When you work for a church as a worship leader, I feel you need to possess a certain mix of character and professional qualities. Any mix of these will do, but with the worship leaders that I meet, there is no one that strikes a perfect balance between all these.
1) Pastoral – A worship leader is first and foremost a pastor. He must process the desire to put people at the heart of the ministry, not music at the heart. He is easily comfortable leading people to worship as he is for himself alone. God first, never music.
2) Administrator: A worship leader must have the ability to organize many facets of ministry. Ministry often involves hundreds of emails, meetings, volunteers, schedules, songs, films, sermon illustrations, dramas, etc. Effective worship leaders can keep the engine running and make sure people are worshiping the Lord, not getting burned out.
3) Musician: A worship leader must process a God gifted talent in music. Whether it is in vocals, guitar, piano, conductor, etc, the job doesn’t require you to be the best in the world, but the best for the task God has given you. Also, a good understanding of how modern music works as well as knowledge and respect for the Church’s musical history is of great value.
4) Creative: A Worship leader needs to be way more than just putting together an awesome music set. You must have a keen insight of the Spirit that helps people worship using all of their senses.
5) High Character: A worship leader can not be an egotistical rock star, but a humble servant of the Lord. You are the first to arrive, you set up gear, help others with their gear, you wrap cables, you help with the audio setup, you talk to people before and after, and you are the last to leave.
Did I miss something here?
What other job skills do you need?
