Healthy Things Grow: Building a Unified and Thriving Staff Team

UnSeminary Podcast with Rich Birch & Chad Bickley, Skyline Church
February 20, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Rich Birch sits down with Chad Bickley, Executive Pastor of Skyline Church, to discuss building and sustaining a healthy staff culture in a rapidly growing multi-site church. Drawing from years of leadership experience and a background in team sports, Chad outlines actionable strategies for fostering staff alignment, defining and reinforcing culture, and translating vision into healthy growth. The conversation is packed with practical wisdom on creating unified church teams, the challenges of scaling staff health, and how deeply “healthy things grow” in church life.

About Skyline Church

• 70 years old; founded in 1954
• Only four senior pastors in its history, including John Maxwell (05:47)
• Multiple campuses: 2 in California, 1 in Arizona, 1 in Tennessee; plus online services (02:52)
• Current strategic focus: “Oikos” relational evangelism (03:40)
• Bold vision: 10,000 people in 10 years, 10 campuses/plants (“10-10-10” Vision) (07:17)

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining and Living Your Culture

• Churches often lack clarity on “how we behave”
  • Many organizations have a vision and purpose statement but don't clearly define their expected behaviors (12:24)
  • “I would say the number one thing that most organizations, you know, places, churches miss is they don't define how we behave to reach the vision.” — Chad Bickley (12:24)
• Culture is a language: Core values and behaviors need to be reinforced constantly until they permeate everything (13:00)
• Culture must be continually reinforced, not just taught once

2. The Six Core Behaviors (“Levels”) at Skyline

The team is drilled on six clearly articulated behaviors, used in:

• Hiring
• Annual and six-month reviews
• Cultural spotlights in meetings
• Volunteer recognition

The Levels are:

1. Attitude: Humility, gratitude, being a teammate (16:51)
   • “It starts every day with that one. ... if you're struggling with your work ethic, go back to level one.” — Chad Bickley (17:15)
2. Commitment
3. Work Ethic: “Work enthusiastically with grit...be more efficient and better today than yesterday.” (19:28)
4. Accountability: “Level four accountability” — quickly address drama or conflict to avoid slowdowns (13:45)
5. Trust
6. Love

3. Strategies for Building and Reinforcing Culture

• Weekly “Cultural Spotlights”:
  • At every pastor/director meeting, team members nominate others for exemplifying a specific core behavior—not just to praise individuals, but to highlight “what” was done in alignment with values (24:00)
  • “But we're highlighting the core behavior...what that does is iron sharpens iron. It has taken these six levels to a whole different level.” — Chad Bickley (25:10)
• Visible Language & Rituals:
  • Team routinely uses phrases like “you’re either water or gas in a situation” and refers to accountability and attitudes by their “level”
  • Staff are encouraged to self-assess their mindset and mood (e.g., green/yellow/red) and reset as needed (21:00)
• Intensive Interview & Onboarding:
  • Cultural fit is weighted as highly as competence (“Do they fit our culture? Not can they just do the job.”) (28:44)
• Volunteer & Staff Recognition:
  • “Culture Warrior” monthly awards for volunteers (25:20)
• Department Huddles & All-Staff:
  • All arms of the church, including volunteers, are being taught to “speak the language” of the culture (25:44)

4. Practical Meeting Structure for Culture Reinforcement

Weekly Pastor/Director Meeting (26:14)

• Cultural Section
  • Cultural spotlights
  • Sharing of stories from last Sunday (trains leaders to look for, collect, and celebrate cultural wins)
• Awareness Section
  • What are you hearing and seeing?
• Discussion Section
  • Priority updates (“win/stuck/priority” check-ins)
  • Additional topics as needed
• Assessing Organizational Health
  • When the meeting overflows with cultural wins and energy, “you know you’re healthy” (27:23)

5. Leadership Lessons: From Sports to Ministry

• Chad attributes much of his mindset to his experience in coaching and team sports (09:26)
• Patrick Lencioni’s Six Questions have been foundational in crafting their culture:
  1. Why do we exist?
  2. How do we behave?
  3. What do we do?
  4. How will we succeed?
  5. What’s important now?
  6. Who does what? (10:37)
• Leaders as servants:
  “...the leaders are actually at the bottom, pushing everybody back to the top.” — Chad Bickley (10:37)
• When culture clarity leads to natural attrition:
  “Some people are like, yeah, that's just not me. And it ended healthy.” — Chad Bickley (16:24)

6. Cautions & Challenges

• Avoiding Siloes:
  Teams must not become isolated; celebration and collaboration across departments is crucial (14:00)
• “Drama slows us down”:
  Conflict isn’t ignored—address issues quickly and directly with level four accountability (13:45)
• Scaling Health as You Grow:
  The more you expand, the more intentional you must be to keep your team’s behaviors in front of everyone (28:44)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On defining behaviors:
  • “The number one thing that most organizations, you know...miss is they don't define how we behave.” — Chad Bickley (12:24)
• On growing pains and clarity:
  • “We don't want to get to 10,000 people and we have an unhealthy staff.” — Chad Bickley (07:49)
  • “We control our attitude and our effort.” — Chad Bickley (14:56)
• On attitude as foundation:
  • “If you're struggling with your work ethic, go back to level one.” — Chad Bickley (17:17)
• On teamwork synergy:
  • “One [Clydesdale] horse can pull 8,000 pounds...two horses trained, working together with the same mindset, they can do 32,000 pounds.” (18:42)
• On work ethic and mood:
  • “If you're in the yellow, you're frustrated, you're complacent...You need to go back to level one. You need to take a thankfulness walk.” — Chad Bickley (21:00)
• On cultural rituals:
  • “Culture's a language and you have to teach people to speak a language. It takes a while.” — Chad Bickley (25:44)
• On healthy culture:
  • “Healthy things grow. You have to weed them, you have to water them, you have to put effort into healthy things.” — Chad Bickley (31:16)
• On staff and culture fit:
  • “They have to have those traits already instilled in them or they're going to be miserable.” — Chad Bickley (28:44)

Important Timestamps

• Skyline Church background & growth: (02:52–05:47)
• Oikos relational evangelism explained: (03:40)
• Vision and growing pains: (07:05)
• Six core behaviors & Patrick Lencioni questions: (10:37–13:00)
• Reinforcing behaviors in hiring and reviews: (13:45–14:56)
• Drilling into Level 1 Attitude and Level 3 Work Ethic: (16:24–23:21)
• Weekly meeting structure & reinforcing culture: (24:00–28:24)
• Future challenges and growth: (28:44–31:16)
• Parting wisdom & contact info: (31:16–31:58)

Final Takeaways

• Consistent, concrete behaviors are the backbone of a healthy church culture.
• Staff health is intentional—it requires clarity, language, and continual reinforcement.
• As churches grow, culture must be actively defended and adapted, not assumed.
• Success is measured in stories and team wins, not just numbers.

Resources & Connections

• Skyline Church: skylinechurch.org
• For more on the six core behaviors, visit the church website or reach out to Chad directly.