What does Tribe teach about spiritual maturity?
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 spiritual maturity keeps returning to one uncomfortable idea: maturity is not measured by how long someone has been a Christian or how worn their Bible is. Brian Hunter puts it plainly when he says, "Spiritual maturity is not measured in age." What actually marks growth is how much a person has been willing to drink from the cup of suffering, to endure hard things rather than escape them, and to let that endurance produce something real rather than keeping it as a concept in the mind. As Brian has said in more than one message, the move from knowing something mentally to actually being changed by it requires what he calls the 18-inch drop from the thinker to the knower.
A thread that runs through Brian's teaching is that God's most significant invitations tend to arrive inside disruption, not comfort. He draws this from Exodus 24, where the seventy elders had to make a serious climb before the covenant meal happened, and from Psalm 23:5, where the feast, the anointing, and the overflowing cup all come "in the presence of my enemies." The pattern shows up in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, on the water with Peter, and on a sinking ship with Paul. Immaturity, Brian says, grabs for the good things while trying to avoid the hard ones. Maturity recognizes they often arrive together, and becoming comfortable with discomfort is a sign something is going right, not wrong.
The teaching also presses on obedience as the real currency of growth. Brian has been direct that some people have repeated their first year of Christianity for twenty or more years without ever moving forward, because maturity grows through daily, small acts of faithfulness rather than dramatic spiritual moments. Knowing God's character rather than just his deeds, staying surrendered to the Holy Spirit, and asking "What do you want me to know about you in this situation?" rather than simply telling God what to fix, these are the practical marks of a person growing up into what the New Testament calls a son or daughter of God.
Taught from Matthew 26:36-41 · Exodus 24:7-11 · Psalms 23:5 · Psalm 37:34 · Romans 8:14
“The only thing that'll make you draw near to God and keep you away from sin is suffering.”
From The Feast on the Mountain
The passage taught · Acts 27
1 When it was determined that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners to a centurion named Julius, of the Augustan band.
2 Embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to places on the coast of Asia, we put to sea; Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.
3 The next day, we touched at Sidon. Julius treated Paul kindly, and gave him permission to go to his friends and refresh himself.
4 Putting to sea from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were contrary.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- November 10, 2025 The Feast on the Mountain Brian Hunter walks through Exodus 24, where 70 elders hiked Mount Sinai to dine with God, and draws out a simple challenge: look for God's invitation inside life's disruptions.
- November 9, 2025 Meal on the Mountain A sermon from Tribe Church in Jackson Hole exploring Exodus 24, where 70 elders dined with God on Sinai, and what it means to find God in life's disruptions.
- May 19, 2025 Victors Not Victims A Wyoming pastor hosts speaker Dr. Laura Sanger, who calls believers from spiritual infancy to mature sonship, and from a victim mindset to victors in Christ.
- September 23, 2024 Drinking Deep: Choosing Endurance Over Escape A Wyoming pastor walks through Matthew 26 and Mark 15 to explore why choosing the cup of suffering over escape is the path to spiritual maturity.
- September 22, 2024 Drinking Deep: Choosing Endurance over Escape A Wyoming pastor explores what it means to choose suffering over escape, drawing from Jesus in Gethsemane to show how endurance shapes spiritual maturity.
- December 12, 2022 Resurrection Week 3： Part 3 Brian Hunter walks Tribe fam through Isaiah 11, Daniel 7, and Revelation on reigning with Jesus, connecting resurrection and meekness to daily obedience and surrender.
Mentioned along the way
- September 29, 2025 Childish Games Jesus calls out religious leaders for moving the goalposts on God's messengers. A Jackson Hole congregation works through Luke 7 together, asking what childishness really costs.
- June 22, 2025 Comfort From The King Brian Hunter walks through Luke 21, explaining why Jesus's hard words about wars and persecution are meant to strengthen believers, not frighten them.
- May 18, 2025 Victory with Dr. Laura Sanger A teaching on what it means to grow from spiritual infancy into mature sons of God, and why that maturity matters in the battle against evil.
- January 23, 2023 Travel Steady Along His Path Week 3 Psalm 37 study on waiting for God, growing in obedience, and what it means in Hebrew to be honored and lifted up by him.