The word "synapse" comes from two Greek words that mean "to clasp together" and so, the brain is unfathomably metaphoric of kingdom relationships. The neural network, alive and firing, is the power behind humans in the image of God. Each synaptic junction has chemistry and electricity - love and the power of God.
But what fascinates me most at this point in time - a time when God is rewiring his church - is how flexibility and accommodation are critical to a healthy mind, and thus a healthy church...humility is the magneto for Grace.
The golden rule of a healthy brain? Every synapse is important, and all need to be firing, and flexing, freely.
Sometimes, we end up in positions of public responsibility. People look to us and some become friends. But what happens when two of my friends become friends in themselves? Or best friends? My best friend in varsity fell in love with one of my flat mates. I thought he so enjoyed my company, he was coming around almost daily. It was fair humbling when it dawned on me that I had, in fact, become the third party..
For friendships formed second, for alliances created through your hard work...can their synapse fire, or do you insist that all firing happens at your synaptic junction? Do you lessen the importance of other synaptic links? Do you permit the possibility of chemicals and electrical impulses in God's church-brain to flow PAST you?
Put another way - can you see people relative to God, and relative to others, or only relative to you? We all know the model answer here, but we will fail the practical exam if we harbour "ambition for recognition". Why? Because another synapse firing louder - that produces something good in the body - overshadows or sidelines me. If you see authority more as the rush of chemistry through your synapse rather than a synaptic symphony that causes the body to move well, you are in trouble.
Wherever there are human beings, there is the potential for synaptic activity. Otherwise the church would really be one big arranged marriage.
The price we pay for controlling the formation of teams is obvious too - we lose the true power of heaven's synaptic energy. You cannot just choose 5 men or acolytes, put them around a table, preach on the power of friendship and then charge them to be friends. That is like finding all the body parts you need to make up the body of a human - an ecclesiastical horror film in production phase. And with a big budget needed..
In a church where all synaptic firing happens at one or two junctions, there is dissonance, bad chemistry and electrical imbalance.
In a region where one apostle imposes his synaptic junction as the virtual head office, there is the feeble-mindedness of a territorial spirit.
Big-shot Synapse Man argues thus: “I have to protect my flock", or (within a region), "I am jealous for the Kingdom to come in Bedfordshire", but the truth is he is an insecure, Diotraphes-Synapse. Diotraphes "loved to be first", or "loved preeminence". (3 John 9).
The truth is this synaptic control is the power behind all denomination. It cannot stop what God has ordained - God given spontaneous friendships, or "random firing of synapses" - but it can and does make for bad mental health and a squeezing of all power and innovation to the periphery….it is what thrust David into the desert of Engedi, and still does to this day.
Does this essay open a door for wolves to come in? Only if there is an absence of a godly neural network! In the name of control, the flock actually loses protection. What I mean is that godly friendship networks are the bastion of defense in a church. Chemically strengthened by the pastor's preaching and prayers, such profound lattices are less likely to allow ingress of angular men intent on slashing and cutting.
The Synaptic Shift will be tested in us all - what if my two good friends, who had until now never met, were destined in God to become best friends? Am I wanting what is best for my friends - the will of God - or what is ‘best’ for me?
What happens if I invite some men to my home, and three of them pursue a future relationship beyond me? Am I wanting what is best for the Kingdom - healthy firing synapses guided by the Mind of God - or what is best for short-sighted me (insisting on padding my insecurities in cotton wool).
What happens if one of my disciples becomes the better preacher? Will I allow a more powerful synapse to fire out across the congregation, or will I insist he waits his turn?
What happens when our children gain wisdom we don't have? What happens when two elders become best friends, and the team captain feels excluded? What happens when two men 'fire up' and connect from different teams, churches or movements? Is this "bad etiquette" or "good chemistry"??
Oh how unhealthy the church brain is, how poor our synapses are under such control from the hands of insecure and unqualified neurologists who seek more to rule than release.
And what of apostles? How are their synapses placed? The power of the apostolic is really in facilitating new synaptic firing! It is in helping found an organic network of impartational connections, through the preaching of the true and scandalous gospel. Very few can facilitate such connections and then not want control, or at least kudos..."single point captaincy" (of the rigid variety) - not found in Acts-Epistles - has gained undeserved kudos for hundreds of years (if James were the senior pastor of Jerusalem church, what was Peter, let alone the other 10?).
Am I saying God does not use a man? I am not!! God uses a man, but God must get the glory. If you are the best preacher, preach the glory and often. If you are the best leader, lead diligently and humbly. But keep the towel round your waist and the crown off your head. And when your moment is over, remain addicted to the obscurity of loving and praying and giving in secret, as the Lord commanded us all. And we need remember that all ministry - every firing of every spiritual and relational synapse - is so that the body of Christ can be built up into the fulness of the Head, which is Christ, not you or I.
If only we all took more regular time to ask, “what's best for others?”. God will have his way in the end - he will get the Silas's and Titus's and Timothy's together. Thousands more Jonathans don't have to die on the Mount of Misguided Loyalty, otherwise known as Gilboa. The church can be led by Samuels, not Sauls, again. Thank God for the power of repentance!
May I have the privilege not only of future friendships, but also of witnessing such friends firing synaptically in freedom and fulness, without being greened down through the Jealous Eye.
“As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.” (Galatians 2:6–7)
Courage,
Nick
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