What does Tribe teach about comfort vs growth?
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 comfort versus growth starts with a passage most people read right past. Brian Hunter walked through two quick exchanges in Matthew 8:18-22 where Jesus says things that would register, in any setting, as tone-deaf. The point he kept coming back to is direct: Brian says, "Jesus cares more about your transformation than he does your comfort."
The first exchange is with a teacher of religious law who offers to follow Jesus anywhere. Jesus does not reject him, but he does name a cost. Rabbis in that era built synagogues, established schools, and stayed put, with followers coming to them. Jesus tells this man that is not how this works. Brian noted that Jesus was not shutting the door on him. Rather, as Brian put it, "He didn't tell him no, that you can't follow me. He was helping him to cost of what it really means to follow him." The man apparently found that cost too steep.
This connects to something Tribe has lived out repeatedly. From Snow King Hotel to homes during COVID to the hillside at Snow King to the TMC to Powderhorn Park, every time something good gets going, Jesus tells the congregation to pack up and move. The teaching holds that following Jesus is always on his terms, and the comfort that people protect most tightly is often exactly what he is asking them to release. Brian also warned that the heart can dress up its real priorities in spiritual-sounding language: "You might even have yourself fooled with saying things, but there is a secret, ulterior priority and motive in our heart. Jesus sees right through that."
Taught from Matthew 8:18-22
“Jesus cares more about your transformation than he does your comfort.”
From You're Not Being Very Sensitive, Jesus
The passage taught · John 14
1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many homes. If it weren’t so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
4 Where I go, you know, and you know the way.”
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- August 29, 2026 You're Not Being Very Sensitive, Jesus Brian Hunter walks through Matthew 8 to ask what it really costs to follow Jesus, and why his answer would get him canceled then and now.