What does Tribe teach about apostolic foundations?
Drawn from the message where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on apostolic foundations starts with a conviction that these are not abstract theology but the load-bearing structure beneath everything the church is meant to be. Steve, a friend of the church who brought this message as part of Tribe's 21-day focus on Israel, drew from Ephesians 2 to show that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus as the chief cornerstone. His argument was that when that foundation is missing or ignored, what remains can look fine from the outside while being structurally unsound. The goal is not a polished institution but an actual habitation of God in the earth, the same terrifying, power-filled presence that once lived in the Holy of Holies, now dwelling in people collectively.
Steve grounded this in his own long journey, from a charismatic upbringing through communist ideology in college, to a dramatic encounter with God, to years serving in Tel Aviv, to running a plumbing company. He drew on Jude's call to contend earnestly for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, and on Ephesians 4's list of gifts given to the body. He noted that apostles make people the most uncomfortable of all those gifts, precisely because the concept challenges assumptions about how the church is structured and who holds authority in it.
The teaching pressed hard on the cost of half-hearted engagement with these foundations. Steve put it plainly: "God will take you as serious as you take him. Half measures get half measures. Full measures get full measures." He also named a common way people approach seeking God, saying that what people usually mean when they pray is, "God, reinforce my plan for my life," rather than genuinely submitting to what He is building. The call was to pursue the deepest places, not the comfortable edge of ministry, and to trust that the foundations God laid through the apostles and prophets are still the ones the church stands on today.
Taught from Ephesians 2:19-22 · Jude 1:3 · Ephesians 4:11-15 · Ephesians 3:1-21 · Hebrews 6:1-2
“God will take you as serious as you take him. Half measures get half measures. Full measures get full measures.”
From Contending for Apostolic Foundations
The passage taught · 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds,
5 throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- September 11, 2023 Contending for Apostolic Foundations A guest speaker shares his journey from communist college student to plumber and back to faith, exploring what Scripture calls the apostolic foundations of the church.