A Higher Standard

It came across my radar recently where someone stated we should be holding our team captains to a "higher standard". My response is to what standard do we hold team captains that we are not wanting to hold the rest of the team?

We have one standard on our team and we have team rules which apply equally to all. Everyone is measured by the same standard and the same rules. To suggest there is a separate set of rules or a separate standard for success is the antithesis to teamwork.

The response was to say we should have a common standard but that we should require our leaders that they be held accountable to model it for other players. Again, why would I not hold all players accountable to maintain and display the ideals and character which embodies the standard?

I recognize there will be certain players who are more vocal on a team and will display greater leadership and their higher profile will make them more visible when they miss the mark. However, it does not change the mark for the rest of the players.

You don't get a pass simply because you are not as vocal or don't embody the leadership attributes which made someone elected a captain.

God calls us to a single standard as well and he does not ask of us to be great leaders or the team captains of our work, church or families. The Bible says,

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

We are not to look to the worldly standard which elevates what others say and do as the standard by which to live our lives. Instead, we are to seek and pursue God's will as it is laid out in the Bible. He calls us to be like Christ and to put Him first in our lives.

This is also one of the main reasons I do not choose the captains on my varsity teams. I want my players to elect those who will lead them in pursuit of our goals while the entire team works to uphold the standard.

The players know whom they will follow and my appointing someone they do not see as fit to lead them only creates a figurehead whereby the actual leaders fill the void.

The goal is to teach the importance of choosing your leaders and those with whom you are entrusting to model the standard and not to put any single group of players on a pedestal by holding them to some higher standard than the rest of the team.

God calls us all to extreme ownership. He sets the highest standard as embodied by Christ and then expects us to each take personal responsibility for pursuing the Christian goal daily.

We will all fall short of the mark at one time or another no matter our titles. I pray the title is far less important to each of us and that we each look inward and hold ourselves accountable to the higher Christian standard.