What does Tribe teach about feeling disconnected from god?

At Tribe, the teaching on feeling disconnected from God starts with a single word in 1 John 1:1. Brian Hunter pointed out that the Greek word behind 'touched,' the same word John uses to describe the disciples handling Jesus with their own hands, carries two pictures: the worn smoothness of a worry stone rubbed over and over, and the action of plucking or bowing a string on a musical instrument. That second picture shapes the whole teaching. Disconnection is not primarily a mood or a circumstance. It is a tuning problem. We were made for physical, tangible, resonant contact with Jesus, not to admire him from a distance.

Pastor Brian worked through the idea of sympathetic and harmonic resonance to show what that contact is supposed to feel like. When one tuning fork is struck, a second fork tuned to the same note begins vibrating on its own without being touched. That is the picture behind John 10:27, where the sheep hear the shepherd's voice and follow. They follow because they are tuned to him. Galatians 5:25 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 fill in the rest: a person who has been reborn has been retuned, and the ongoing work of the Spirit is gradually bringing our frequency into alignment with Jesus, who does not change. Brian says, "When we tune our hearts to Jesus, our whole being begins to resonate with his life."

The road-to-Emmaus account in Luke 24 brought it together. The disciples who had spent time with Jesus had already begun to change, even before they recognized who was walking with them. The feeling of disconnection, then, is not a sign that God has moved. It is more often a sign that something in us has drifted out of tune. The remedy, according to the teaching, is not trying harder to feel close but returning to real, habitual contact with Jesus, the kind that slowly wears smooth, like a stone rubbed again and again in the hand.

Taught from 1 John 1:1 · John 10:27 · 2 Corinthians 3:18 · Galatians 5:25 · Luke 24:32