What does Tribe teach about burnout in ministry?
Drawn from the messages 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 burnout in ministry starts with a simple image: a cyclist on a multi-speed bike. On flat ground, Brian says, you can stay in one comfortable gear indefinitely and feel completely fine. The problem is that hills are coming, and if you have not already learned to downshift before the climb, the hill will destroy you. Walking in the Spirit is that downshift. The warning he brings is not aimed at people who are struggling, but at people who are doing well and therefore assume they do not need to think about this. The time to prepare is before the hard season arrives, not during it.
Brian connects burnout to the deeper problem of building on the flesh rather than the Spirit. Anything constructed out of the flesh, no matter how impressive or religious it looks, cannot survive real pressure. He is direct about why: as he puts it, "You can't trust your flesh." The flesh will pursue self-preservation, will dress itself in scripture, and will produce what looks like ministry while running entirely on self-effort. And self-effort has a ceiling. When the floods come, what was built on level ground collapses. The Pharisees are the example he points to, people who had built a serious religious structure that simply could not hold when tested.
The path forward, in Brian's teaching, is the one that feels counterintuitive: the flesh has to go before the spirit can rise. He puts it plainly: "Crucifixion of your flesh always precedes resurrection of your spirit man." That process is not punishment. Brian draws a careful line between testing and temptation, teaching that God tests what is eternal and worth keeping, not the flesh, which He simply wants to see die. For anyone in ministry who is running on empty, the teaching at Tribe points back to the same question: which gear are you actually in, and did you downshift before the hill or after it?
Taught from Galatians 5:16-17 · John 15:1-8 · Luke 6:47-49 · Romans 8:5 · Jeremiah 17:9
“You can't trust your flesh.”
From Why It's Important to Walk in the Spirit
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- May 20, 2024 Why It's Important to Walk in the Spirit Brian Hunter walks through why walking in the Spirit matters more than religious effort, using Scripture, honest conversation, and a mountain bike analogy to make the case.
- May 19, 2024 Why is it Important to Walk in the Spirit? Brian Hunter walks through why walking in the spirit matters more than religious effort, using Scripture, cycling analogies, and honest conversation with his congregation.