The Chick-fil-A Hiring Secret Every Church Should Steal
•Todd Rhoades•Season 1•Episode 352
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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
Reach out with comments or questions at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com or in the YouTube comments section. Join us again tomorrow for another episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
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 .
