and says their response was unanimously "of COURSE she can join!"