I get a lot of great sermon fodder and draw a lot of spiritual parallels from the Rocky movies. Rocky I is the Old Testament, Rocky II is the Gospels, Rocky III is Paul’s Epistles and Rocky IV is the book of Revelation. (Rocky V and VI are like the Left Behind books, if you ask me, and in no way is that a compliment.)

The third installment of this great American cinematic masterpiece features Rocky at the top of his game. Kind of.
Rocky is destroying the opposition-one decisive victory after another.
But when Rock is finally forced to face Clubber Lang (played brilliantly by Mr. T) he discovers that he was never half the champion he thought he was. Lang handily defeats Rocky, causing Rocky to realize that his manager, Mickey, had been setting him up against fall guys for the entirety of his reign as heavyweight champion of the world.
Mick wanted to make sure Rocky kept his belt, so he didn’t let him fight any of the top contenders. He only let him fight chumps.
He chose to let Rocky celebrate hollow victories against unworthy opponents rather than risk defeat against the best in the world.

I can relate to the temptation of Mickey’s approach. I find myself as a leader wanting my team to succeed so badly that it’s almost tempting to lower the standard sometimes-just so we can record a win, and avoid a loss at any cost.

In reality, the highest compliment I can pay to those I lead is to let them go up against hard competition. To perform against high standards. And even to let them lose every once in a while, demanding that we own up to the loss, learn from it, and adjust. What does it communicate about my belief in my team if I adjust my desired level of excellence in order that no one ever has to feel bad? Do I not think they’re big boys and girls? Isn’t it likely that they want to reach their full potential as much or more than I want them to?

I once heard a senior pastor tell his youth pastor:
“You run the best youth ministry in the entire state.”
Everyone at the table had to choke back their laughter. This guy’s youth ministry was far from the best in the state… by anyone’s standard… his own included.
That pastor didn’t do that youth pastor any favors by relabeling a losing youth ministry as a world champion.
He simply watered down his definition of a win.

I want to keep our standards high at Elevation. We’ll win some, we’ll lose some.
But at least we’re fighting on the championship level against worthy opponents.