What does Tribe teach about cost of discipleship?
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 the cost of discipleship starts with the honest observation that following Jesus is not on your terms. Brian Hunter walked through two quick exchanges in Matthew 8:18-22 where Jesus responded to would-be followers in ways that felt, on the surface, tone-deaf or even cold. The point was not that Jesus is indifferent to people, but that He is clear-eyed about what following Him actually requires. When a teacher of religious law said he would follow Jesus anywhere, Jesus did not say no and did not wave him in. He told the man that the Son of Man has no place to lay his head, making plain that the relationship would be on Jesus's terms, not the man's. Brian noted that rabbis of that era became sedentary, with followers coming to them, and that Jesus was signaling from the start that this is a different thing entirely.
The teaching presses on the gap between what people say they want and what they are actually willing to do. Brian says, "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." The cost Jesus names in these exchanges is real, and the first man in the passage apparently found it too steep. Brian was careful to point out that Jesus was not being harsh for its own sake. As he 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 bottom line Brian landed on is that Jesus cares about something deeper than keeping people comfortable in the moment. Brian says, "Jesus cares more about your transformation than he does your comfort." That reframe runs through everything Tribe teaches on this subject. The repeated moves Tribe has made, from Snow King Hotel to homes during COVID to Powderhorn Park and beyond, show up in the teaching as lived illustrations of the same pattern: every time something good gets going, Jesus tells His people to pack up camp and move. The cost of discipleship, in this teaching, is not a one-time entry price. It is the ongoing posture of holding your comfort loosely and following wherever He leads.
Taught from Matthew 8:18-22 · Luke 9 · John 14 · Matthew 15
“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.