In school as a child and teen, these were the words I heard the most “bigger, stronger, faster.” This seemed to be the main focus of football players in the program I grew up in. From 6th grade on, we met before school, during school, and after our sport we pumped iron, we ran, we ate. Our focus was to be bigger than the other team, stronger than the other team, faster than the other team. Simply, we were going to be better in every way than the other team.<\/p>\n
In Lieberman and Long’s The Molecule of More<\/em>, we see how many people thrive on dopamine and the need for more.[1] After all, is that not the American dream? If you work hard enough, you can acquire everything. If you work harder than the other person, you will win. But why is winning so important? Why do you see competition between churches and ministers? Why are we continually pushing to out perform other churches and ministries? Why, as a society do we celebrate the success of more? The answer is dopamine.<\/p>\n As we learned in the fall semester through Threshold Concepts, <\/em>Meyers, and <\/em>Friedman we see how much ego is effecting leaders or driving leaders.[2] In Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow<\/em>, have leaders become stuck in system 1 and constantly doing and reacting to events happening around them?[3] Have we become so focused on our pursuit of happiness or our wants that we are trying to fill a bottomless pit?<\/p>\n These are questions as leaders we must ask ourselves. These are things all Christians must come before the Lord with. Is dopamine driving the church today rather than Jesus Christ? As Christian leaders, why are we constantly pushing ourselves to the point of burnout? Why are we always doing more and not resting. Why do we not appreciate and have gratitude for the things we do have? I believe the answer to these questions reside in the chemical in our brain called dopamine.<\/p>\n As I meditate on the book Molecule of More<\/em>, I am led to these two verses in the bible. I Timothy 6:6 Godliness with contentment is great gain and Romans 12:2 do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I believe we can combat or identify when dopamine and system 1 thinking is leading us, rather than Jesus. Combined with ego, we can see that a mixture of dopamine, ego, system 1 can make an incredible athlete or leader do great things. Ot they can lead poorly if they have not been tempered or matured by Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n Dopamine can work against leaders, a church, and an organization if we are not careful. As Christian leaders and pastors we are to be yielded to the word of God. It is His Word and Spirit that compels us to do great things. Unfortunately we often see this powerful mixture in the pulpit or leadership in the church as a need for more. A need for more salvations, a need for more people, a bigger sanctuary, a bigger and stronger pastoral team. We need to respond to people faster. We start to see that the church in the western culture is not being led by Christ but is being driven by dopamine and ego, a need for more.<\/p>\n In this need for more, I have come to find out that the congregants are suffering the most. They come each week to church in hopes of a miracle, to hear something that might help or apply to their situation. Instead they hear the need for more, to do more for Christ, to be more for Christ. I believe this is unbiblical and does not follow the model that Christ exampled for us in the gospels.<\/p>\n Dopamine is an incredible gift to help us. In my own life, dopamine has helped me do great things and rise to the occasion of hero status. However we can not live in that place, often we see people trying to live in that dopamine enriched lifestyle because they feel happiness or good about themselves. As christians we do not glory in our own abilities, we glory in Christ. We could almost crush dopamine in our weakness, because when we are weak, He is strong (2nd Cor 12:10).<\/p>\n [1] Daniel Z. Lieberman, and Michael E. Long. The Molecule of the More<\/em>: How a single Chemical in Your brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity-and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race. Reprint edition. (BenBella Books, 2019).<\/p>\n [2] Breaking Through: Threshold concepts as a key to understanding: Robert Coven:TEDxCaryAcademy.YouTube. (2018, November 28).<\/p>\n [3]Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow<\/em> (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In school as a child and teen, these were the words I heard the most “bigger, stronger, faster.” This seemed to be the main focus of football players in the program I grew up in. 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