Six Mistakes That Keep Your Church From Singing- (Part 1)

As a worship leader, do you ever feel like you’re leading worship for a group of department store mannequins, statues, or maybe even a room full of zombies? I call them screen zombies. They’re the people who stand there, staring at the screen with a blank, almost lifeless expression.

In many congregations, we see these lethargic faces on Sunday mornings—people who just stare at the screen. Sometimes you see their lips moving, sometimes you don’t. If you’re like me, you know exactly where the unengaged or grouchy-looking people sit, and it can mess with your focus while leading. Conversely, we also have those who encourage us with their active participation in worship, and we naturally gravitate toward them.

Now, we can’t judge what’s happening in the hearts of those who seem disengaged or grouchy. They might be deeply connecting with Jesus or hearing from God. We simply don’t know. But as worship team members and leaders, our job isn’t to force people to sing or worship. Instead, we aim to create an environment that encourages participation in musical worship.

The Problem: Discouraging Participation

The problem is that just as we can encourage participation, we can also discourage it. In this article, I’ll dig into some common mistakes we make as leaders and team members that might be keeping our churches from singing. These mistakes could be contributing to the abundance of screen zombies in your congregation.

I’ll outline each mistake, explain why it’s damaging to our church and its impact on congregational singing, and offer solutions to fix it. Chances are, you or your team members are committing at least one of these mistakes each week. The good news is that most of these mistakes are relatively simple to correct. So, let’s dig in.

Mistake #1: Stand Zombies

If you have screen zombies in the pews, you probably have stand zombies on the platform. Stand zombies are team members who stare at their music stands (or iPads, tablets, etc.) just like the congregation stares at the screens. Enthusiasm for singing is contagious, but so is apathy. When your platform team buries their heads in their music stands, or their eyes are glued to the stage display monitor (confidence monitor), or they’re just looking at their hands the whole time, it doesn’t encourage the congregation to sing.

The Fix: 

A major fix for this issue is confidence. You and your team members need to lead with confidence. There are three root issues that cause this lack of confidence, resulting in stand zombies on the platform.

• Lack of Preparation: 

Many players and singers who show little expression likely need more practice. They need to learn their music better to be more confident. If this is a problem for your team, we have resources at worshipteamcoach.com that can help.

• Poor Platform Presence: 

You might hear the term “stage presence” in the performance world, and there are techniques we can learn from that, but platform presence goes beyond engaging an audience. For us, it’s about inviting people to worship with us. We’re not trying to create an audience; we want to foster participation, not isolation.

We’re also modeling worship. We must be visual leaders, but we also need to shift the focus off ourselves so the congregation can focus on God. This might sound odd, but platform presence helps because it combines biblical expressions of worship with visual leadership skills. These are tools we use from the platform to engage those we’re leading in worship.

Once your team learns platform presence and gets comfortable with physical expressions of worship, they’ll be much more engaging and confident on the platform.

• Insecurity: 

Some team members might know their music and have good platform presence, but they still struggle with confidence due to deep-seated insecurities.

This isn’t something you can fix overnight, but you can start addressing it now. Encourage your team members to be confident in their role if they’re called to be on the worship team. One reason they can be confident is that you and your church leadership have given them the authority to be on the platform and lead. This may not have been explicitly stated, but it’s implied. Even if they’re playing an instrument or singing as a background vocalist, they hold a leadership role.

More importantly, they have authority as children of God. They need to walk in that confidence. Addressing confidence and insecurity issues is challenging, but start the conversation with your team. Look up scriptures that reinforce their identity in Christ. As they grow in confidence, they’ll be able to worship God more freely and be more visually engaging for the congregation.

Mistake #2: Songs are Too High

One worship leader once received a note from a congregant that read, “You’re making my throat burn; the songs are too high.” While this might be an exaggerated response, it highlights a real issue—having songs in keys that are too high (or too low) can cause problems.

As a worship leader, you have to balance choosing a key that’s comfortable for the average church attendee with a key that suits your or another leader’s voice. You or the person leading the song need to sing it with strength, but it also needs to be congregation-friendly.

At almost every conference and workshop, I hear the question, “What is the right key for the congregation?” So, let me tell you: the right key for the congregation is the right key for the congregation. There are no one-size-fits-all answers, no magic keys that work for everyone. (Although, starting with the “C to shining C” framework is a good idea.)

The Fix: 

You need to consider the melodic line of the song, the highest and lowest notes, and find a key that fits as comfortably as possible for everyone, especially the men in your church.

Mike Harland, in his book Worship Essentials, says:  

“In a generation where engaging men in the life of the church is already difficult, we should not make it more challenging by singing songs most of them can’t sing.”

He continues:  

“I challenge you to watch any family at church. If the father sings, they all will sing. If Mom participates, the daughter will as well. If he or she prays, they all will pray. If they give, the children will give too. But if Dad has his arms folded and remains passive, the whole family will likely yawn all the way through the service.”

When in doubt, find an average male singer in your congregation and test the key with him. For example, one of our coaching clients uses a gentleman named Dave in their congregation. If Dave can sing the song comfortably and with enthusiasm, then most of the other men will be able to sing it too.

Stay Tuned: 

Those are the first two mistakes that might be keeping your church from singing. 

Click HERE for Part 2.

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This article was originally published in Worship Musician Magazine, September 2024 issue and has been modified from the original.