Do leaders need to be seen?

I'm currently part of a church plant. Over the last several months while we've been preparing to launch, several members of our team have gathered on Sunday mornings to visit other churches in the area. We're there to get ideas, ask questions (when possible), and just see what God is doing in our city. 

I recently went to a church I hadn’t heard of until the week before I attended it. I walked in and everything was pretty typical for a pop-up campus. I got there early, saw a team unloading a trailer and setting up chairs. As it got closer to the service time, people were talking and getting coffee. When I entered the sanctuary area as worship was beginning, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before:

You couldn’t see the band!

There was a stage, which had a podium for the speaker, but the band was off to the side, kind of tucked away in the corner.

The purpose of this, from what I gathered, was to rid the church of a “performance” mentality. Eyes were on the slides with the lyrics rather than on a band or worship leader. It’s an interesting idea, but I’m not sure I can get behind it.

If you know me, you know I’m a big fan of worship leaders being seen. I believe leaders of worship should be modelers of worship. I believe worship leaders set the tone for worship in ways outside of singing. I believe body language plays a HUGE role in leading worship.

Don’t get me wrong - what they were doing was great. And I don’t think they were doing anything wrong. People were worshiping. But I wonder how different their worship would look if they could see who was leading them.

Those are just my thoughts and opinions on the subject though. I'm really interested in what you all think! Have you seen this? Done this? what do you think?