7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Mediocre Worship Leaders

You could be a beginner worship leader and grow into a skilled music minister. You could be an awesome worship leader and still find room to improve (that’s one of the reasons that makes you awesome in the first place!).

In either case, it’s a pleasure to worship with you.

Then there are the mediocre ones—I’m sure you’ve met them, ‘cos they seem to be around. They are the ones who kill our expectations of an engaging worship session, display almost next-to-nothing levels of creativity and tightly embrace ‘ordinary’ like their closest friend without letting go…ever!

Mediocrity is the result when worship leaders are satisfied with what they already have and have no desire to go deeper.

More often than not, they display these 7 traits—so here’s what you should be avoiding:

The 7 Characteristics of Mediocre Worship Leaders

1. Mediocre worship leaders pray

irregularly. They do not build or maintain a consistent daily personal prayer life. It’s 15 minutes today, 7 minutes tomorrow, zero for the next 2 days, start again next week and so on. Their knowledge of scripture comprises mostly stuff they’ve heard from others. They don’t invest much in personal study of the Word either.

2. Mediocre worship leaders are worshippers

only in public and rarely in private. They only perceive worship as an on-stage activity or ministry and not as a way of life. They are unwilling to pay a price for their calling and generally lack vision. They don’t have a long-term Kingdom perspective too.

3. Mediocre worship leaders strive to be like Jesus

by remaining the same yesterday, today and forever—I mean musically. They know 6 chords and 2 strumming patterns when they begin to lead worship. 10 years later, their skill remains at the same 6 chords and 2 strumming patterns. Consistency is their motto and goal.

4. Mediocre worship leaders love

staying mediocre by somehow believing they are expert worship leaders. In fact they think they are so good that they learn only from themselves! They never recognize a need for training and avoid taking constructive feedback.

5. Mediocre worship leaders are spontaneous

which is why they change or create set-lists while on stage (They have trouble hearing the Holy Spirit outside the stage)—’planning’ and ‘rehearsing’ are absent in their vocabulary. If by some miracle they actually plan beforehand, it happens only at the last minute. They also possess a patent for this ‘work ethic’ called ATSL (As The Spirit Leads).

6. Mediocre worship leaders are highly skilled

in being predictable. They start the 1st song and you can predict the rest of the set-list immediately. Such is their over-use of songs and beating them to death. They are poor in staying updated and remain obsolete in the eyes of everyone but themselves.

7. Mediocre worship leaders are evangelists

of more mediocrity. They enjoy mediocre songs that lack richness or lyrical depth. They sing what people want to sing, not what people need to be singing. Some of them also get into leadership roles and influence genuinely good worship leaders to become like them, thereby ensuring their legacy of the ordinary continues.