What does Tribe teach about church vs christian?
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 this topic starts with a distinction that Brian draws before he even gets to the text: going to church does not make someone a Christian any more than walking into a garage makes someone a car. A person becomes a Christian when they are honest about having fallen short of God's standard and bring that to the cross. From there, the only reasonable response to Jesus paying a debt we could never pay is to offer the whole of life back to him. The line between churchgoer and Christian, in this teaching, is not one of habit or attendance but of genuine surrender.
Brian builds on that foundation by working through what holiness and calling actually mean in the Greek of 1 Thessalonians 4:7. Holiness is not about being a fundamentally different kind of person by nature; it is about being set apart and dedicated to God's use. He illustrated it simply: hold up two identical batteries and separate one from the other, and nothing about either battery has changed except that one is now consecrated to a specific purpose. Romans 6:12-14 carries the same contrast, and Brian made it visible on screen so the distinction Paul is drawing would land as something concrete rather than abstract.
The second passage Brian taught from, 2 Timothy 2:20-21, uses the image of utensils in a wealthy home to extend the point. A fork cannot change what it is made of, but a person can, because Jesus makes someone a new creation. Brian also named the enemy's strategy directly: to remind people of past failures and convince them they have disqualified themselves from being used by God. The word translated 'called' in the passage carries the meaning of an invitation, and the teaching in Luke 14 presses that further. Holiness, in this framing, is not a demand placed on people from a distance. It is an invitation God also equips people to accept.
Taught from 1 Thessalonians 4:7 · Romans 6:12-14 · 2 Timothy 2:20-21 · 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 · Luke 14
The passage taught · 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
1 Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.
2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,
4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor,
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- July 19, 2026 Called To Holiness Brian Hunter walks through 1 Thessalonians 4:7, showing that God's call to holy living is an invitation he equips us for, not a demand we meet on our own.