What does Tribe teach about identity?
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 identity starts with a clear claim: only the creator has the authority to define his creation. Brian Hunter has returned to this idea across multiple messages, using Gideon's story in Judges 6 as the clearest picture of the gap between how we see ourselves and how God sees us. Gideon is hiding in a winepress, certain he is the smallest person from the weakest clan, and the angel of the Lord greets him as a mighty man of valor. Brian pointed out that both descriptions carried some truth, but God was speaking from a higher level of truth, the way the law of aerodynamics overrides gravity without canceling it. The reflex to reject that authority, he said, comes from pride that does not want the responsibility of being accountable to a creator.
Brian has also pressed on what happens when identity goes missing. Drawing on his own years in Estes Park, Colorado, he described a persistent loneliness that followed him even when his life looked full from the outside. When he eventually asked God about it, the answer he got was that the loneliness was tied to not yet knowing his identity and purpose. That became the basis for a teaching on Peter in John 21, where Jesus addresses him by his birth name Simon and essentially asks whether he is going to be Simon, the fisherman who retreats to his nets when life gets hard, or Peter, the one Jesus has named and called. Brian said that moment was Jesus speaking identity and purpose directly over someone who had lost his footing. He put it plainly: "The loneliness light blinking on your emotional dashboard is not actually because you're just lonely, but it is a symptom of your lack of identity and purpose."
The series on gifts and talents that Brian has been teaching builds directly on this foundation. He has framed identity as the starting point, noting that the series already established identity answers "who am I" and calling answers "what was I born to do," with gifts and talents being the tools that flow from both. A secure sense of who God says you are is not just one topic among others at Tribe. It is the ground everything else stands on.
Taught from Judges 6:11-16 · John 21 · Isaiah 29:16 · Romans 8:15 · 1 John 3:1
The passage taught · 1 John 3:1
1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- May 17, 2026 Mighty Man of Valor Brian Hunter walks through Judges 6 to show how God named Gideon a mighty warrior before he had done anything, and what that means for how we see ourselves.
- July 22, 2024 Paradise Without Purpose Is Prison Brian Hunter explores loneliness through John 21, showing how Peter's emptiness points to a deeper hunger for identity and purpose that only Jesus can fill.
- July 21, 2024 A Message For... Brian Hunter speaks from John 21 about how loneliness often points not to isolation but to a missing sense of identity and purpose, and how Jesus restores both.
Mentioned along the way
- June 7, 2026 Go With The Strength You Have Brian Hunter walks through Judges 6, Exodus 31, Esther and Acts 9 to show how God puts his supernatural power on your natural abilities to fulfill your calling.
- August 18, 2024 Jesus In The Wilderness Amanda Lack walks through Jesus in the wilderness, looking at his three temptations and what they teach us about identity, trust, and how to endure hard seasons.
- June 17, 2024 Hang Your Hat on the Biggest Hook Brian Hunter uses a coat rack and hats to explore how our beliefs need to hang on hooks strong enough to bear the weight of truth, rooted in God's word.