Exploring Following Jesus, Leadership, and the Neurobiology of Attachment

The entire world seems to change when Spring arrives in the Beartooth Mountains in Montana. Every other time of the year, the foothills around the Beartooths are either covered with snow or the taupe tan of dry grass. During the Spring, the Beartooths come alive. Overnight, the hills spring forth with the greenest green, which I have only seen a few times in my life. I remember these moments of the green of life. There was the moment I drove through the pass in the Cascade mountains and saw the exploding green of the Pacific Northwest and again, driving north of I-80 into the Sandhills on a mid-June Nebraska morning when hills of sand wetted by warm spring rains erupt, inviting you to both taste and feel the color green. Sometimes, when I learn something new, it fills my heart with joy that feels like the experience of erupting and exploding colors that overwhelm my senses.

I am wrestling with possible connections between following Jesus, leadership, and reading articles and books on attachment. After taking Gallups CliftonStrength Finder, I came to learn that my joy in learning new ideas and seeing how things fit together may rest in my strengths of "strategic" (#1) and "ideation" (#4). Some insights into these strengths, the Gallup website, reveal that a person strong in strategy has a

…distinct way of thinking and a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, "What if this happened?

The Gallup website also notes that someone strong in ideation is

…delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind always looking for connections, so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle.

Being gifted with the combination of strategy and ideation, I now recognize why I enjoy research and reading. I also recognize why I see connections and have a passion for applying what I learn, both old ideas and new, to my following Jesus and my leadership of others. I am also aware that sometimes I can see new connections that are not there, but at other times, the connections I see feel like the color green, like everything is being made new. 

As a pastor and social researcher with some undergraduate studies in counseling, I find the lines blurred between sociology and psychology. I have also recently been encouraged to consider the contribution of neurobiology and the neurobiology of attachment to my personal following of Jesus, my leadership of others, and my calling to multiply disciplemakers. Recent research in neurology, brain plasticity, and attachment (Sullivan, 2012; Feldman, 2017; Warren, 2023) point toward the brain being a social organ. If the brain is truly a social organ, the lines between sociology, psychology, and now neurobiology are further blurred. Sullivan (2012) supports the suggestion that the brain is a social organ, noting that our beneficial and harmful connections with others can interact with our genetics, changing our brains. Wilder and Hendricks (2020) agree with Sullivan (2012), suggesting that our sense of attachment to God or others may affect how the brain functions and even change the physical structure of the brain. The limited research I have gathered presents a picture of the brain as a social organ affecting our personal and societal well-being, relationships, and attachment to God and others. Therefore, there is a need to pursue an interdisciplinary approach exploring the connections between following Jesus, leadership, and the neurobiology of attachment.

I am not certain to what end the exploration of the connection between the neurobiology of attachment and following Jesus, leadership, and disciple-making will take me. I know that I am passionate about helping the local church live up to its full potential, bringing glory to God through Jesus Christ to all peoples and nations. God is at work in the world, and the church, being God's ambassadors, is a movement joining God's gospel mission. And though we experience the kingdom of God within a tension between what is now and what is to come, where the church engages in the work of glorifying God, there is life, justice, freedom, peace, and love. Something is keeping the Western church from being the fertile soil in which we experience the life of the kingdom of God.

As my journey (with more blog posts to follow) begins, it is winter now in Nebraska. The sun is shining, but the ground is cold, and nothing grows. Yet, as each day grows slightly longer, I am reminded that the green of Spring will soon erupt. Brown grass will give way to patches of green. Barren spindly branches will bud, and leave will dance in the breeze. The Western church may appear to be struggling, but as certain as the seasons will change, the church will always be the movement of God, bringing new life through Jesus Christ to what was once dead. As sure as Spring will come, so too will God bring revival.

Inc, G. (n.d.). The Gallup Access Platform. Gallup.Com. Retrieved January 26, 2024, from https://www.gallup.com/access/312770/every-tool-need-create-exceptional-workplace-one-place.aspx

M.D, W. L. W. (2020). I’ve Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon’s Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know. Crown Publishing Group.

M.D, W. L. W. (2023). Hope Is the First Dose: A Treatment Plan for Recovering from Trauma, Tragedy, and Other Massive Things. WaterBrook.

Sullivan, R. M. (2012). The Neurobiology of Attachment to Nurturing and Abusive Caregivers. The Hastings Law Journal, 63(6), 1553–1570.

Wilder, J., & Hendricks, M. (2020). The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation (Illustrated edition). Moody Publishers.