The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
The Chick-fil-A Hiring Secret Every Church Should Steal
What if churches applied Chick-fil-A's hiring mindset to strengthen their Sunday morning teams? Todd Rhodes explores three powerful shifts to make church teams stronger, sharper, and more spiritually aligned.
• Hire for character, not just competence – look beyond skills to find people with heart, empathy and humility
• Consider promoting high-performing volunteers from within when staff positions open up
• Make training ongoing rather than one-time onboarding to prevent drift away from excellence
• Build regular check-ins, Sunday huddles, and celebration of wins into your staff culture
• Remember every role matters, especially invisible ones that create first impressions
• First-time guests decide whether they'll return before the sermon starts
• Consider hospitality skills when hiring worship teams, not just musical ability
• The best people don't just show up—they're selected, shaped, and celebrated
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Okay, everybody loves Chick-fil-A, right? I've only met one person in my life who does not like Chick-fil-A. Of course, most of my friends are Christians and it is Christian chicken, but the only person I've ever met is my son who does not like Chick-fil-A. And I'm like you're, not my son. But seriously, though, today we're going to talk about Chick-fil-A. I'm like you're, not my son. But seriously, though, today we're going to talk about Chick-fil-A and about hiring. Okay, in your church, chick-fil-a has mastered the art of hospitality, whether you like them or you don't like them, and on Sundays they're close, but they're still winning at service. So today I was wondering what if we applied their hiring mindset to our hiring mindset in churches? Because, stick around, by the end of today's Healthy Church Staff podcast, I'm going to provide you with, hopefully, three different powerful shifts to make every Sunday morning team stronger, sharper and maybe even a little bit more spiritually aligned. Okay, hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I am your host here on the Healthy Church Staff podcast. All right, let's take a look at this and some of the things that we can learn when we're hiring staff in our churches that Chick-fil-A does just as part of their DNA, and maybe we could do this a little bit better sometimes in the church.
Speaker 1:Okay, three different points I want to make here. The first is that Chick-fil-A hires for character, not just competence. Chick-fil-a's hiring process is pretty slow and it's pretty intentional. They're not just looking for someone who can take an order, they want somebody who really cares. If you've ever dined in one of their restaurants, they almost over-ooze the personality and the sympathy and everything that you want, right, that it's always their pleasure, right? So they hire for character, not just competence. And when you're hiring a worship leader in the church let's switch over to the church here for a second or you have a greeter, or you're checking for skills. Are you checking for the skills or for the heart? And too often we prioritize just the ability, like, if you're hiring a worship leader or worship pastor, you're prioritizing just that musical ability or even their availability. But what about their empathy or humility? Those are just, they're incredibly important. So maybe during your next interview, let's say on a worship pastor, you can say tell me about a time when you went above and beyond to make somebody feel welcome and special. Okay, chick-fil-a often promotes from within Kind of a side topic here.
Speaker 1:Do you have volunteers, who you just can't hardly live without. Volunteers that are just hitting it absolutely out of the park, that could be trained or maybe should be trained and trusted more. And maybe, if you have a staff opening, maybe you need to look internally on your team. Okay, so that's the first thing. The first point I want to talk about is that we need to hire for character and not just competence. Competence, don't get me wrong. Don't hear me saying that competence isn't important. It absolutely is. But you should hire for character as well. Okay, here's point number two.
Speaker 1:Training at Chick-fil-A is ongoing. It's not just one time and done. Okay, every Chick-fil-A employee, from the teenagers that they hire all the way up to the team leads, they undergo ongoing training and that includes for tone, for posture, for response. We already mentioned my pleasure is their go-to words, right, but do we do this in the church? Too many of us train either our volunteers or our staff members. We do an onboarding process, get them going, we do it once, and then we expect that excellence or whatever we drilled into their head or tried to explain to them about our church. Then we expect that excellence or whatever we drilled into their head or tried to explain to them about our church. We expect that excellence to last forever. But think about it like this you don't just clean the restrooms once a year, right? So why would you pour into, say, your guest services staff member just once and hope for the best? It's an ongoing with all of our employees, with all of our staff, that training should be ongoing, and not just for the best. It's an ongoing with all of our employees, with all of our staff, that training should be ongoing, and not just for the staff. It should be for you too. You should be learning as well.
Speaker 1:Here's the solution for this, I think. Build in some regular check-ins, do some Sunday morning huddles, celebrate those wins in the staff meeting, share stories we talk about this all the time on the podcast. Recast your why often? Because here's the truth People will not drift toward excellence, they drift away from it, unless someone leads the way, and you're the person. You're the one listening right now and watching right now. You're the person that needs to lead the way. Okay, so that's number two. Point number three, and then I'll get you out of here for today.
Speaker 1:Single role matters at Chick-fil-A, especially the invisible one. Chick-fil-a's parking lot attendant might be the first impression somebody gets. Same with your parking team or your person that's at the door, your staff member that's at the door. First impressions make a huge difference and in the church world we sometimes elevate people on the stage. Maybe the worship leaders elevate the people on the stage. Maybe the worship leaders, the pastors, anybody that is front and center, but guess what? The average first-time guest decides whether they're going to come back before even the service starts or especially before the sermon starts.
Speaker 1:So here's what I would suggest to you Flip the script. Make sure that you make yourself available as a team, as a staff. Your guest services team, for example, might have some staff people on it there. They might not be leading worship, but they absolutely set the tone for worship. So here's a question for you what if your next worship hire was also somebody who deeply understood hospitality, or someone who just made space for guests to meet Jesus, not just hear a good band? Okay, so whether you're hiring your next worship leader, your volunteer coordinator, whatever, remember this the best people don't just show up, they're selected, they're shaped and they're celebrated. And, like I said, chick-fil-a gets this, and there are some lessons I think that we can learn in the church from Chick-fil-A when it comes to how to hire employees and how to manage and encourage employees and train employees.
Speaker 1:So hopefully this video maybe just gave you one idea, one thing you've run with, and that's my hope for you today. If it did, I'd love to hear from you. You can always reach out to me podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can leave a comment in the comment sections. I would love to hear that. Read each and every comment, whether it's sent in the comment section or via email at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. We're here for you every weekday, monday through Friday, here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow. I don't even know what we're talking about tomorrow, but it's going to be good, so I hope you enjoy this. All right, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks for watching.
