What does Tribe teach about calling?
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 calling starts with a distinction that Pastor Brian works hard to keep clear: calling is not the same thing as gifting, and neither of those is the same thing as identity. Your identity, in this teaching, is who you are as God's child. Your calling is the unique assignment God wrote down before you lived a single day, described in Psalm 139:16 as a book that already exists. Your gifting is the specific capacity God gave you to carry that calling out. Confusing those three things, Brian says, is where a lot of damage happens. A person can spend a whole life leaning into their gifting, using it entirely for their own advancement, and stand before God with nothing that counts.
The Gideon story in Judges gave that framework a face. Pastor Brian walked through Gideon's arc across several chapters, noting that Gideon's occupation was likely that of a baker, not an obvious starting point for a military deliverer. But what unfolded was not really about battlefield command. It was about drawing men out into leadership, one small group at a time, starting with the very clan that had nearly killed him. That detail prompted the observation that sometimes your ministry comes directly out of what tried to kill you. Lissa Hunter brought a parallel shape to it through the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, pressing on the fact that Philip did not know the plan before he moved. God told him to go south on the desert road, and the text says he went. Lissa kept returning to that: Philip started out without demanding steps three through ten first. Character, she said, often comes before calling, and God prepares people for larger obedience through smaller faithfulness first.
Running under all of it is the question of what it costs to miss your calling, or to carry it out in the wrong strength. The Full Reward series addressed that directly. Brian drew from 1 Corinthians 3 to show that work can be real, visible, even impressive, and still count for nothing if it is sourced from the person's own effort rather than from God's Spirit. Brian says, "Your occupation is how you make a living. Your ministry is how you make a difference." Those two things can overlap, but they are not the same, and the teaching at Tribe keeps pressing people to find the ministry that is already sitting right inside their occupation rather than waiting until every insecurity is resolved to step into it.
Taught from Psalm 139:16 · Judges 6:11-12 · Acts 8:26-40 · Luke 16:10 · 1 Corinthians 3:10-15
“A dull tool is a gift or a talent used in the flesh, and a sharp tool is a gift or a talent used in the spirit.”
From Work Smarter Not Harder Week 6： The Baker and The Battle Cry
The passage taught · 1 Kings 5:6
6 Now therefore command that cedar trees be cut for me out of Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say. For you know that there is nobody among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- June 22, 2026 Work Smarter Not Harder Week 6： The Baker and The Battle Cry A Wyoming pastor walks through the story of Gideon to explore how your everyday job and your God-given ministry are different, connected, and both part of his plan for your life.
- June 15, 2026 Character Before Calling Lissa Hunter walks through Acts 8 and Philip's obedience to show why taking one faithful step matters more than knowing the whole plan God has for your life.
- June 14, 2026 God's Calling A look at Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, and what simple, step-by-step obedience to God's voice looks like in everyday life.
- August 25, 2025 Saved. Now What？ A Wyoming church explores what it means to build a life that lasts, asking what kind of work survives when everything temporary is burned away.
- August 24, 2025 Wood, Hay, and Straw A Wyoming pastor and congregation explore what it means to build a life of lasting purpose, asking what God will make of the work we did with the time we had.
Mentioned along the way
- September 8, 2025 Partial Obedience Is Disobedience A Wyoming pastor walks through what Scripture says about heavenly reward, obedience, and what it means to build a life with gold rather than wood, hay, and straw.
- September 7, 2025 The Gold of Jesus A Jackson Hole pastor teaches that Christians are rewarded not for good intentions but for obedience to their specific calling, and that every moment of faithful surrender matters for eternity.
- September 1, 2025 Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones Brian Hunter walks through what Scripture calls "dead works," asking whether the things we build for God are powered by his Spirit or just our own effort.
- August 31, 2025 Dead Works: Built with Wood, Hay, and Straw A Jackson Hole pastor walks through what it means to build your life on dead works versus Spirit-led obedience, and what that costs you at the final reward.
- 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.