What does Tribe teach about calling?
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 calling starts with a careful separation of three things people tend to bundle together: identity, calling, and gifting. Brian Hunter has spent time in the Full Reward series pressing the room on the difference. Identity is who you are as God's child. Calling is the broad, specific assignment God wrote into a person's life before they lived a single day, the thing Psalm 139:16 describes as already recorded in a book. Gifting is the particular capacity given to carry that calling out. The danger Brian keeps naming is that people can build entire lives around their gifting, use it entirely for their own advancement, and still stand before God with nothing that counts. Calling is not the same as talent, and talent used in the flesh, however impressive it looks, is not the same thing as obedience.
Lissa Hunter worked through the same territory from the angle of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. Her point was that calling rarely arrives as a full plan. Philip was told to go south on a desert road, and that was it. He did not know who he would meet or how things would unfold. Lissa kept returning to that detail because she said it describes how God frequently works: one step of obedience, not steps three through ten handed over in advance. She also pointed out that character tended to come before the dramatic moment. Philip was chosen for ordinary, practical ministry work first, precisely because he was known for wisdom and faithfulness, and God built something in him through that season before anything larger opened up.
Pastor Brian carried this further in the Gideon series, where the occupation-versus-ministry distinction became central. Brian put it plainly: "Your occupation is how you make a living. Your ministry is how you make a difference." Those two things can overlap, but they are not the same, and confusing them causes people either to feel their job is blocking their calling or to miss the ministry that is already embedded inside their ordinary work. Gideon's arc across Judges, from a single man hiding in a winepress to someone who drew thousands into movement, illustrated that ministry often grows out of the very place or season that felt most threatening. As Brian said in that same message, "Sometimes your ministry comes out of that which has tried to kill you."
Taught from Psalm 139:16 · 2 John 1:8 · Acts 8:26-40 · Judges 6:11-12 · Luke 16:10
“A dull tool is a gift or a talent used in the flesh, and a sharp tool is a gift or a talent used in the spirit.”
From Work Smarter Not Harder Week 6： The Baker and The Battle Cry
The passage taught · 1 Kings 5:6
6 Now therefore command that cedar trees be cut for me out of Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say. For you know that there is nobody among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- June 22, 2026 Work Smarter Not Harder Week 6： The Baker and The Battle Cry A Wyoming pastor walks through the story of Gideon to explore how your everyday job and your God-given ministry are different, connected, and both part of his plan for your life.
- 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.
- August 25, 2025 Saved. Now What？ A Wyoming church explores what it means to build a life that lasts, asking what kind of work survives when everything temporary is burned away.
- August 24, 2025 Wood, Hay, and Straw A Wyoming pastor and congregation explore what it means to build a life of lasting purpose, asking what God will make of the work we did with the time we had.
Mentioned along the way
- 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.
- September 8, 2025 Partial Obedience Is Disobedience A Wyoming pastor walks through what Scripture says about heavenly reward, obedience, and what it means to build a life with gold rather than wood, hay, and straw.
- September 7, 2025 The Gold of Jesus A Jackson Hole pastor teaches that Christians are rewarded not for good intentions but for obedience to their specific calling, and that every moment of faithful surrender matters for eternity.
- September 1, 2025 Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones Brian Hunter walks through what Scripture calls "dead works," asking whether the things we build for God are powered by his Spirit or just our own effort.
- August 31, 2025 Dead Works: Built with Wood, Hay, and Straw A Jackson Hole pastor walks through what it means to build your life on dead works versus Spirit-led obedience, and what that costs you at the final reward.
- September 11, 2023 Contending for Apostolic Foundations A guest speaker shares his journey from communist college student to plumber and back to faith, exploring what Scripture calls the apostolic foundations of the church.