What does Tribe teach about step of faith?
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 steps of faith starts with a simple but honest observation: we usually want steps three through ten before we will agree to take step one, and that is frequently not how God works. Lissa Hunter brought this to life through the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. Philip was told to go south on the desert road. That was it. No explanation of who he would meet, how he would be provided for, or what the outcome would be. The text simply says he went. Lissa kept returning to that detail because she wanted everyone in the room to leave feeling like they could take one step of obedience, today, without needing the whole plan first.
A thread running through Lissa's teaching was that character and smaller faithfulness come before bigger moments of calling. Philip was not chosen because he was already famous. He was chosen because he was known for good character, wisdom, and being full of the Holy Spirit in ordinary, practical ministry work. That preparation mattered. As Lissa put it, "Character often comes before calling." God was building something in Philip through faithful, unglamorous work long before anything dramatic happened, and the teaching holds that the same pattern tends to be true for anyone.
Lissa also pressed on the fact that stepping out in obedience does not always look like success from the outside, and that setbacks are not necessarily signs that you have missed God. The persecution that scattered the early believers looked like a catastrophe, but it became the very mechanism that spread the gospel outward. She noted that "God will use disappointments. He will use closed doors. He will use losses in our life." Philip was even asked to leave a fruitful, working ministry in Samaria in order to meet one man on a desert road. The teaching from Tribe is that a step of faith is less about having clarity on the destination and more about trusting the One who is sending you.
Taught from Acts 8:26-40 · Acts 6:1-7 · Isaiah 56 · Luke 16:10 · Acts 8:1-5
“Character often comes before calling.”
From Character Before Calling
The passage taught · Acts 6:1-7
1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service.
2 The twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not appropriate for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables.
3 Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
4 But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word.”
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- June 15, 2026 Character Before Calling Lissa Hunter walks through Acts 8 and Philip's obedience to show why taking one faithful step matters more than knowing the whole plan God has for your life.
- June 14, 2026 God's Calling A look at Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, and what simple, step-by-step obedience to God's voice looks like in everyday life.